Summer Holiday 09 - The Trip Home

Day 12 - The Long Journey Home

It was an early morning start, I had finished all the packing the night before so it was relatively easy to dressed the kids and get everything ready by the time our van transfer arrived to take us to the station. Although Peter and I have traveled by Eurostar before we had forgotten that we had to go through customs etc. so even though we were there early we spend the time at a cafe having breakfast and buying magazines. Of course the Lee boys had to go to the customary last minute Toilet run just as it was time for us to check in.

When we finally started moving towards the check In area which was on the 2nd floor, memories started flooding in about our last trip so I immediately felt a knot in my stomach as I thought of all the toy guns in our luggage.

So there was an entry form that was needed to be filled in for every person before we approach the customs officers with our passports so we spent some time filling that in. Then we had to go through the security checks and as our luggage's went through the X-Rays machine I can see the officers whispering amongst themselves ..... probably assessing whether our family of five could be possible terrorists.

So as we were ask to open our bags (It took me 5 minutes to find my keys) and they went through our bags and made sure the guns were toys ...we missed our train and had to take the next one an hour later. I was so angry with everyone and sulked in a corner for the whole hour.

The Train ride was painless comparatively as I banned the kids from playing any games on board, so everyone just chilled and fall asleep. We arrived in London and left our luggage at the station and went Selfridges at Oxford street to have lunch at their Cafe on the 4th floor. Then we walked on Oxford street for awhile as I did some last minute shopping.

We decided to check in early at Terminal 3 Heathrow in case we have problems with our luggages again so we made our way earlier to the airport. I was really taken abck at how bad the condition of terminal 3 at Heathrow when we arrived for this holiday 2 weeks ago, the carpets were old and worn, everything was just so old. Most airports in Asia is shiny and new so it was really surprising to be in this airport. We flew by British Airways last time so we were in the newer terminals.

So there were very few interesting shops here. Our flights were the last few for the day so we had a long wait ahead of us. We had no problems with our luggage's. We had dinner at TGIF and waited for 5 hours in the crowded airport. My youngest son took out his harmonica and stated to play and we somehow manage to pass the time by reading. It was a night flight and everyone just fell asleep even before the dinner was served on the plane. By the time we woke up there was only about 3 hours left of the flight so it was quite an easy flight to be on.

My boys agreed that it was a good holiday. I think they had preferred this holiday then our last one where we went to a beach. My boys are definitely not beach people, my husband is the only one in the family who enjoys the beach poor thing!