Day 14 -- Paris!

-- So it's come to this ... we wake up at 4 in the morning to go to Heathrow (actually easier than it sounds, considering we passed out at 8pm last night), and because of the security restrictions all our bags had to be checked. That's fine, except they make you take your necessities (wallet, tickets, passport) in A GALLON-SIZED CLEAR PLASTIC BAG. That's right, the security procedures at Heathrow were exactly the same as the security procedures for the bar exam (except we couldn't bring in snacks or Number 2 pencils). I seriously expected there to be a two hundred question multiple choice exam waiting for us at the gate.

-- But we made it to Paris and checked into our hotel and had some french food and wine and all that good stuff. So yeah for that.

-- Yeah for the British Airways people, too. They were actually really, really helpful considering the extraordinary nightmare that was Heathrow. The line for rebooking extended out of the terminal and wound down two streets and through a parking lot. They were also using that parking lot as a kind of lobby, where they would call out which flights were boarding and let those people into the terminal -- think a really depressing version of Woodstock except with piles of luggage everywhere and you've got it.

-- I went and stood in line, and mentally prepared myself to stay there for the next four or five hours. Sue went off to find a payphone and call the BA people in the hopes they could resolve things. Fifty minutes later, I had moved ten whole feet. At that point, Sue comes running back with her arms full of vouchers for hotels, meals, etc. She had apparently walked into the terminal and asked a British Airways person where the phones were, and the person ended up booking her a new flight and getting us lodging for the night. WTF??? Why was there this huge line if it was that easy? I think British people just like lines. (This was confirmed the next morning when there was a gigantic line to check in, and we just walked up to the self-service machine, got our boarding passes and dropped off our checked bags, all in about ten minutes).

-- The hotel was fine, the food was fine, the bed was fine ... but we were both a little disappointed that for the first time since Tokyo there was no channel showing last year's English Premier League games. Sigh.

Enjoying Paris,
A&S