June 1st (Saturday) Return Home
We boarded a puddle jumper from Dublin to Heathrow at 11:00 am and then we took British Airways from Heathrow to LAX at 2:05 arriving at 5:05 pm.
We were smart (and poor) flying first class!
It's been a wonderful week plus in Ireland meeting great people and seeing exciting things but all things must come to an end. We hit the sack around 11:00 pm here in the land of green and made sure we would get up at 4:30 am by setting three alarms , having the front desk call, and we asked Colleen to call at 8:30 pm her time (in New Hampshire).
We woke up early this morning in Dublin. The alarm clock went off at 4:30 am, and all the other alarms started going off at once. It was a cacophony of sounds that could have woken up the dead. I looked out the window and saw that it was already light outside. The sunrise is at 5:00 am in Dublin, and sunset was at 11:00 pm the night before. No wonder we were tired!
We had to repack our bags and wait for the hotel to bring a baggage trolley to take our bags to the waiting taxi. Unfortunately, the hotel couldn't find their baggage trolley, so three men came up and carried our bags to the waiting taxi.
My bride looks so beautiful in the morning and she gets better all day long.
We arrived at the Dublin airport and had to wait in line for an hour because we were traveling internationally. The airplane was out on the runway so we have to take a buss to get to the boarding area. After the bus rider we had to walk eleven minutes to the shuttle gate to board the plane. The plane was a Ford Trimotor, which was quite an adventure!
We finally got to a small terminal and were getting ready to board.
Just waiting at the gate
We boarded the plane at the gate. There was no movable gate or walkway, so we had to walk to the plane. The flight to London was nice and only took 90 minutes.
Our terminal was so far away from the main gate we did not even have a boarding ramp!
Just a few more feet after 30 minutes of walking.
Heathrow translates to "extremely long walk up and down lifts and on buses and trains and subways and go-carts to get anywhere!"
The place is HUGE!!
We had to go from Terminal One to Terminal Five at London, and it was an adventure in and of itself. We rode another bus and then took a ten-minute subway ride that went under the runways and popped up at Terminal Five.
Heathrow was a nightmare for the unfamiliar!
The airport is rather impressive!
Modern construction techniques everywhere.
We had never been on am A380 before. The Airbus A380 is a wide-body, double-deck, full-length passenger aircraft that's considered the world's largest and most spacious. It has a typical seating capacity of 525 passengers, but can be certified for up to 853. The upper deck of the A380-800 model typically has first class, business class, and premium economy seating.
The experience was amazing! Business or First, the only way to go!
Mary and I were sitting next to each other on the plane, facing opposite directions. Right after we got seated, we each had a glass of wine.
Mama is in her seat and ready to go! Eyes closed, ready for takeoff.
Oops slight delay, they had to load more wine.
We were in Row 15 and had room to lay down and sleep. Plus, we had Internet and an entire AV experience.
The A380 is an amazing machine!
Mary yelled, "Get this sucker moving, we wanna go home!"
Catching up on her email!
There were an endless number of airliners at Heathrow.
Did You Know? - More than 70 million passengers pass through Heathrow airport every year? That is almost 6 million more than the total population of the UK. And the number of employees at the nation's busiest airport is nearly equal or more than the population of many towns or cities in Great Britain! Every 45 seconds a flight lands or takes off from Heathrow and the airport's 6th terminal is reserved only for royals and a few celebrities.
There were a load of British Airways airplanes at Heathrow.
Up, up, and away! Mary wondered about the slipstream going over the wing. The air over the wing is at lower pressure than the rest of the air around the plane, and this drop in air pressure also causes a drop in temperature. This, in turn, reduces the amount of water vapor that the air can hold. If the temperature reaches the dew point, excess water vapor will begin to condense, forming a visible cloud.
During takeoff the wing produced slip-stream was fascinating.
Goodbye London, Hello LA.
Twelve hours goes fast when you can sleep is a dark quiet room!
We arrived exactly on time but getting the baggage was another issue. It took us an hour at LAX to retrieve our bags and go though customs. Robin was at the gate awaiting our appearance. I had not driven in two weeks so I drove home (the correct side of the street) and we here home by 8:00 pm.
We had a glass of wine and talked about travel!
I drug out a school project I did in the sixth grade to share with Robin and Mary, We had a good laugh!
My spelling is a little better now after seventy years.
My wonderful and amazing Mom help me with the cover!
We were totally beat so off to bed we went.
Mary always amazes me!
