What Does a Blizzard in Europe Have to Do with Us? EVERYTHING

Saturday morning we sat down as a family to discuss the need for flexibility while traveling internationally. We told the kids that it was inevitable that we would have experience some sort of unexpected circumstance or delay during the trip. Little did we know we would face just such a circumstance before even leaving Atlanta.

With our bags packed and loaded in the car and the family just hanging out before heading to the airport, a seemingly innocuous email arrived in my in-box at 11am stating simply that our flight had been cancelled. Little did we know that a winter storm –the likes of which had not been seen in 20 years—was pummeling Heathrow and other European gateways.

The phone lines were so slammed that our travel agent couldn’t even get through, so we headed to the airport to try and get more information. Dozens of travelers were lined up at the ticket counter and the three ticket agents were trying to re-route passengers as fast as they could all the while they were receiving notices of airport after airport closing.



We spent the night at an airport hotel and checked again this morning to see if there was any way we could get out, but the next available flight (with five available seats) is three days from now. We’re praying that the weather clears by then.