Day 1 - Thursday, May 13
Our plane didn't leave until 7:00 PM so we spent most of this day packing and briefing my parents on how to deal with the kids and the house while we were gone. We had prepared a notebook with a calendar of events, our itinerary, and other information they would need. Packing was a concern. We would have to be able to carry everything but aren't used to traveling light. Some people boast that they can travel for months with just a carry-on. We didn't try to attain that level of packing efficiency. I wanted to take enough clothes so that we wouldn't have do do laundry.
The best advice we got was to dress in layers and color coordinate. Gray coordinate would be a better description as we were advised that the British don't dress as colorfully as Americans. I was able to fit everything in a small suitcase (21"x14"x9") and a carry-on day pack (18" x 14"). Susan used a similar packing strategy and also filled a similar sized suitcase and smaller carry-on bag. I brought the day pack, not only to use as a carry-on, but also to use while sightseeing. It was a little bigger than I wanted, but there were a couple of days when it was completely filled with packages, jackets, and umbrellas by the end of the day.
Our plane left about a half hour late (not too bad for Northwest).
The connection in Detroit was no problem. For the trans-Atlantic
flight, we arranged to have adjacent isle and widow seats, which was nice.
There was one last delay as we waited (it seemed forever) to take off.
The plane was filled to capacity. In fact, every flight we took was
filled to capacity. On short trips, it's not a big deal, but I can
barely endure the cramped quarters on the eight hour Atlantic crossing.
We ate an acceptable supper, watched an unmemorable movie, and rested (but
never really slept) until dawn.
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