During my last post I mentioned that we were unable to fly home due to the ash cloud from the volcano eruption in Iceland. Here's one of many photos you've probably seen on the internet...
We spent 3 more full days in London after discovering we couldn't make it home by plane. The hotel didn't have the same room available, but they did offer us adjoining rooms, which gave us more space, at a higher cost of course. We took it though, as we were grateful to have a place to stay. We'd heard that hotel rooms were nearly impossible to find and many people were forced to sleep at the airport.
The remainder of our time in London found us seeking free entertainment (The British Museum as well as the Science Museum) and doing laundry since we'd run out of clean clothes. How could we know we'd be spending 6 extra days away from home when we packed our suitcases? I had one pair of comfortable walking shoes for the entire trip, thinking that's all I really needed. I got so sick of wearing the same pair of shoes for nearly two weeks... I'm seriously thinking of burning them.
So the hubby and I made the "walk of shame" to the launderette, not once, but twice, since we had no idea how much longer we'd be away from home. The boys stayed in the hotel room just a block away and watched a movie while we went to do laundry. We threatened them within an inch of their lives if they opened the door to anyone while we were gone. They had a cell phone to call us if they needed anything and were told only to leave the room if there was a fire.
It was naturally a bit expensive to do laundry, but not as bad as we thought it would be. The washers were terrible though in that the powder detergent just ended up caked on our clothes. Fabulous! While waiting on the laundry, we slipped across the street to an Irish pub and shared a drink or two (or three, but who's counting?). It had been quite a long time since I'd been in a real bar atmosphere. If we heard the F-bomb once, we must have heard it 500 times. Hearing it in both British and Irish accents was very entertaining too.
Our flight was rescheduled for Sunday, however, the volcanic ash was still wreaking havoc and no planes were flying. My hubby, being the resourceful person he is, decided we needed to make alternate travel arrangements. Many of our friends were sending us email and Facebook messages, suggesting we travel across the English Channel, rent a car and drive to Spain. That would have been an option, if only thousands of other people hadn't already thought of it. There was no availability on any trains or boats heading that direction, nor were there any rental cars on the other end. We decided to take a train out of London and head south to Portsmouth, England, to hop a ferry ride to Bilbao, Spain.
At least we'd be back in Spain and we could limp our way home, little by little. We were able to book a reservation on the ferry and managed to get a cabin with 4 beds, however, when my hubby attempted to confirm the reservation later, he discovered the website was down due to the massive number of people trying to access it. We couldn't reach them by phone for the same reason. All we could do was take the train to the ferry terminal and pray our reservation would be honored and that we wouldn't be turned away.
The train ride to Portsmouth was about an hour and a half. We took a taxi to the ferry terminal and could see it was very busy. We arrived around 3:30pm or so, if I remember correctly, and the ferry was scheduled to depart several hours later, like around 7:30pm. My hubby waited in the incredibly long line at customer service, while the boys and I located seats in the terminal. I'm glad we found seats when we did, as the place filled up quickly. I have no doubt the number of people in the building exceeded what was allowed by fire code, if there is such a thing in England.
This photo doesn't even begin to depict the large crowd, as I snapped it before things got really crazy. If claustrophobia was a problem for any of us, we'd have been in trouble. There simply was no personal space. Perhaps this next photo will help give you an idea of what I'm talking about... 
The blue jean legs and the khaki leg you see were right in front of me (I'm the seated black legs in the photo). I didn't zoom in on this at all. This was exactly how packed the crowd got at one point. We were like sardines! To say that the ferry terminal was loud is quite an understatement. With so many people in one room, that would be expected, however, it was beyond loud. I've attempted twice to add my own video here of the crowded ferry terminal, however, Blogger doesn't seem to think I should do that right now. Maybe later...
There was a nice woman traveling with her father and her 4-year-old daughter who sat behind us. The little girl was precious, but she was a busy bee and got on my last nerve. She jumped up and down in her seat, and since my seat and hers were back-to-back, I could feel every move she made. She sang, she yelled, she poked me, she laid on me, she went under the seats... You get the picture. The mother would try to get her to stop, but this child was simply like the Energizer Bunny. She kept going and going and going... I found myself wanting to scream, "Serenity now!"
And trust me, it was a people watcher's dream, as there were some real characters in that room. I didn't want to be too obvious in taking photos of people, but I did manage to snap one of this gentleman, who reminded us of Austin Powers.
So we're finally home, 6 days after our scheduled return date. Here's a step-by-step rundown of our trip to get here...
Train from London to Portsmouth, England = 1 hour 30 minutes
Wait in ferry terminal = approximately 4 hours 30 minutes
Ferry ride from Portsmouth to Bilbao, Spain = 35 hours
Taxi ride to Bilbao Airport = 30 minutes
Wait in airport = approximatley 2 hours
Flight to Sevilla, Spain = 1 hour 10 minutes
Drive to our house = 1 hour 20 minutes
Later I'll share photos and memories from our vacation. We truly enjoyed London. We just didn't like being held hostage there. It was like that Eagles song about Hotel California... "You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave."
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