Transportation Stress Leads to the Inevitable

I inherited this from my dad, I think. Transporation Stress, that is. The occasionally irrational fear of missing the bus, the ferry, or the plane. It is possible that it's a natural result of years of commuting by ferry, however. At any rate, the day before any trip involving an airplane, the negotiation dance begins between Bob and I. In this particular case, I won, and we were at the airport a full 2 hours early. Security was a breeze, and we still had 1 1/2 hours to wait. So, of course the plane was delayed by an hour. But I was completely calm. :)

We got in pretty much on time (if you discount the time we spent circling over London due to heavy traffic, and the time spent sitting on the tarmac waiting for another plane to leave OUR gate). JoDee met us after customs, Bob traded in a bunch of rubles for significantly fewer pounds, and we were off to the tube, hauling our heavy luggage. All was well until there was a problem further down the line on the tube, and all service stopped. All of a sudden, several hundred people were stumbling around this small suburban area, trying to find a way to wherever they needed to go. We called a taxi several times (all no-shows), and finally ended up with in a taxi we hadn't called. All in all, we spent 3 hours getting from the airport to our hotel in London. Quite the adventure!

After a quick shower and change of clothes, we were off to get a bite to eat, then we went to see the London Eye, a big ferris-wheel contraption built for the Millenium. Walked around Westminster area, ate dinner and watched World Cup games, then headed back to the hotel for an early night.

The picture above is the Parliament Buildings from the London Eye.