Pre Cruise Day 1-1/2 Cincinnati to London to Cheltenham “Let’s play ‘Where’s Rob?’” or “Has Anyone Seen a Teal and Grey Neck Pillow?”

I will try very had to keep the post up on this trip. I need to go back and get the rest of my post put on here and to figure out a way to keep them in order. We have a late night flight so for the entire day we are kind of in limbo. I do take Rob to a doctor’s appointment and I get some watering done. I had all of my packing done with the exception of pulling out two tops and putting another in. We have finished off the leftovers, milk and fresh fruit and have some time to kill. I am tempted to go downstairs to weave but I know that I would get carried away so I hang around upstairs. Our Lyft driver is right on time and a great guy. We enjoy talking to him on the ride. He lives in Lebanon so he is not that far from us and keeps offering to drive us anytime, it would have helped if he had given us his card. We check in at the airport. We are flying British Airways for the first time. They now have a non-stop from Cincinnati to London Heathrow which is very appealing. We approach the British Airways counter and do not have to wait long. We are checked in and head for security. The airport is pretty dead but it is 7:30 and there are not a lot of late night flights out of here. We are going through the TSA PreCheck lane when we are handed a laminated card and waved over to the regular TSA lane. Yeah, I guess that when it is this late they do not have all of the lanes open. My laminated card says that I do not have to pull anything or take my shoes off. I pile things into the bins and go to the body scanner. I am asked if I need the body scanner. OK, the sarcastic part of me was coming up with things like “Oh, I come down here for fun to get scanned” or “I’ll skip it if that is fine with you.” However I have learned that most TSA agents are not known for their humor. I explain that I have a knee replacement and get scanned. Yay, I pass. Rob did have to take off his belt but we get through quickly. We head for the gate, I ride the tram Rob walks, he has something to prove, not sure what but then I do not have a Y chromosome so I guess that I just do not get it. I find our gate and a stretch of empty seats. I sit so that I can see Rob Approaching. He will not be able to find me. I did find him on my locator so I am not exactly allowing him to roam free in the airport. Our flight is at 9:50 and we are at the gate by 7:55. OK, we have plenty of time to kill. I have been checking the status of this flight all day and it keeps getting listed as delayed then on time. We are back to delayed by 10 minutes. In the past our international flights have started to load 40 minutes before flight time. As we approach 40 minutes they are not making any attempts to start the boarding. At 9:35 we see the flight crew board the plane. Oh, this is not going to be good. Once they start to board they are trying to make up for lost time. They are all but standing there yelling “move it, move it” as we board. I have 30C and Rob has 30 H. This means that he is on the other side of the plane from me. When we get on the plane he will cross over to the other side and I will go down the first aisle. We discuss this. I tell him to ask for row numbers if he cannot read them. We have exit row seats so he should be able to find it. I am heading down the aisle with my suitcase. I have my neck pillow around the upright supports of my suitcase and I keep getting caught on seats. I finally find my seat. I put my suitcase up, then the CPap bag and then since I am in bulkhead seats I have to put my backpack up. Damn, I like to have that accessible. As I am putting my backpack up a woman ducks under my arms to get to her seat. I almost dropped it on her. They want us to settle in fast. The woman in my row cannot find her seatbelt. Oops, where is my neck pillow? They have to take the seat apart to find the seatbelt. I asked a flight attendant if anyone found a neck pillow. He goes into the next section to see if anyone has one that I described. The woman across from me said that there was one in the aisle and it was put on a seat in the next section. Sigh, hopefully I get it back. We take off and after the seatbelt sign is turned off I got up to the next section. I do not see anyone with my neck pillow, boy am I glad that I got a teal and black one, so I decide to ask. Yes, there is one in the compartment above. YES, there it is. Wait, they have an entire empty section? I go back to the seat and grab my water bottle on the way. I had to put it in the overhead for take off. The woman from my row said that my water bottle was leaking. Yes, it is damp because the bottle filler did not stop. I shake my bottle, nope, it is still full. There is water dripping and she uses her blanket to stop the drip. By the way that gets her a quilted throw from the first class section. The flight attendant said that sometimes there is moisture condensing in the overheads. Whatever. I find something to watch then dinner is served. When you are in the bulkhead seats your screen comes up out the seat from the side and your tray table comes out of the armrest. On this plane you cannot have the screen up and the tray table up at the same time. Good planning. I kind of hold the screen in place so that I can keep watching while eating. The woman in my row keeps trying to get the attention of a flight attendant. She was not in the seat that she reserved. There were people from a canceled Delta flight