I can't avoid flying. I travel frequently between the UK and Switzerland and less frequently elsewhere. When the Icelandic volcano eruption in 2010 disrupted European air travel I needed to get home to Switzerland so I took a train from St Pancras in London, through the Channel Tunnel and ending up at Gare du Nord in Paris. I then had to travel with luggage to the Gare de Lyon from which I got a train to Lausanne. Apart from the fact that it took many more hours, it would now be an impossible journey for me because of my disability.
The requirement to put liquids in a plastic bag for the security check is common in many countries beside the UK. The USA simply doesn't always apply international regulations.
I gave up travelling to the USA some years ago after my husband and I were both separately treated badly by airport security. I don't need to travel there for work reasons any more and so have simply given up recreational travel there.
I think, however, that international travel does impose all sorts of onerous conditions and it just depends how strong is one's need for it. I find Australia rather difficult, but I will still go there from time to time because my daughter and her family live there and I want to visit them. In the USA I have only a cousin and a few friends and it's not quite as compulsive as the closer blood ties.
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