Thursday, July 14th: Brussels to London to Chicago to HOME!

We had to get up before dawn and leave the hotel in Brussels to walk to the train station with all our luggage in tow. Fortunately, the weather was nice and we were all up and ready in good time. We were even able to walk by the famous Manneken Pis on the way to the train station for the boys to see it! This pretty skylight window was at the train station! Unfortunately it was too early to buy coffee or breakfast at the station, none of the shops were open yet at 5:00 am!

We took the train to the BRU airport (which we were feeling quite familiar with by now). I assumed we would have time before our flight to take a nap or at least get  breakfast. As it turned out, even at 5:30 in the morning, there was a huge line at the British Airways counter! We had to check in one bag, so we had no choice but to stand in it. There were only 2 desks open and the pace of processing each passenger was terribly slow. After over an hour in line, we started to get worried (as were other passengers) that we were going to miss our flight. After we finally checked in our suitcase, we still had to go through security, which was not as bad, but still took some time.  Some of us had to use the bathroom, and once we found our gate, the flight had already started boarding and we were some of the last passengers to get on! Crossing the English Channel, it was interesting to see a lot of wind farms down below in the middle of the water!

 As we approached London, the views were beautiful! Daryl had the window seat and was able to take some fantastic photos of the city. It made me want to visit London again sometime! If you look closely in these photos, you can see the famous "London Eye" Ferris wheel, tower bridge, Big Ben and the Houses of Parliment, even Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace! 

Westminster Abby & Big Ben on the left, London Eye on the right

We flew right over Kensington Palace; what a great photo!!!












And also over the Olympic Stadium!















Once we got to London, it was more of the same... long lines to get through security and we barely got to the gate in time to board our flight! Our rows were towards the back of the plane and had already been called when we arrived! Again, we never had time to stop for food or anything!

When first entering the Virgin Atlantic plane, this is what you see: The First Class Luxury Bar. The flight attendants were busy pouring champagne and orange juice for the first class passengers! Nice!     Even the Economy seats were nice, though with the individual media screens to watch whatever movies you want throughout the flight, pillows, blankets, unlimited drinks, good food, snacks, etc. It was a pleasant flight, though I never did get that nap I wanted so badly!

They really did serve cute snacks. One of them were these adorable little Popsicles! 

 When we arrived in Chicago, everything went very smoothly. We got our luggage quickly, called the long term parking place where we had left the van and they sent a shuttle for us in about 10 or 15 minutes. The van started right up and we were on our way home.

It was a long drive and when we got home that early evening it felt like 6 hours later European time. So actually, when we got up at 4:15 am in Brussels, that would have been 10:15 pm the night before here and that's how long we had been traveling that day!!!

One thing I did was go out and check the garden. Even though Elaine said they had already picked quite a few cucumbers just several days earlier, this it what I picked that day!!! Needless to say, we had a lot of cucumber salad over the course of the next few days! I also gave some away to family, neighbors, friends, and colleagues.

One thing I did NOT do was go down to the basement at all! I just did not even want to face it yet. I knew I had a few more days off and decided to wait and survey the water damage later.

Overall, it was another FANTASTIC trip!!! We are so fortunate to have family in Europe to stay with for free! We would have never done a 3 week trip like this if we had had to stay in hotels and eat out the whole time. People sometimes comment that we must be rich to afford trips like this. Well, yes, compared to most of the world's population, of course we are rich. But compared to most of our friends and out kids' friends, our income is probably on the lower end. We live in one modest home, drive used cars, don't have cable TV, i-Phones, or the newest devices, appliances, or furniture. What we do chose to spend money on are vacations! I think that is money well spent for the quality family time, seeing family members who live far away, exposing our kids and ourselves to other cultures, and all the fabulous memories! Thanks for reading our Miller Europe Trip 2016 blog... God bless you!