that were put on this plane I do not know if she was one of those. She has to be able to look out the window when she flies or she will have an anxiety attack. Wow, I am lucky. She only has part of a window to look out and she has to turn her head to the back to see out that. One attendant told her that she could look out the window on the emergency exit door. She would have to get out of her seat to do that. Her husband keeps trying to comfort her and tell her that it is dark outside and there is only water out there. I am hoping that they go to sleep quickly. I doze off a little bit, I am not known for sleeping on planes. The man next to me keeps poking me with his elbow. I thought that this was on purpose but he is sleeping. When I get up I can see that his arm is over into my space. Come on guy, I need all of the space that I can get. I am also near the bathroom, which means that people congregate around here. I have my legs stretched out and people keep bumping them and waking me up. I have the feeling that if I kick one of them I will get into trouble so I don’t, but I do think about it. Breakfast is a bacon roll, English bacon, not US bacon. We get ready to land. I cannot have the blanket on the front of me, it has to go behind me so I wrap it around me. We land and I have to get my suitcase which is behind me. Yeah, try going back down an airplane aisle while all of the salmon are swimming upstream. I can see Rob head out and off of the plane. Please do not get lost. I am finally able to retrieve stuff and get off of the plane. They let one side go then the next side goes. I come out of the plane, no Rob waiting form me Oh, yippee, there are steps, what fun. Grab the suit case handle and head down. No Rob at the bottom of the steps. Now we get on a bus to be driven to the terminal. Did we land in a different country and they are bussing us to London? I get off the bus. There are a few people standing around, but no Rob. I try to get onto Heathrow wifi so that I can locate him. GRRR. I take the escalator to the next level and follow the people. Wow, I sure hope that all of these people are going to customs. I see a sign that has different flags on it, yes, there is a US flag. I finally see Rob. This is really good because he has my passport. We get right up to the customs desk. I hand over the passports, what is the purpose of our of our visit. Um, wow, I am tired, why are we here? Oh yeah, visiting friends, tourism then getting on a cruise. Oh are you cruising out of Southampton? No, Rotterdam. When do you fly to Rotterdam? Um, yeah, the 26th. Yes, we got the answers correct. Now to baggage claim. I find our carousel but we need a restroom break. Of course the restrooms are at the other end of luggage claim. By the time we get back to our carousel luggage is starting to come up. I get my phone on wifi and get a message from Kevin, who is picking us up. He has sent me a photo telling me that when I see that I am in the right spot. OK, got it. We grab a luggage cart, they are free here and load up our luggage. We head through the duty free shop and I see the wall that Kevin sent the photo of. I spot him in the crowd. Yay, we are found. Rob has to put in his eyedrops and we head for the car. Kevin has rented a small car but we can still get the luggage in. It is a two hour ride to Cheltenham and we spend it catching up with Kevin. I enjoy the scenery and try to doze, yeah, that does not work. Kevin lives in an old building and we are staying in the flat of a friend who is out of town right now. I am not sure about this guy actually living here, there is nothing in the kitchen cabinets or any towels. There is a bed and an updated bathroom. Kevin has some work to do and they has to pick up his girls at school. He warns us that the door does stick. Getting in is easy, you pound on the top corner of the door, getting out is another issue. We unpack a little bit then head out for a nearby store. Oops the door is stuck. I tug and tug and cannot get it to open. I message Kevin to tell him that we are stuck but do not hear back from him. Rob tries a butter knife in the door. YES, that works. Off to the store. We find some yogurt for breakfast, Digestives, cookies that we discovered in New Zealand and COKE ZERO! Do not ask me to convert how much that was in USD, I got my Coke Zero. We find our way to the store and back without getting lost. Back at the flat I collapse on the couch and sleep a little. Rob is sitting in a chair and every once in a while I hear his cell phone hit the floor because he has fallen asleep. We are supposed to head over the Kevin and Suzzane’s around 6:30, I wake up at 6:30, amazing how fast I can pull myself together. All of those years as a substitute teacher have paid off. Kevin and Suzanne have done a lot of rehab on their flat. They have build a loft and have folding stairs to access it. Their girls are 6 & 8 and shy to begin with then start to become typical girls. Suzanne is from Sweden and has a Swedish accent. Kevin is from Wisconsin and has a very typical Midwest accent. Their girls have a British accent. Interesting how that all works out. They have cupcakes for dessert and I have the feeling that sugar is not a common thing in this household. Wow, are they excited about cupcakes. They announce that the girls have to go to bed and I said that we did also. I am tired. Even with the city noise I fall asleep fairly quickly but do not stay asleep. Our part of the world is very quiet once the King’s Island fireworks are done.