A First Class end to a first class trip

After nine months of travelling the world the time had finally come for us to return home. During our time we had visited nine different countries, not only experiencing new customs and cultures but also enjoying the hospitality of a great many friends and family along the way.

At the end of 2010, Mark's father, John had contacted us and urged us to try and use up his British Airways airmiles that he had acquired during years of international travel. They were apparently due to expire at the end of the year, and as he had recently retired and was busy refurbishing his new home on the south coast of England he couldn't find the time to use them. You don't need to offer 250,000 airmiles twice to a couple of backpackers, so we quickly set about following his instructions. A few days later we had booked two tickets to fly home First Class, successfully using up all but 20,000 of his airmiles. Unbeknown to us, during this time John had telephoned BA to complain about losing his airmile fortune and had been told that they would be extended for another three years with any purchase ... he promptly used a few hundred airmiles booking a flight from London to Manchester, thereby extending the life of his stash. But then we called to tell him our great news. Oops.

The First Class experience was incredible. As our flight was due to take off at 10pm, we were invited to a five-course dinner in the Executive Lounge prior to takeoff. This was to allow us to sleep during the night flight, and the endless supply of champagne at dinner certainly made sleeping easier too!

On board, we were treated like royalty. Meg had her 'bed made' and had a great night's sleep, while Mark enjoyed reading a newspaper with real 'football' and also set about getting as many First Class freebies as possible. Needless to say, one of us didn't exactly behave like royalty!

Breakfast was served before we landed and was again a different experience to any other flight we'd taken. Table-cloths, silver cutlery, china crockery and even HP sauce!

From Heathrow we headed to our new lodgings in picturesque Stow-on-the-Wold. And we were delighted to see it rain non-stop for our first three days back in England. But unlike any rain we'd experienced over the last nine months, it drizzled. Nowhere does drizzle like home!

A few days later we headed down to visit Mark's father and deliver a bottle of champagne (as well as a set of British Airways First Class pyjamas) to say thanks for such a great end to our travels. We hope he'll learn to forgive us one day.

Oh Carolina!

After our escapades in New York, we headed back to Washington DC to spend the weekend with Peter & Louise. On Saturday afternoon, Meg's uncle Mike came round, along with Louise's sister, Florence and her husband Pete. We put together a DVD of photos, videos and music from our travels which everyone seemed to enjoy, although we couldn't help feeling like we were subjecting them to the modern equivalent of the dreaded holiday slideshow.

In addition to enjoying Peter's home cooking, we also had a classic American breakfast at the local Pancake House. 'Omelet' containing processed cheese and cubes of bacon, served with hash browns, corned beef hash, pancakes, and finally doused in maple syrup was very different to a Full English breakfast, but probably similarly as healthy. However, it certainly all tasted very good!


As the snow began to fall, Mark spent a day visiting the sights of DC and some of the museums. During the day, another 'Severe Weather Warning' was issued and Mark managed to make it back to the house before 8 inches of snow fell in just 3 hours.







It was wet and sticky snow that brought down a large number of tree branches in the neighbourhood and finally resulted in a complete powercut. Once the snow had stopped falling, we ventured outside to clear tree branches from the driveway and pavement, help a stranded vehicle and build snowmen. Meg's two-headed monster was an inspiration!




The next day we headed South to Charlottesville, Virginia once all the roads had been plowed. The snow had not been as severe in Virginia and fortunately Charlottesville had power.



Our next destination after Virginia was Durham, North Carolina to stay with Meg's friend Jess and her husband Matt. On Friday night we went to a local bar / brewery for a fun evening. And on Saturday, after looking around the impressive Duke University campus, we went to watch a basketball game between North Carolina Central University and Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, both of which were historically African-American universities. It was an exciting game played in front of a full stadium, with the band playing energetic tunes and the cheerleaders clapping their hands and stomping their feet throughout the game.





Saturday evening was Dr. Jess' one free evening from working the nightshift at the local hospital and we went out for a nice dinner after the game. On Sunday we took their retired racing greyhound, Mitchell, out for a walk, and then went for dinner with Matt at the local Mexican restaurant.


On Monday we drove back to DC where the temperature fell from +21'C to -2'C. Considering the journey took 6 hours this seemed an incredible difference in climate. Although we would have preferred a warmer return, we were pleased to find our gang of snowmen welcoming us home!