Day 45...I hate terrorists so much Miss Sheets!! - 10th August

Got up at 4.30am and drove the car to Heathrow to drop it back to Europcar. We then went to catch our flight to Munich - hooray!

On the drive in, there was an announcement that hand luggage was not being checked in for security reasons and it was taking longer and to just come earlier. Something was up, but that was all the bulletin said and we weren't worried. We had arrived early for our flight and everyone was in the same boat as us, so we weren't going to miss our flight due to security delays.

Heathrow was packed. I've never been there before (we arrived in Gatwick when we first came) so I thought it may be standard, maybe a little bit busier due to security. Lines were folded and folded upon each other. We stood in line for ages but it wasn't moving. It began to fill up eve more. We realised no one was checking in and flight reps were wandering the crowds saying something. So we pulled out of the line an into the general chaos and stuck our backs to the wall. Nate guarded the bags while I went to investigate. I found a British Airways rep who was being yelled at by an impatient Middle Eastern guy who wasn't listening to her answers anyway, so I interrupted him and relieved her. She was very nice and said basically that there was a security problem and that ALL flights were grounded and no one could check in. They didn't know when it would be up and running again. She said if we had a hotel or home to go to, to leave the airport, call British Airways and come back when things were good again. It might be possible to fly that night but not everyone would get on - she wasn't sure, nothing was certain about anything at the moment. When I asked about the security thing, all she knew was from a press release to tell the general public that Scotland Yard had found explosives and that was it.

I thanked her and pushed back through the crowd that was becoming like a mosh pit. People were more concerned about their flights than getting blown up. Nate and I weren't sure what to do. what do you do in a situation like that? Our car was gone, we had all these bags. If we caught the subway it would be hours to get back and we didn't have a phone to check on future flights. Would we have to train it back the moment we arrived at Kristins? Or miss our flight coz planes would be up and running soon? Or do we stay for 14hours in this airport to catch this flight - if we could catch it at al?

We decided to hand and see what the seething mass did. Soem people were taking 10 minutes to move several metres across the airport. Others didn't seem to get it, and wre being rude trying to barge through the crowd with their bags in an attempt to check in. I joined the mega line for public telephones to call British Airways, as we had to do something. I was in line when British Airways broadcasted a special announcement that a number of flights were cancelled, and read them out (including ours - joy). They weren't telling us all much of anything, and most people reacted with an "oh darn" disappointment, rather than "oh my god we're under attack!" We all were focused on the task ahead of us, and what to do next.

BA answered the line very frazzled, so I was as nice as possible to the poor lad and he sounded relieved. There were no flights to Munich that day at all, so he rebooked me one the next day at 7.55am. No charge to us, which is fair enough - but still nice of BA when you consider it wasn't their fault some idiot had explosives.

So Nate and I loaded ourselves up and trudged to the subway to go back to Kristins. It was another weird moment where we had to change our psychology - our day was going to be not where we thought we would be. It was like in New York when we realised we actualy had to fly to London that day!

For a brief moment, I wandered if it was all a ploy to get as many people on the subway as possible then blow the subway up you know? But it was all cool, and not that busy as I don't think as many people were switched on as us - and were prolly still waiting in line for the phone. Nate and i had reacted pretty quickly. We are a pretty efficient team with travel overall. Anyway Kristin was surprised to hear from us (as she doesn't have TV or listen to the radio - she was still asleep anyway), but happy to have us back. She was at work all day, so left the keys out for us again. It took us from 9 till 11am to get back to hers, loaded with all our bags in the heat. argh. We were pretty upbaet and good about it all though. No stress here.

We checked the Internet then saw how serious it actually all was! (Coupled with a frantic text from Nates mum just as we got in the front door too - she is a sweetheart) Basically the authorities posted an attack as imminent and we wre all doomed. We sent some texts, made some calls (including our Munich hotel who were ok about the whole deal. They moved our night and didn't charge us which was nice). We then set off into the city to send off some post, since we couldn't take extra baggage with us. We ate lunch at a pub called The Cock. Yeah! I saw the sign from a distance and just had to eat there.

We were feelign pretty mashed, so had an afternoon nap till Kristin came back at 6pm. I walked to the shops with her and she cooked another of her fabulous roasta as I had been dreaming about it for the past 2 weeks. Me, Nate, Kristin, Chris and her flatmate Jim had a lovely dinner and chat, then went to bed around midnight. It was good to spend some extra time with Kristin. Its nice to know I"ll prolly see her in Amsterdam too, so its not like I won't know when I'll see her again. That thought is hard.