Europe 2007: Day 9 (London/Raleigh)

We woke early, packed our things and made another trip to Starbucks to fuel up on coffee and fill out a few postcards. We then checked out, took our bags to Victoria and caught the Gatwick Express back to the airport. Given all of Mike's "no fly" issues, we expected to at least be questioned or delayed but we were given tickets and not hassled at all. I was actually hassled more than Mike - security confiscated my bottle of Pepto Bismol as being "over the allowable limit" due to restrictions on liquids.

Our flight left London around 12:55pm local time and things were mostly smooth. Lunch was decent - lasagna or bbq chicken, then pizza just before landing around 4pm Raleigh-time. The "fun" began after landing.

RDU's idea of international arrivals is a nightmare. After deplaning, there are two lines - non-US passports and US passports. For whatever reason, the US passport line was slower even though the other line was requiring digital fingerprints and photos. Once we were finally through that line, we grabbed our bags from baggage claim to go through Customs. It took all of 30 seconds for the Customs agent to ok us and send us on our way. This is where it gets ridiculous. ALL passengers, even if Raleigh is the final destination, are required to RECHECK their bags and go BACK through security. WHAT?!?!? So after thinking we were done, we had to take off all of our shoes and coats and put our things back through x-ray. All of this because for whatever reason, RDU routes all passengers back past open gates instead of into the main terminal. By the time we collected our bags the second time, we had spent over an hour getting through Customs. I'm glad it was nowhere near a full flight! At least we were coming home and not rushing to catch a connecting flight.

Around 5pm we caught a taxi back home where we were greeted by two very friendly kitties. Their new kitty sitter, Liza from Piper's Pets, took great care of them (and the house). She even sent us photos of the fur-monsters while we were away. What a relief, especially since the pet-sitting service we had used in the past was unavailable last-minute (even though they'd said we were set a month ahead of time). We ordered a pizza, stayed up until about 9pm, and finally collapsed into bed.

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