Melissa's UK Adventure - Day 1

The adventure has begun!!


When I woke up this morning and saw the forcast for Winnipeg, Thunder Bay and Toronto I thought great, rain for all 3 cities. But much to my delight, no rain for any of my flights. Last time I went to Europe, it was more like The Amazing Race then a holiday. My flight out of Toronto had mechanical issues and to make a long story short, we were late getting into Rome and almost missed our tour. This time I was not going to let that happen. I am leaving for London 3 days before, just in case. What do they say about lightning not striking twice in the same spot, well guess what, it does.

My first flight from Winnipeg to Toronto, with a stop in Thunder Bay, was with Westjet. What can I say, Westjet was awesome once again. Arrived into Toronto and we checked into Air Transat for our flight to London. This was my first time flying with Transat so I was looking forward to it. The flight was 40 minutes late because they were having trouble loading water on to the plane. I found this funny, but thought what ever, as long as I have something to drink I am fine. Finally the plane took off, and right off we could tell that something was wrong. We were not flying into the clouds, but staying close to the ground. After about 10 minutes the pilot announced that we would have to make an emergancy landing back in Toronto. They started coming around and telling us that we should get into the crash position because it was going to be a hard landing. I looked at Sharon and thought OMG not again. It turns out that a mechanic who was working on the front landing gear did not remove a pin, so the front wheel would not go in. We landed fine, and the whole plane broke out in cheers and clapping. They fixed the mistake, and after re fueling we were back in the air 2 hours late. The rest of the flight went fine. The staff on the plane were not the friendliest, but they were probably tired just like the rest of us.

Landed at the Gatwick airport at 12:15 pm, and made our way to customs. Well now that we were late coming in, the line up at customs was huge. We waited for over an hour and a half to get to the counter, only to have the agent ask us 2 questions and stamp our passports. By the time we got to the lugguage pick up area, our bags were off the carosel and on the floor.

We grabbed the luggage and went to find our transfer. I had booked the shared transfer before we left Canada to make it easier when we arrived. We found the transfer and us and 5 other people got in the van and we were off. The other people were staying at hotels in the centre of London, so they were being dropped off first. This was good because we got to see alot of the sites on the way. I knew that the Gatwick airport was far away, but i did not realize how far. It took 2.5 hours to get to the first hotel. After the long flight, this was not fun. But my first glimpse of England was awesome. It was everything that i expected and more. I got a quick view of the London Eye and Big Ben and found myself laughing like a little school girl. I can not believe that I am in London.

We got to our hotel, Travelodge Kings Cross, and were pleasently surprised. it is really nice and the staff have all been awesome. I think it has something to do with us being Canadian :) The room is small, but fine for us after the day that we have had. I had booked a London City tour for tomorrow, so I phoned to re confirm the pick up time. Wouldn't you know it, strike number 2, the tour had been cancelled due to the host being sick. So I have re booked the tour for June 19th and am keeping my fingers crossed.

Now we have to find something to do tomorrow. What can we do in London? Tune in tomorrow to find out...

P.S. I tried to include pictures, but strike number 3, it would not work. Maybe next time.