We Made It!! Part 1: the Journey

Wow, I can't believe we left New York a week ago. It has been such a whirlwind. The flights were much better than I imagined they would be, but they were still completely exhausting. Here is the general travel schedule we had:

March 26th:

1pm: 45 minute car ride to the Rochester airport
4pm: flight from Rochester to JFK in New York City
5:30pm: arrive at JFK, take a train to the proper terminal, go through security again
8pm: flight from JFK to Heathrow

March 27:

2:30am (6:30am London time): arrive at Heathrow, go through immigration, get bags, find our driver
3:30am (7:30am London time): car ride to our apartment
5am (9am London time): arrive at apartment, bring up bags, meet Catherine (Josh's boss/our landlady)
10:30am: collapse on the bed


Charlie is a traveling champ. I was really glad that we used his carseat because I think it would have been a lot harder without it. He is used to being stuck in that in the car, so it wasn't such a stretch to be stuck in it in the plane. He almost fell asleep on the plane ride to New York City, but we landed while he was just groggy and struggling to stay awake. He fell asleep before we pulled away from the gate on the flight to London, but only slept about 2 of the 6 hours. We did a lot of walking around the plane looking enviously at the sleeping passengers trying to keep Charlie occupied. The Air India flight was awesome. I highly recommend flying with them. We ate awesome chicken curry for dinner and the flight attendants were really nice and accommodating. We watched bollywood shows and The Nanny Diaries (odd mix). Charlie was not as happy to be trapped in his carseat, but he did ok. We got to Heathrow and saw the immigration line and I almost cried it was so long. Charlie was already really wiggly and impatient and I couldn't imagine holding him in the long line. We got to the gate to the line and they escorted us to our own line and we went quickly through. Apparently, they let people traveling with small children go in their own line. I was thrilled. We got our bags, met our driver Barry with a thick cockney accent and tried to stuff our bags and ourselves into his car. It was over an hour from the airport to our apartment because of it being rush hour in London. Charlie was really good though. He spent most of the time looking out the window. Riding with Barry was our introduction to the various accents. It is embarrassing how often I have to ask people to repeat what they say. We arrived at our really nice apartment and met Catherine, Josh's boss and our landlady. She had fully stocked the fridge and cupboards with food so we didn't have to find a store right away. We collapsed on the bed and began our life in London. I have so much to catch up on, I will try to do it in parts. I have to run for now though.