From Gatwick to Deland

 Day 20 -  October 20 – Early start, Gatwick Airport, Flight to Orlando, Grammie and GPa’s.

Weather – No idea – it was dark and we were on a plane. Deland - warm and sunny.

Well, we finally got to day 20 and the end of the first leg of our around the world trip. We had an absolute blast. I would probably say Paris was the highlight for me, but everywhere we went we loved. I would go back to all of the places we visited, but Paris and London need far more time than we had in each. Although Amsterdam is not high on the list, it was still amazing, and the English countryside was just so beautiful, but again, I keep coming back to London and Paris. Probably Oxford next, then Remis. I have a feeling there might be a few more around the world trips I the future. Out tickets cost a little under $11k. When you compare that to our tickets to Orlando return last year which were a little under $15k, and the average price for a return ticket to Orlando is $9k in the Christmas school holidays, well, it starts to look attractive. I wonder what the price for a around the world would be in Dec when you have the school holiday price premium. Anyway, Katie and I have had a few discussions since the start of this trip, and we’ve both got the travel bug big time now. I say Christmas in Paris 2023 – who’s in??

Anyway, back to day 20 – the final day, early start, I think I was up at 5am, to pack, get everything organised and we were in the car and on the road to Gatwick airport a little after 6am. It was pitch black, and so driving in the little country lanes was interesting – however, at least there was no traffic on the road until we were on the major roads. Then it was very busy – with a lot of commuter traffic I would guess. It took about an hour to get to Gatwick, a stressful hour – with only a couple of wrong turns. Finally arriving in the rental car drop off which was located just next to the terminal. 



Gatwick is a very easy airport to navigate. Yes, it was very busy however it was well staffed and we got through check in and security and into the terminal in less than 1hour. This meant we had about 2hours to kill in the terminal. The lounges were full and you needed to book, so we missed out there. We found a restaurant and snagged a table near the window. Food was ok, and not too expensive, we had a solid breakfast and then just hung out until our gate was announced. The trip from Gatwick to Orlando was 8hrs, we were on British Airways – the best service I’ve had on a flight in years. Happy, friendly, helpful staff – Lucy had a massive blood nose and they were so great about it, looked after her and made her comfortable. I had a good chat with one of the attendants about our trip, and they were genuinely interested. When I ordered a beer, she came with two, maybe because I’m Australian? And we had the four seats across the middle, so space to spread out. 




And it’s and easy flight at 8hours. I’d flight BA again without hesitation. Next flight we have booked is on American Airlines, so that will be a big step down… Oh well, that’s not until December.

We arrived into the new terminal at Orlando, the paint was probably still wet, and they hadn’t installed the travellators yet – so the walk from the gate to the baggage collection was at least a kilometre – the signs stated a 7min walk, but there were ramps and inclines – so not an walk for anyone with a sore foot… Finally made it to the bags and got through customs easily – they were even friendly (I was confused). I’d fly into Orlando over LAX any day of the week. Kathy (Grammie) was there to pick us up and we arrived into The Steen house in Deland around 5pm. Kathy had made one of our all time favourite meals – Chicken with 40 cloves of garlic, so the good food continued! It was an early night as tomorrow we had the homecoming parade in downtown Deland – straight into the American Experience!



 The next leg of the trip is about settling in, Katie doing some work, Lucy doing home schooling and I’m going to do some study. With side trips, catching up with friends and family – it will be a nice change of pace. I might not blog every day, but I will continue to do regular updates.

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