Day 1—February 24, 2023 London, England & Lublin, Poland

Before we left Jekyll, we wanted to get one more sunrise on the beach. It was stunning, as usual. We grabbed some breakfast and headed towards the airport. We had about a 6-hour drive to the airport in Charlotte. Our flight to London did not leave until 8:00 pm, but we wanted to give ourselves plenty of time to get back.

The drive to Charlotte was uneventful. We stopped for lunch then made it into the airport about 4:30 pm. We got checked in for this flight. We were able to check our luggage all the way to Warsaw, Poland. This helped us greatly in London when we got out for our adventuring around.

When we checked in, Audra was able to get her boarding pass for the London to Warsaw leg. I was unable to do so. We purchased my ticket with points, and we were transferring from American Airlines to British Airways. The ticketing agent could not find my booking, but she was not worried, so I wasn’t worried either.

The flight to London Heathrow was about eight hours. We took off about 8:30 p.m. from Charlotte and it was a straight flight into London. It would be about 8:30 a.m. when we arrived in London. It was uneventful. We watched some downloaded Netflix shows, we took naps, we ate dinner, we napped, we watched more Netflix, repeat. We arrived in London about 8:00 a.m., ahead of schedule a little bit. We had about ten hours before our flight to Warsaw. You guessed it! We had at least eight hours of exploration time and we were going to take full advantage of it. We had a plan to get on the Underground and head into town to see some sights.

When we arrived, I wanted to get my boarding pass for Warsaw before we left so I wouldn’t have to worry about it later. This turned out to be a major undertaking, but I am glad we did it then. My ticket was purchased with frequent flyer miles. Turns out, the agent in Charlotte couldn’t find it because it was booked for MARCH 24^th instead of February 24^th.

It was going to be easier to pay for a new flight than to swap free tickets. Good thing I did it then and not when we came back from town. I purchased the LAST ticket available. Audra and I were seated a couple of rows apart and on opposite sides of the plane. (This would be catastrophic for us later.) After this was cleared up, we were off to London.

We took the Underground to the Tower Hill Station. From there, we were off to walk on the Three Quays Walk along the River Thames. We had magnificent views of the Thames and many of the historical locations along the way. We, like all good travelers, always take TONS of selfies. London has some amazing sights that are truly worthy to have selfies taken with. Here are just a few.

One of the sights we saw was the Monument to the Great Fire of London. We didn’t have time to climb the 311 steps to see the view from the top, but it is on the bucket list for the next time we are in London. From the London Bridge area, we jumped back on the Underground and headed to Piccadilly Circus. This is a central square in London. It has the vibe of Times Square in New York, but on a much smaller scale. It is full of restaurants, nightclubs, and historical landmarks. We stopped in at the St. James Tavern for a beer and snack. St. James Tavern is historic in its own right. It was licensed in 1733. It has been providing Londoners with ale and beer for a very long time. It was cool to be part of that experience. We definitely would stop in there again.

We made our way back to the airport to make sure we had plenty of time to clear security and relax a little bit before the long flight to Warsaw. Thankfully, we were able to check our luggage through to Warsaw, so we only had to worry about our carry-on luggage. We got through security easily. It took a little time, but not because of us. When it came our turn, we breezed through with no issues.

We got to our gate and had a couple of hours before we were scheduled to board. The gate was one of the most inconvenient gates in all of London Heathrow. There was almost no space for us to sit at the gate area. The area was incredibly congested. It was full and actually over booked. They were looking for volunteers to take a later flight. We would have considered it, but we were on a very tight schedule and had people to meet in Lublin the next day.

We finally got boarded. It was full of people returning home to Poland. Audra and I were only a part of a very small group of passengers that were not from Poland. Not that this was a bad thing, it was just a noted fact. There were a large number of children on the plane. I don’t know the official numbers, but I would guess that 25-30% of the passengers were children. This is probably the largest percentage of children on a plane that we have ever experienced.

The entire experience from the gate onward was the most chaotic experience we have had in our travels together. (Audra has one that trumps this one, but I was not with her.) Kids were yelling, standing up in their seats, and moving around in the cabin all flight long. I was sitting peaceful for the most part, but Audra had a rough time. A kid behind her kept kicking her seat most of the way. In this commotion, she heard something hit the floor but couldn’t see what it was. She didn’t think anything more about it.

