Chicago

We uneventfully dropped off our niece in NYC. The next day we arrived in Chicago 3 hours ahead of our foreign exchange student and made it to her airport with a whole hour to actually sit down and wait for her. After seeing some friends and some of the sites of Chicago we were back home again.

London: The most beautiful city in the world

We jockeyed on the plane to be the first ones off and through immigration. We planned on leaving our checked luggage but gave in 10 minutes and it showed up in time. I arranged a cab to take us to Heathrow post haste. I looked at taking a helicopter but that service is not offered.

Our cabbie was amazing, you have no idea. We explained the situation to him. We drove fast, we drove very very fast, we drove on the side of the road on the shoulder. He had navigation and traffic congestion warning. We drove on access roads and side streets and everywhere else we could fit to dodge traffic and make it in time. The drive was amazing and we did our best to make sure that the tip matched.

We had been in contact with Heathrow and been told that if we would arrive by 6pm that they would get us on the plane. We hit check-in at 5:55. A manager from British Airways took us over from there. There was no room on the flight so she bumped us up to business class, opened a baggage check-in line just for us and got us through security so that we could make our flight. Despite the truly horrible picture of her above, she was beautiful. British Airways was beautiful. And despite anything I may have ever said in the past, London was beautiful. And on that day it was by far the most beautiful city in the world.

London Bound!

Once the wheels left the ground in Morocco life became better. Other than the Steward coming out to lie to us and tell us that the plane was not opperating due to weather (in an attempt to dodge liability) when all the other planes were flying, the flight went remarkably well.

Our spirits were much better. Even if we missed our flight to the tune of another $3600 in London, we would be in a country were we understood the language and culture and make other arrangements. We could at least call friends in Chicago and not leave our exchange student stranded.

Back to Marrakesh

This post is out of sequence:

So Easyjet put us all on a bus and send the 200 people to a local hotel for diner and sleep promising a flight at 10am the next morning. We needed to rebook our London-NYC flight since it departs London at 7am. They sent all 200 of us to a hotel that they had not bothered to call to let know that we were coming. They were not prepared for us. They did not have cribs for infants or internet or phones for us. Someone at the front desk took pity on us and allowed us to change our flight on the hotel computer at 3am after they had finished booking everyone in. We re-booked British Airways for the last flight (7pm) the next day and had Laurel's mom re-book our NYC-Chicago flight so that we could meet our exchange student on time. The total cost of the changes was probably around $3600 but we were happy to have a working plan to get out and not leave our student stranded in Chicago. We were herded back onto the airport bus at 7am after 3 hours sleep.

We arrived at the airport to find that our flight had been delayed by 2 hours!!! Deja Vu,

We had no working phone but the people pictured above let us use theirs and helped us in every way possible. They were brilliant. Just like the day before the plane was repeatedly delayed by 2 hours. Finally at 2pm the plane actually showed up and was available for the flight. It was just possible now that we could make it but we would have to cross London from Stanstead to Heathrow in 2 hours at rush hour including going through customs, immigration, checkin security and getting to our gate at Heathrow. I'm not a pessimist, but my grasp of reality did not leave me hopeful.

Marrakesh Airport

We arrived at the airport well in advance of our noonish flight. After we all had our crotches grabbed in security we arrived at our gate to find that our plane had been delayed by 2 hours. No problem our connecting flight in London was not until early the next morning. We spent the last of our Moroccan money on some food and drink and waited the two hours until they announced that our plane was delayed another 2 hours. This repeated until 9pm at which time the board flipped and showed our flight as canceled. At this point we realized that we are unlikely to make our connecting flight in London. If we do not make it to London in time we will not make it to Chicago in time to meet our foreign exchange student and she will arrive in this country with no one to meet her at the airport and no one coming for who knows how many days?

Saying Goodbye to Marrakech

It had been a great summer but we were done and starting to look forward to heading home. We wanted to take a few pictures of the Riad where we stayed while in Marrakesh. So much of the decorative carving and tile work on the buildings was just amazing. We hung out at the riad while waiting for it to be time to grab our cab to the airport. No one had the fortitude to hazard the streets for fun. Our minds were set on home. The last picture is a spice vendor that we passed on our way to the main square where we could grab our cab to the airport.

Diner with the tourists

On our last evening we arranged to be wisked off to the far outskirts of Marrakesh for the whole dinner tour package. This was Morraco, homogenized and sanitized, just the way you would think it would or should be. As travelers, we would normally turn our noses up at such a contrived spectacle. However, at this point in our trip it was probably the perfect activity.