Snowbound

The London Snow of 2010 started out so beautifully one Saturday morning. Looking out the window

both directions from our house, we saw the beginnings of a winter wonderland. Some 6-10 inches fell over several hours, not a staggering amount, but enough to bring London to a halt.

After the snow stopped, we braved the freezing temperatures to look around the neighborhood.

St. Luke's Church was never adorned more beautifully.

Snowmen began to pop up

as others were exercising.

The playground was converted to a snow village

And the florist cart was decorated in a dusting of white.

The rental bikes stayed in place for the time being.

A street cleaner seemed at a loss as to what quite to do,

And as the afternoon wore on, the Saturday Duke of York's market opened up for business.

The city was never more beautiful.  All was calm, all was bright. Then the sun went down, everything froze 

and the chaos began. Our Sunday flight home was cancelled, as well as virtually all others leaving Heathrow that day as the airport couldn't cope with all the snow and ice. They found it impossible to clear the airplanes from the ice and snow that had accumulated. We, like thousands of others, scrambled to find more tickets. We were lucky to find some back up tickets a couple of days later, but never knew until the last moment whether we would be one of the flights able to leave. Many were told there was no way they could get home before Christmas, because there were not enough available tickets.  Only a third of scheduled flights were getting out, but after much prayer, and yes, much stress, we managed to get off. It's at times like these and when Icelandic volcanoes erupt that you realize the difficulty of getting off an island. Even the Eurostar train was completely booked until after Christmas. We were thankful that we were not some of the unfortunate ones stuck in transit who had to sleep for days at the airport. That was not so uncommon, unfortunately.

As the plane took off into the skies, the passengers started cheering, unlike I've ever heard before. We were so grateful to be on our way home to the States to family for Christmas. While reading The Daily Mail newspaper on the plane, I got a great chuckle out of the "updated" Christmas classic song "Walking in a Winter Wonderland" that they offered. I'm sharing it with you. It's easy to laugh now! Sing along with me!

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

 The phones ring

No one's listening

All the staff

Have gone missing

Check the website

You won't get a flight

Stranded in the Heathrow International.

Locked away

Are the gritters

Read about it

On Twitter

It's nobody's fault 

We ran out of salt

Stranded in a Winter Blunderland.

Snowfall came

Without warning

You could blame

Global warming

But nobody cares

About the polar bears

When they're stranded in a Winter Blunderland.