We finally arrived in Warsaw. We were the last arrival of the night. We gathered out belongings and headed to the to the gate. We met at the gate and headed to the exit to go through Immigration. We stopped at the restroom, then proceeded to the line.

We have a routine that we do when we travel to double check each other to ensure we have everything in order as we deboard. We check and double-check each other. With us being separated, we were unable to double check ourselves. As we were walking to the line for Immigration, I reminded her to get her passport out so we could clear Immigration quickly and she said it’s right here in my jacket pocket. She couldn’t find it. We stopped at a bench so she could search everywhere. This turned up nothing. She took everything out of her pockets and her carry-on. It was nowhere to be found.

I am normally even keeled, but I am extreme nervous because I confirmed, she DID NOT have her passport in her possession. We mentally walked through the evening and when we knew she last had her passport. We knew she had to show it getting on the plane in London. She remembered putting in her jacket pocket as we were walking down the jet way. I was behind her and would has seen it if it had dropped. It didn’t. She was positive she had it in her jacket pocket as she boarded the plane.

She left her jacket during the flight, but was in the middle seat and it was very cumbersome. That was the last she knew she had it. She remembered hearing something hit the floor with the little hoodlum behind her was kicking her seat. That MUST have been her passport. We had the probable location. We would go back to the gate and ask the staff to go look on the plane. Simple fix and we will be on our way.

Wrong! They would not let us back down the concourse to the gate. We tried to tell the airport worker, but she didn’t speak any English. She directed us to Immigration. We got to the desk and explained what happened. Fortunately, the Immigration officer spoke English. However, she was not amused at our situation. She directed Audra to the Immigration supervisor’s office. She cleared me and instructed me to exit the area. I politely refused and told her I was staying with Audra.

I am keeping it together but starting to freak out inside. I studied the Warsaw Pact nations with my job in the US Army. Poland was part of that pact. Historically, Warsaw Pact countries didn’t always treat people humanely. I was not sure how they would accept that, but they had the power to escort me out or worse detain me for my refusal. Regardless, I had no intention of leaving Audra there by herself in this former Warsaw Pact security régime. They were gracious and allowed me to stay.

The supervisor asked her what was going on. She explained that her passport must have fallen out of her pocket on the plane and asked is someone could go back on the plane to retrieve it. He was a cheeky fellow and asked her why she didn’t pick it up off the floor and bring it with her. This was the beginning of a long, frustrating ordeal. It was Friday night so there was no possibility of getting ahold of the US Embassy, so we were not in a good position.

WELL CRAP!!! Why didn’t we think of that? Why DID Audra not pick her passport up off the floor? Geez! Don’t leave your passport on the floor of the plane, what a novel concept! Then he asked if she had looked in her bags. She confirmed she had. I confirmed that we both looked. He was not patient with me at all. He looked at me and said he was talking to her and not me. OK! I will just butt out.

When she told him she had looked, he firmly told her to look again, in front of him. She took everything out of her bags, showed him, and waited for him to allow her to put everything back in her bags. Then he walked away for about 15 minutes. Finally, he came back. He asked Audra what flight number and seat she was in. She told him and he called back on the radio. He was speaking Polish, so we had no clue what he was saying. About thirty minutes later, an agent came to the supervisor’s office with what looked like a US passport. She handed it to the supervisor. A few minutes later, the supervisor came over to us, looked inside her passport and asked what her name was. She told him. He asked where she was born. She told him. He hesitated and said, “I guess this is yours.” He handed it to her and told her to keep it secure next time.

WHEW! He didn’t have to tell us twice. We headed to Immigration so she could be cleared, and we left and didn’t look back.

By this time, we were the last ones in the Arrivals terminal. Our checked bags had already come through and been pulled from the carrousel. We had to track it down with the airline office for lost baggage. Thankfully, that didn’t take much time. Audra’s colleagues were just arriving, so we met up with them and headed to Lublin. It was normally about a two-hour drive. It took a little longer because we had to stop for petrol. As we got closer to Lublin, we were hungry, so we found a McDonald’s drive-thru that was still open, so we made a stop. We arrived at the flat at about 3:30 a.m. on Saturday morning. Finally, we were able to relax in a clean bed in our home for the next couple of days. Tomorrow was going to be a busy day.