Last Full Day in Europe

Yesterday was a day full of adventures, as usual. We woke up early with hopes of getting our flight moved up to an earlier time so we could be home earlier, but after many unsuccessful phone calls, a lot of time in lines, and many shuttle/bus/metro rides, we found that changing our flight time would be too difficult, if not impossible. Tripp is going to Virginia to work at Shenandoah Summer Music Theatre tomorrow, so we knew that the sooner we were home, the better. However, the day worked out just fine in Rome and we were glad to have a little more time there!

We decided to go to the Piazza near the Pantheon to grab some food when we ran into Amanda and Mike McCloskey! We both grew up with Amanda at Crestwood Baptist. They were in Europe for the Passion Tour and for some touring around of their own. We really could not believe we ran into MORE people we knew from the States!!!

Meanwhile, we had heard a movie shoot was going on near this square and decided our mission would be to watch the filming of "Angels and Demons" and get a view of Tom Hanks. Around 2 pm, the security guards, camera crews and extras started gathering in a street that the team had begun to block off. We staked out a spot at the front of a barricade and kept our eyes peeled on the action. Little did we know, we wouldn't only get to see Tom Hanks, but Ron Howard as well, directing the movie! We watched them shoot a scene (about 4 takes of it) and had a blast doing our share of celebrity stalking in Europe. After we felt like we had enough of the chaos, we grabbed gelato once more for good measure and spent our last hour in Europe visiting the Trevi Fountain.

It was around 4:45 pm when we began the journey HOME. We left downtown Rome, jumped on the underground, grabbed our bags at the luggage storage and took a bus to Rome's airport. We had allowed for plenty of time to make sure we made the flight which was a good thing since a line had already formed before check-in was even open! We waited and waited, went through the passport checkpoint and then waited some more.

And more.

Our flight was delayed because the plane had been caught up in bad weather on its way to Rome through the alps. We boarded late, took off late, and of course, arrived late. Our original plan was to arrive in Stansted (a London airport) and take a coach or train or the tube to Heathrow (another London airport over an hour's drive away). However, the coach and train and tube stations were all closing too soon.

Trying to figure something out on the plane, we asked a man sitting next to us if he was from London and if he had any advice. He confirmed we were in a bit of a spot and volunteered to help us out. His name is Simon Camper and he seriously was our God-send that we needed so badly at this point. After we got off the plane and went through all of the necessary lines (international flying can take a LONG time), Simon drove us to the Heathrow airport! He waited for us to get through and then drove us (from the passenger's side on the wrong side of the road) to where we needed to be. Thank you so much, Simon!!!

Around 2:30 am, we finally got settled in at the vacant, but very nice, airport after eating some snacks from their 24-hour coffee shop. We pushed a couple big chairs together and around 3, tried to sleep some... and to our surprise, we were able to get a little shuteye in before 6 am when we had to wake up for our very long day home.

Can you believe it? We are home now... and will write next about our trip home today and a few more things: a little about what we learned and a few tidbits about our trip we didn't quite want to tell you yet... :). More to come soon... thank you so much for keeping up with us!!!

LOVE TO YOU ALL.
Laura and Tripp

ps- Thank you so much to all of our family and friends for our amazing welcome at the airport!!! We were so glad to see each of you... we can't even tell you how glad we were!