This Page Shall Continue

the Recounting of 

the Incredible and True Story

of the Adventure That Was

Avengerville!

Part Two

 

Travel Plans

Our Avengerville day was set! May 1, 2014. Hooray for email! Now time to get the flights and hotel room.

Since the movie was being filmed at Shepperton Studios I wanted to get a room close for easy access. I figured I would be renting a car or taking a bus/train to get there. (I was, I am happy to report, wrong and I’ll get to that later.) I had been making a list of places to stay using Air BNB. I got home after receiving my email from P. (who works for Joss Whedon) and turning on my computer sat down to begin my quest and purchasing of our travel and lodging. At that moment, Hubby looked at me and said “Expedia has a 30% off sale for going to England right now.” Oh really?! Off to Expedia I went!

No I am not receiving any money for saying this but bless you Expedia.com for your 30% off rates! The timing was perfect! I thanked the universe and my mom (who I feel looked out for me on this trip) and began to look through deals. Eventually I decided on the Sofitel London Heathrow as it was attached to the Heathrow Airport and thus would be easy to find. Also it was close to Shepperton Studios (at least that is what the maps said).

I would also like to thank my wonderful stepmother, K. Lion, and father, B. Lion, as they gave Scott and I some travel money which was nice to have for the trip. It is good when your parents look out for you even at the not so tender age of 50!!! YAY!!

The 30% off deals were great and I found a good package for Hubby and myself. However I know a wonderful travel agent – Jena Hanes – so I called her. She found the same deal for me only cheaper!!!! So I went with her. I would now like to grovel here on this page as well as PRAISE Jena because she put up with a lot of crazy questions from me. Bless her!!! You can hire Jena by visiting her Website – Your Choice Travel – she is WORTH it!

Plane and hotel were secured – now for luggage! Our luggage is fine but a bit travel weary and I didn’t want anything falling apart. So I got Hubby and I each new hard case rolling luggage.  His was white and mine was pink. I decorated the luggage with IU (that’s Indiana University) stickers to help us with identification. Please note: I LOVE our rolling suitcases!!!

[Crazy Moment of Girlyness: Ok, yes I did go shopping for an outfit to wear that I would be comfortable in and look halfway decent. My good buddies L. and A. went with me and I got a great outfit with comfortable yet stylish shoes. I felt so much better. I also bought THE PERFECT handbag which I still carry with me to this day. I also, at the urging of L., decided to dress nicely for the plane ride so I got new outfits for that as well. I have decided I will always dress-up to travel via plane. It just made things more fun.]

Hubby and I also picked out a Buffy the Vampire Slayer comic collection for Joss to sign. My nephew, who is as big a fan of Marvel as I am, sent two comics for signatures; one was Captain America and one was Hulk. I also took a small art print just in case. I had been told that yes I could get signatures. Squee!

I finished the preparations with finding house sitters (thanks C. and K.!), having L.F. take over teaching my last day of class (thanks L.F. and students!), finalized date with boss and colleagues (I work with the BEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD – THANK YOU ALL!). Then I waited with uncontrollable excitement for the journey to begin.

The Flight

Ok, now I admit that I like to get to important places early. For this flight, I was not going to miss any planes or connections. I didn’t care if I was going to sit in an airport, as long as I got on my plane, I would be happy. After triple checking the triple checking of our passports and ticket receipts, Hubby and I got into his wonderful car and drove to the Indianapolis International Airport. We arrive three hours early, like you should for an international flight, and got through checking in and security in 20 minutes. I kid you not. (Thanks Mom!)

So I texted friends, posted Tweets, and walked. I was going to be sitting for over seven hours and figured I should get some exercise in now.

Our flight to Detroit began with an announcement that there would be turbulence. I don’t handle that well at all. So first I wish to thank Dramamine for keeping my stomach settled and Mom and The Universe for having our plane avoid all turbulence.

From Detroit we flew to London, overnight! Hooray for sleeping on the plane – even if it was a tight squeeze and we had upgraded to business class! But it was still GREAT!

We landed in Heathrow at 11 am, April 30th. Thank goodness our hotel was attached to Heathrow! We had quite a time even following the signs in getting to the Sofitel. Everyone was very friendly and helpful, BTW. Thanks to everyone who helped us get on the right train and get to our destination.

This was my first time at Heathrow and OMG it is HUGE! I know some of you are thinking “Well, duh.” Please remember that the airport I am most familiar with is in Indianapolis and that is oh may 1/20th the size.

The Sofitel – Our Hotel

Wow. This was quite possibly the nicest hotel I have ever stayed in. The staff were incredibly courteous and helpful. The hotel was beautiful! And I couldn’t figure out how to turn on the lights in my room for five minutes. No really. I stood in our room looking at Hubby and saying “I teach people how to use computers for a living and I can’t figure this out!” I finally did so now you will know too. By the door is a slot for your room key. You put your room key in the slot and then you can turn on the lights. Very smart. That way no light is left on when you are not there and you always know where at least one of your room keys is living.

Speaking of power, once we got into our room and I figured out how to turn on the lights, I pulled out the computer and plugged it in. Or rather I attempted to plug it in. In my desire to be prepared for this adventure I had bought power adapters for the room. Thus I could plug my American electronics into the English power outlets. Uh, nope. It seems I bought the wrong adapters. So I went to the front desk and apologized for having a Dumb American Moment (TM) aka DAM. They front desk staff graciously laughed at my “attempt” at humor and directed me to another extremely helpful woman who gave the correct adapter. With power on, I got onto the Internet and let our studio contact know we had landed. They replied great and said they would send a car to pick us up at 11 am on May 1st. OMG!!!! They were sending a car! Squee!!!

We got fabulous room service – oh the food was sooooo good – and I actually did sleep.

The next and third post will actually bring you, dear reader, to the set! For now, well imagine trying to keep calm at this moment. I’ll be honest, it wasn’t easy.

We will get on the set in Part Three.

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LINKS:

• Shepperton Studios
• Sofitel London Heathrow
• Heathrow Airport
• Your Choice Travel
• Indiana University
• Indianapolis International Airport
• The Avengers
• Story of a Five Year Old Avenger, Meeting The Avengers
• Captain America Motivates The World’s Youngest Avenger
• Avengers 2: The Age of Ultron
• The Mary Sue
• Downtown Women’s Center
• Joss Whedon
• My Blog Posts
  • Yes, This Is Real
  • Yes, This is Real 2
  • One Week From Today…
  • Some Avengers/Belly Dance Pics
  • The Day Is HERE!
• Elizabeth M. Lion’s Memorial Site