David and I got up early and were in the car headed to the Atlanta airport by 4 am. We arrived early and went through check-in and security in a fairly painless way. However, as usual the TSA uneducated bully employees ticked me off. I was wearing a pull over sweater and they made me take it off. I saw many other walk through the check point wearing hoodies, muslim robes and other baggy clothing items and NOT 1 of them were required to remove the “baggy” garments. I did not let it get to me because I did not want to ruin the trip at the very start.
We had a short flight to Washington, DC where we switched planes for a 8 hour flight to London. Once arriving in Washington we found our terminal and relaxed during our 2 hour lay over. About 30 minutes before boarding the flight the gate waiting area was over run with TSA employees. It seems that our flight to London was tagged to have additional searches of passengers prior to boarding. Lucky for both David and I we were not tagged for the additional pat downs and carry on baggage searches.
Our flight to London was uneventful. They had a very good movie selection so we watched “The Invention of Lying,” “Up in the Air” and “The Box.” We missed the last 5 minutes of The Box because they cut off the movie system so that we could prepare for landing. We did notice that 1st class passengers did not have their video systems cut off. Guess that’s one reason they pay more for their seats.
Upon arriving in London we had to go through customs. Since we arrived around 10 pm London time the airport was not very busy so the security checks and customs went very quickly. Our hotel was a 15 minute ride from the airport. We passed by Windsor Castle- Which by the way was able to be seen from our hotel window. With it being so late London time, we crashed as soon as we got settled into the hotel. We planned it that way so that we could make the most of our time in London on Friday and it worked out well.
However, I must say I passed through the ATL airport with an ILLEGAL item in my book bag. The items were then again missed at the New Jersey Airport and again in London. So it makes me wonder what are we paying these people to do? I went through security at 3 airports and no one questioned the larger bottle of liquid I had in my bag. According the the TSA rules on 2oz bottles are permitted. My bottle was 6 ounces and was missed by all three security checks. I guess it is a good thing it was contact solution and not some kind of poison. Guess its a good thing that I am not a terrorist. I will say that this item was not packed on purpose. It was in a side pocket of the book bag, and I simply forgot to remove it when I unpacked all of my school stuff. I always carry extra contacts and liquid contact cleaner because of all of my allergy issues.