Pre-travel 2010

I got lots of arranging done this morning, but should have read my horror-scope. I am more inclined to be a poet this day than a scientist. However, I had bad dreams last night (perhaps a Poe-poet foreshadowing) and in the elusive re-sleep process the monkeys reminded me of so many things that I have not done and perhaps should attend to. This morning, I plugged in.

Marcia is the scientist. She had advised me that flying into Gatwick early in the morning and taking the early evening flight to Copenhagen was folly, but she always adds-do what you want. “Do What You Want” means just that to me, so I made our reservation weeks ago. However, in the wee hours of this morning it dawned on me that we would be starting the morning of June 30th with a fairly early (for me) trip to Gnville and an 11 am flight to Atlanta where we would wait for hours for our transatlantic flight-ideally get wined and dined and take sleeping pills and sleep soundly for a nice wake up in London in the so quickly come morning, and this followed by a day at Gatwick till we were feeling the effects of jet lag and couldn’t keep our eyes open or think worth a toot, and then have to board a plane and land in Copenhagen where we would have to hunt for the train that takes us to Sweden and get off at the first stop and take a cab to the house that we have never seen except in photos and probably fall into bed, or more likely be unable to sleep though we were dead tired. If we made it that far. As is often the case, Marcia is right.

So, two possibilities. Change the Delta flight to the day before, or move the Easyjet flight and spend the night in London Gatwick (either way). Call to Delta. Even the real person with accent that I spoke to ( who has probably never seen Atlanta or maybe even American soil in person) was stunned that a change in one day would cost over $2000. On to plan B. Easyjet would happily change our reservation to 8am the next day for a fee of about E64+E2.61 and another E6 for use of Visa. Done. Hilton Gatwick would be glad to have us stay a night for less than $200. Done. We leave at 8am/08:00 the morning of the 2nd, which will be about right considering we will probably fall into bed after an early light dinner the night before. We know where the Costa’s Coffee can be gotten in the Hilton, so we should be fine. (I also know where the Cornish Pasty kiosk is and am already salivating over lunch). Given coffee and a country that makes me an early riser, we should have plenty of time and be able to negotiate the transportation system in Copenhagen and Sweden with only minimal problems provided my horror-scope cooperates-ideally more Aries and less Neptune in the forecast.


KG