Escape to Europe

My dad is in London until August.  The family is on a mass exodus from Western Canada to visit him in London this Spring before the free accommodation is gone.  Alas, a volcano by the name of Eyjafjallajokull has disrupted their plans, and the plans of 6,000,000 other European travelers around the world.  Here is a list of family members who are now practicing flexibility, patience, fretting, research skills and the ability to listen to the same airline song on the phone over and over and over:

Glen
Mum
Two family friends

These are the hopefuls that want the plume of smoke to find another jet stream with-in the week:
Laynie
Janet
Arta
Peter
Margaret
Connor
David

This has left my dad with an empty flat but the hopeful flyers may descend upon his space quickly.  Then again, I read the last time there were volcanic eruptions in Iceland such as this, the plumes of smoke, tremors etc lasted for 15 months.  So far the family researchers and rumor mill has dug up the following information or misinformation, or made the following comments about the situation:

Arta: "I read that there are news broadcasters all over the world who have split tongues because they attempt to say the name of the volcano but can't do it without self-injury."

Glen: "They are letting planes land in Madrid.  Could we switch our flights to Madrid, or any other European airport, then take the train to London?"

Wyona: "My flight is cancelled and I can't leave for another week.  I have to be here for another week!  And I have three different sets of tickets to musicals in the West End this coming Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and I won't be there.  This is the greatest tragedy."

Glen: "Well, I told my boss that if I can't get out of the country that I would be back to work on Monday."

Article from Arta: "They say this could go on for 18 months.  I wish we were trapped in London instead of here.  Here is a CBC article that has several good video clips."

Gabe: "Wow, Aunt Tonia that is a lot of smoke [in a picture of the eruption].  Can I go back to playing my video game now?"

Trent:  "I don't think I want to live on a volcano.  The entire island is one gigantic volcanic rock."

Wyona: "The airlines are losing out on 200 million dollars a day.  This is going to have an impact on a lot of things including future air travel."

(AP Photo/Jon Gustafsson.  See www.npr.org/blogs)

The pictures of people stuck in airports and sad travelers are all over the news.  Recently I was stuck in London trying to get to Egypt via Frankfurt, but a storm in Frankfurt was ruining our travel plans.  I tend not to take 'no' for the final answer and had several plans in my head as to how I was going to get there without the help of the first flight.  In the end, I made it to Egypt.  In the end, I hope the people on their way to London make it too, and before August.