Freak Weather Snarls Europe Travel

Frustrated travelers camp out in airports, train stations
By Mary Papenfuss,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 20, 2010 1:21 AM CST
Freak Weather Snarls Europe Travel
People walk next to a snow covered Eiffel tower yesterday.   (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

Hundreds of thousands of passengers on their way to family holiday festivities in Europe were camped out instead yesterday at mobbed airports and train stations shut down by record snow and cold. London's Heathrow Airport was largely closed for a second day as wanna-be fliers huddled under emergency blankets on trash-strewn floors, some of them for a third night waiting for their plane to take off. "It's very hard," a passenger with a ticket to Dallas told CNN. "All I want for Christmas is to hug my daughter." Charles De Gaulle and German airports canceled more than a quarter of their flights, and several Eurostar trips were delayed or ditched.

Road travel was also hazardous in record snowfalls and cold, with more dire weather predicted in the coming days. Even Lady Gaga couldn't trump the weather. A Paris concert was cancelled when her 28 tour trucks were detained by police because of dangerous road conditions. "Two of my employees were arrested trying to get into Paris so we could perform," Gaga tweeted yesterday. "I am furious and devastated. It's unfair to my fans and to me. I'm sorry little monsters."
(More Germany stories.)

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