We came back from Vienna on Sunday, just barely. Our plan was to arrive in Heathrow about the same time as our nephew, Raoul was arriving from the States. That was our plan, anyway. Of course, it didn't actually happen like that. When we arrived at the airport in Vienna, we waited for our flight to be called when about 1/2 hour before it was scheduled to depart it disappeared from the departures screen. Never a good sign. We were told that it was canceled because of bad weather in Heathrow. We went to the service center and we very surprised to be rescheduled fairly easily considering it was 2 days before Christmas on another flight that afternoon. The problem was that the flight arrived some 4 hours after Raoul was to be there. We left a message on his cell phone but were concerned he wasn't getting the messages. He wasn't. As it turned out there was very, very, bad fog at Heathrow. I have never seen anything like it, we were landing and descending for what seemed like forever and then all of the sudden we were on the runway. You couldn't see it at all. It was an impressive bit of flying, considering the pilot couldn't see the runway. We met up with Raoul, who did the absolutely, right thing and stayed where he was. He had been watching all these flights get canceled or diverted. Imagine flying from South America, expecting to land in London and end up in Paris? They also diverted flights to Manchester, even worse. Over 200 flights (arriving and departed) were canceled over the weekend. So I think a four hour delay isn't bad considering we might not have gotten in at all. As you can imagine the airport was incredibly croweded with all the canceled flights, and people trying to figure out what to do. Eventually the aiport just gave up. They stopped letting people into the terminal and tried to kick everyone else out. They made announcements over the loud speaker telling people that no flights were going to be rebooked at the airport and people would just need to leave the terminal, and rebook by phone. Basically, sorry we canceled your flight, we aren't going to reschedule today, get out, Merry Christmas! I am still feeling very lucky we got in at all.
So Raoul came to London because he is on his way to Africa for a game drive. I had been saying safari but he very sweetly pointed out to me that a safari meant you would be shooting animals and he won't be doing any of that (thank goodness!). But what an experience for him!! I am very envious and I know he will have super time, I can't wait to see his photos.
We had a rather low key Christmas. The WTF family came down with colds in
Vienna so we have been a bit low energy. We managed to go on Christmas Eve to the Winter Wonderland they had set up in Hyde Park. There were rides and foods and a German Christmas market. It was fun. Raoul tried some goulasch soup which he liked quite a bit. After Vienna, the weather seemed rather mild but Raoul assured me it was cold and we outfitted him with gloves and additional sweaters. It is hard packing for London and Kenya in the same trip!!
Father Christmas was there, which I think he was cutting it rather close being there with his big night ahead. We wandered around a bit, bought some candy and made our way home on a double decker bus.
On Christmas it rained all day. Also no public transport runs so it gave us a good
excuse to sit around, drink mimosas and do nothing. Like we need an excuse to sit around, drink mimosas and do nothing but still it is nice to have an excuse anyway. The kids worked on a puzzle all day long. Chizz and I helped out just enough to be able to take credit for some of it. Here is the finished product! It is a scene of London, if you can't tell.It was a nice Christmas. We opened presents the next day and I am still recovering from that and I might have a word or two to blog about Father Christmas and his choices. I hope everyone else enjoyed their holidays as well. God Bless Us Every One! (Okay, everyone knows that one!!)
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