Angelique and David Solomon look over their pamphlets, tickets and hotel confirmation for a weekend trip to London they canceled due to expected travel complications in light of the foiled terror plot. (Steve Mraz / S&S)
LANDSTUHL, Germany — After six years in Germany, Angelique and David Solomon were going to London for the first time.
It was planned as a romantic weekend, a just-for-two getaway. The couple had gotten a good deal on airfare and lodging. They lined up a friend for their 10-year-old son to stay with. They bought tickets for dinner and a show.
“That was the idea,” said David Solomon, information assurance manager at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center. “We’ve only got a year left here so we’re trying to make the most of the rest of our time.”
“We finally do it and look what happens,” Angelique Solomon said.
News broke Thursday about a foiled terror plot to detonate liquid explosives on as many as 10 flights out of the United Kingdom.
The Solomons planned to fly Ryanair from Frankfurt-Hahn Airport to London Stansted Airport early Friday morning and arrive back at Hahn on Sunday.
Angelique Solomon, the command group secretary at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, knew her relaxing and romantic trip would be fraught with uncertainty, long waits and delayed flights.
“Getting there wasn’t the issue,” she said. “Coming back would have been bad. What Ryanair was putting out was that the delay would be four hours to get on the airplane to come home.”
With thousands of stranded travelers trying to leave London and uncertainty over how long it would take to get transportation from downtown London to Stansted Airport, the couple decided to postpone their trip. They reasoned that the three-day trip would not be worth the hassle.
“We don’t want to deal with that,” she said.
The airline refunded their tickets. The hotel has basically given the couple a voucher for the nights they would have spent there, David Solomon said. They will, however, lose 49 pounds — about $95 — because they won’t be able to make the London performance of “Stomp,” for which they had tickets.
Instead of taking in the sights of London this weekend, the Solomons are planning a solemn travel experience. They plan to visit the Dachau concentration camp memorial site — without their son.
“We’re going from having a fun, romantic weekend in London to visiting Dachau,” Angelique Solomon said. “These are the opportunities you’re thrown as a parent. You have to take those opportunities when you can.”
As for London, the Solomons will make it there — just not anytime soon.
“We’ll do it, but not this month,” she said.
