DALLAS TO LONDON AND BEYOND

So far this trip has not been a bed of roses. When we tried to check in at DFW, we were told there was a problem with the tickets and we would have to call American Airlines and get it straightend out. After a harrowing half an hour or so, Tom was successful and we're good to go for our nine hour flight to London. The original flight was booked with American with a British Air connection from London to Oslo. About three weeks before the flight we got an email from British Air saying they had cancelled our flight and had nothing else to offer us. The American agent said the only way to guarentee we would get to Oslo on time was to book with another carrier at our own expense. Tom booked a flight for us, at considerable extra expense, on SAS. The Friday before we were to leave on Sunday we got an email from SAS cancelling our flight. As we had an apartment rented for a week and a fjord tour paid for and it was too late to cancel we had to get to Oslo any way we could. Tom spent all night Friday and until 5am Saturday searching for a solution. He tried every combination of trains, ferries and planes and finally came up with one that would work. It entailed taking a five hour train from London to Edinburgh, Scotland and a 6am KLM flight the next morning to Amsterdam and after a lengthy layover, on to Oslo. We would lose the first day, but it was doable. Hang on for this wild ride! After arriving in London including a quick trip through immigration and customs we made our way to the Underground for an hour ride to the Kings Cross train station.

As soon as we got to Kings Cross the Queen was there to greet us. What a thrill!

While we waited for our train to Edinburgh we discovered the Harry Potter Track 9 3/4 and caught a lady going to the catch the train to Hogwarts.

There is also a Harry Potter store near gate 9 3/4.

There is a silver lining...I met the most delightful woman on the train from London. Vivianne-Viv for short was a very interesting train seat mate. She is an Economics teacher and a long time Londoner. She made a five hour train ride fly by. Thanks, Viv. And a second life saver--we were able to get an earlier train to Edinburgh and arrived early enough to get a hotel room next to the airport to sleep! 5pm to 12:30am of sleep will give one a whole fresh outlook! Thanks, Tom. As of this posting we are in the airport waiting for our flight to Amsterdam.