AirBus

Booked our first trip abroad (excluding EuroDisney) entirely via the internet. I arranged the flights, apartment-hotel, car hire and travel insurance: who needs to talk to people?. I reckon I saved between £300 and £1000 compared to booking through a package travel company.

We flew out of Gatwick at 11am, which I'd thought was a reasonable hour, considering many flights depart before 9am. However, working back, to check in 2 hours prior to flying, parking and car journey from Harrow during rush hour, we had to leave home at 7.30am, which with two toddlers (30 month old twin girls) in tow is no mean feat. R, bless her, managed it while she wasn't feeling the best herself. Check in was smooth and organised considering the number of people queuing. We had to check in H&Z's double-buggy, which I'd trussed up in one of Rob G's 'Japanese Mail' sacks for protection, seperately as oversized luggage. The sight of their familiar mode of transport dissapearring down a conveyor belt triggered off H&Z. We had to whisk them through passport control and into duty free. H&Z and I sat at a cafe and ate some bagguettes, whilst R did a quick shop. Then it was off to the departure gate, sat on our suitcases aboard the luggage trolley H&Z did their best cute look.

Now although Z knew we were in an airport, she had started telling us a few days earlier that she didn't want to go in a plane because ''it's too high" which I can fully understand. So we had to convince her we were getting on a bus. Arriving at the departure gate, we handed over the boarding cards and the friendly hostess chirped in a squeaky voice "so are you going on a plane?" to H&Z, we mutterred to her that we were actually going on a bus. We had felt bad for lying to Z just to save us the hassle, when suddenly the thought occurred that we were on an 'Air bus' which was true! So after that it was an airbus we were on not a plane, which seemed to comfort Z. Even when we were cruising at 40000 feet and Z was looking out of the window at the wings and the clouds below, she for reassurance said "Daddy I can see a plane (pointing at at the wing), but we're not on a plane, we're on an air bus". "That's right Darling" I smiled. In fact Z was so relaxed she was asleep during the descent and landing. The landing even caught me a little by surprise, as its the approach is over the sea until the final seconds, when we hit the tarmac. We waited for the majority of passengers to disembark, before attempting to grab our luggage and twin toddlers. As we walked down the steps of the plane Z kept saying "there's a plane Daddy"