<p>Barcelona is a great partying town. It has some of the best clubs. D2 was there when she was 13 and was not able to go to some of them with older sis. She wants us to take her back this spring to check out some of those clubs - dad is usually the bodyguard while I go to sleep. I do know the best Chinese restaurant in town.</p>
<p>Somemom, many thanks for waiting. It was bad enough as it was! Having heard from her yesterday, today was a much more relaxed day. I was even able to focus on the Thanksgiving menu…now that is stressful! Right now the count is 18, but I will definitely miss my world traveler!</p>
<p>About an hour ago, something nagged at me to get out of bed. This is the weekend my two kids, one expat, the other on SA were to link up in Munich. Sure enough, I opened e-mail to find a message from a student where D is studying that she fell asleep on the bus bringing her to an Stansted to catch the flight. Seems she over slept and woke up when the bus got to Heathrow. I called her. She is now on a train to Gatwick and won’t arrive in Munich for several hours. Meanwhile, she had no way to let her brother know. I managed to call him. He had just arrived in Munich (they had coordinated flights to arrive almost simultaneously). She wasn’t worried for herself, just worried that big brother would be worried about her. </p>
<p>I will talk to them at their hotel when I get home from work, but until then, of course, I will worry.</p>
<p>Isn’t is amazing, that parental 6th sense…A brief update. My D is enjoying her time in Spain, loves Barcelona and had an amazing time in Santiago de Compostela. Mostly she’s enjoying getting her water fix…the Atlantic in Santiago and the Med in Barcelona. She just called from a rock formation in the Med…her idea of heaven. Chicago is working for her because Lake Michigan is as vast as an ocean!
Gloworm, I hope your D manages to find your S soon and that there are no more glitches in her travels.</p>
<p>runnersmom, so glad your D loved Santiago. My husband is from Galicia and we’ve visited the cathedral there a couple of times on visits back to his home. It’s really breathtaking.</p>
<p>Yes, runnersmon, that 6th sense. D arrived safely in Munich. We just spoke to both at the hotel. It cost 80 pounds and seven hrs. of lost time, but they will enjoy their time together.
So glad your D is enjoying Spain. I think H and I will retire there.</p>
<p>So glad to hear she arrived safely. I’m sure they will have a wonderful weekend together. Tomorrow is travel day again for my D and her friends as they make their way back to Vienna. Time really flies. It seems like just yesterday when I was, shall we say, freaking out!</p>
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<p>I can now say that I am officially jealous of anyone who studies in Vienna (or lives there)! Was there last weekend for four nights with my daughter who is studying abroad in London. Have now been to Europe five times and Vienna is at the top of my list of most beautiful cities. Our hotel room overlooked the State Opera House. My daughter loved Vienna so much that she is seriously considering registering for German in college so she has a chance of going back at some point for post-grad study. This is the second time I’ve been to Austria (was in Salzburg last time), and I think the people there are absolutely the friendliest of all the countries I’ve been to… hands down.</p>
<p>Bringing this up as my D has begun her trip home from SA in the UK. She is on a 4hr. bus ride to Heathrow for a flight that leaves at 3:55 AM central time to Copenhagen, then from there to O’Hare, where we will get her ~7:00PM. She leaves again on 12/29 to study in Madrid/do an internship until July. </p>
<p>Does anyone know of a site I can track her flights? I always worry when my kids are in the air, and I can’t seem to find a flight tracker site for European flights.</p>
<p>Thanks in advance, and safe flights to all those making their return to the US.</p>
<p>when my 18 yr old was flying through the UK, India & UAE this past year I used
[Track</a> UK Flights, Global Flight Status, Airport Delays and other Flight and Airport Information](<a href=“http://www.flightstats.co.uk/home.do]Track”>http://www.flightstats.co.uk/home.do)</p>
<p>Gloworm, you can track international flights but the information is often inaccurate – that is, my experience has been that the flight status might still show up as if the plane has not yet taken off hours after my d. already reached their destination. So even though I am kind of obsessive about the flight tracking thing… I don’t really recommend it if you are the type to get really nervous about the travel. It may cause more worry rather than less.</p>
<p>Thanks, EK, I’ll try using that.</p>
<p>Calmom, I took a nap and just woke up now, so I hope to be less nervous that if I had just stayed up. If EK’s info works, YAY, if not, At least I can check her arline’s site to see if the flights depart, then get final info on radar when in range of the US.</p>
<p>D is at least in the airport. She emailed that she was through security.</p>
<p>Thanks again.</p>
<p>When I said that they can be inaccurate, I mean that they they may not even show the departure. I think I had a phone call from my daughter in Athens last spring when according to flight tracking software, her plane had not yet taken off from Helsinki.</p>
<p>Flight from Heathrow to Copenhagen is in the air, but EK’s site won’t track it for some reason (says not is US airspace). I’ll dose for an hour then check to see if it landed. The flight from CPO-CHG is still scheduled as on time.</p>
<p>But calmom, I know the data sometimes can come in hours late.</p>
<p>Final portion in the air, and EK, the tracker is now working. Thanks again.</p>
<p>I assume she has arrived safely or will soon? Travel days are the most excruciating, what we did without text, email and international phones I don 't know. A different kind of worry I suppose. My D is still gallivanting about, leaving London tomorrow with a friend for a week in France and then, finally, home on the 21st. She’s been settled in London for a week, staying with a friend studying there and they are headed to 2 nights in Amboise to see the chateaux, then for her, 5 nights in Paris. That’s where I start worrying again. Her friend is leaving on the 18th, and she will be alone in Paris until the 21st. They opted against a hostel and are staying in a small, family-run hotel on the Left Bank. I know she’ll be fine, but those worry genes will kick in again on Friday, I’m sure! Safe travels to all whose students are returning home, whether from overseas or just a few states away. Happy Holidays to all.</p>
<p>Landing time at O’Hare is 6:10, so far on schedule, but no tracking as flight is over open water, so the site says. The poor kid doesn’t know it, because it’s a surprise, but she is flying to TX tomorrow, courtesy of friends from her home school, then finally home for ten days before going back to Europe. I know she will be excited to see them, though.</p>
<p>Paris is a great city. D and I were front line in 2003 when Lance won one of his TDF.</p>
<p>Twitter solved these problems for me. Daughter travels a lot and posts when she arrives, leaves, etc. She twitters all day long anyway and doesn’t have to remember to call or text me. She and most of her friends have public accounts, so I read tweets regularly and am updated on whatever they are chattering about.</p>
<p>I don’t thik I could Tweet if my life depended on it, seriously.</p>
<p>Gloworm, YOU don’t have to tweet – you just need the link to your daughter’s twitter page, and you can read there. I hate twitter, and so does my daughter – but I convinced her to set up a twitter account when she was hosteling around Europe on her own over the summer. I just wanted a short, daily status update, along the lines of “arrived in Vienna, safe”. She actually found it easier to send an email via her blackberry to her dad & I – we would get one line emails that said, “I’m alive”… but the twitter was there just in case.</p>