We have arrived: First day in London

The plane trip wasn’t actually as hard as I thought it would be. Sure I knew it would be long, but I managed to get in a good seven hours sleep between Hong Kong and London; and that was without drinking any alcohol at all on the second leg.
The early morning lights of London were laid out beneath us as the plane flew on and circled around to Heathrow. I love flying over cities at night, and really love arriving 30 minutes ahead of schedule!
A very quick passage through customs and baggage collection and we were met by Shazzy and Ken with many cuddles and smiles; a lovely warm welcome after our long flight.
Ken had arranged a private taxi to take us all back to their apartment in London. Leaving the airport and out onto the motorway I still didn't really feel like I was in another country, at least not until we were passing these beautiful multistorey apartment buildings with their high pitched roofs and tall chimneys.
Our taxi driver took us on a little impromptu tour of London: Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, Buckingham Palace, St. James Park with Big Ben in the distance. Along Whitehall and past Trafalgar Square, Cleopatra’s Needle across London Bridge and to the apartment. Yeah, we were in London. :-)
A couple of hours to change and freshen up, and then we were off on Ken’s lovingly and painstakingly prepared itinerary.

4 hours from London

Just finished watching Walter Mitty. A really beautiful touching movie. Ben Stiller has really done a wonderful job.
I thought I'd open the window shutter to see if the sun was coming up yet and looked out on a stunning dreamlike view. A near full moon past the wing above a sea of clouds. The photo does it no justice.

First leg

Gin and tonic, tasty chicken rice lunch, Paul Mas merlot, and crying toddlers. Lake Eyre below Time to continue watching the Hunger Games.

At the airport

Forgot camera at xray, forgot to fill out departure cards, arhh. Let's try and relax a little...

Europe all packed and ready to go

but it's another 6 days till we leave.  Everything is organised so there's pretty much nothing left to do apart from throw a few last minute things into the bags on Friday and get to the airport on time.

Unless I've forgotten something....

Any way, I'm trying really hard to get all of my NZ trip from 4 years back onto the blog before this holiday starts.  considering I only sorted half of the photos, and gave up writing trip notes about half way through, I may be fighting a losing battle.  Anyway, I've done 6 out of the 15 days so I may still get there.

1 week to go

Yeah, it still doesn't feel like it is really going to happen.  Do I have to wait until I'm actually on the plane?  This is weird, and previous trips haven't been like this at all.  Maybe it's thinking about work and what will happen while I'm away.  I don't know.
This weekend I'll do a trial pack, but apart from that I don't think there is really anything more to do apart from get on that plane next Friday.

Heading to Europe!

It's getting really close, but the reality still hasn't set in yet.  Why is that?  It's only 16 days till we fly out!!  All accommodation is booked.  Trains, planes and automobiles are all booked and paid for. There is even a huge hole in the bank account.  I've typed up the itinerary and pretty much checked everything off the pre let's get on the plane checklist.  I've even resurrected this blog in preparation to blog the trip.  Let's see how we are in a weeks time....