September 30 - Heathrow

We had a very nice flight on British Airways in one of their A380's.  Talk about a huge plane!  There were two jetways to board passengers, one for the upper deck and one for the lower, and I think there were somewhere around 600 people on the flight.  We were able to use miles to get first class seats.  They are quite comfortable but not as nice as those on Emirates last year.  Unfortunately I didn't sleep at all and Al only got an hour or so of fitful sleep.  British border control was awful.  We were in a Fast Track line that barely inched along.  I wish I could have taken a photo because we were about the only ones without our smartphones in hand busily texting and typing.  It was kind of comical really since there were big signs saying no cell phones and no photos.

We decided to spend the night here at Heathrow because the connection time to the flight to Venice was kind of tight.  It was a wise decision! I doubt we would have made it today.  We had thought we'd take advantage of the layover to go into London for a few hours.  After finally checking in and getting cleaned up we found we really needed a nap.  Getting older can be tough in many ways.  So, we are spending the afternoon chilling out in the hotel lounge.  There will be other days to see more of London.

Tomorrow morning we'll have a very early wake-up call and we'll be off to Venezia!  No photos today.  I'll try to do better in the future.

We've been here before

Well, after an uneventful drive up from home, we're sitting in the Dulles lobby waiting for the check-in counters to open. Naturally we're very early. I had the car pick us up with a little  extra time because one never knows how I-95 traffic will be.  Of course, today it was perfect. Well, thank goodness for electronic toys to keep our minds busy.

Try as I may, I can't seem to get us below four bags.  They are lined up and ready.

I'll write more later after we're checked in and at the lounge.

Two weeks plus a day to go!

It's hard to believe that it's almost time to leave for our next cruise.  We're flying British Airways to Heathrow and then onward to Venice.  We'll spend two nights in Venice to have a chance to get over jet lag.  I do wish someone would figure out a way to beam us across the ocean, a la Star Trek!

Once again we'll be on the Seabourn Odyssey, which is a lovely small ship carrying a maximum of 450 passengers.  I know I'll be absolutely spoiled by the time we reach Fort Lauderdale.

We have a few tours booked but several of the ports look like charming little towns so we may just check them out, find a nice cafe to have lunch, and catch some of the local color.  Here's a map showing our itinerary

We haven't begun to pack; in fact we haven't even made a list of things to take with us.  My efforts lately have been more geared to going through closets and drawers in anticipation of our move when we come home.  I don't know how or why we accumulated so many things!  Oh well, we'll get things packed and if we forget something, we'll improvise.

I'll post again when we're on our way.  I'm a little excited about our flight to London.  We're flying in an Airbus 380, one of those huge double decker planes.  I've seen them in airports but have never been on one.  Truthfully, I've always wondered how something that big gets off the ground.  We shall see.