Rapher's Log - Stardate 06/02/16
Last day, last blog. Well for this trip, at least. You know this is going to be exciting, seeing as how it's a travel day blog.
One of the main reasons we like staying in the general area where we stay is because it's nice and close to Victoria Station - coach, train & tube. Makes for a good starting point, especially for getting to/from Heathrow. We were up at 5:30 in order to finish packing, get checked out and catch our 7:30 coach to the airport. Hard to believe that the trip was almost 2 weeks long - it somehow seemed longer, and, yet, not long enough. As expected, no issues getting to Heathrow, we were there by 8:15. Air Canada has been messing with schedules again and our flight now was leaving at 11:05. Last trip, it was almost 90 minutes later.
No issues getting checked in (and this time, we were ourselves, rather than each other!), headed straight to security and got through that line fairly quickly as well. My carryon bag was a little slow in coming but got through eventually. Then I had to put everything back - laptop, iPad, camera, etc. Now that we were there, we had to wait for them to announce our departure gate (figured it'd probably be the same one as before). They were supposed to announce that at 10:05. We figured we had a bit of a wait, so we went to Eat...to eat. Had a muffin, it was too early to grab a sandwich. Wandered through some of the stores - Hamleys, WH Smith (no Tiger Nuts at all this time!), sat down, got online a bit, waited.
We were more than a little surprised when, at 10:05, they announced our gate and, yep, it was the one at the far end of everything. Went downstairs, turned left, walked, 180 degree turn, walked back, up an escalator. Could they not have laid things out better? Our flight was a bit delayed for boarding, so there wasn't any of this "If you're seated in rows..." stuff, everyone was in line. One of the attendants must have noticed me limping up to the line and suggested that there was no rush - I could sit down to wait if I wanted to. I said I was fine. Got through that line and still had a bit of a walk to the plane. I was behind an older couple who commented on the amount of walking. They laughed when I said "What you don't realize is that they're making us walk back to Nova Scotia".
The flight itself was fairly smooth, did some napping, naturally. And my sound system worked this time, so I was able to listen to some TV/movies. I was awake for both the meal and the snack this time - pasta/potato salad/roll shortly after takeoff and a Cajun chicken wrap near the end of the flight. Landed on time, and then waited for the absolute most fun part - customs. Every time we've flown, I have checked off the "not bringing food" box because they specifically mention meat, dairy, produce...so when the lady asked what food I had, she was a little upset that I had fudge, chocolate & cookies. It was food, I should have declared it. She wrote on my form that I had food. I thought for sure I was going to get an extra luggage search, but, nope. Neither of us had to do that.
Didn't get Dad to pick us up this time, had Atlantis Limo pick us up. That went quite smoothly and I was home around 2:30.
Trip #7 to England now concludes. When we will return? Qui sait?
One of the main reasons we like staying in the general area where we stay is because it's nice and close to Victoria Station - coach, train & tube. Makes for a good starting point, especially for getting to/from Heathrow. We were up at 5:30 in order to finish packing, get checked out and catch our 7:30 coach to the airport. Hard to believe that the trip was almost 2 weeks long - it somehow seemed longer, and, yet, not long enough. As expected, no issues getting to Heathrow, we were there by 8:15. Air Canada has been messing with schedules again and our flight now was leaving at 11:05. Last trip, it was almost 90 minutes later.
No issues getting checked in (and this time, we were ourselves, rather than each other!), headed straight to security and got through that line fairly quickly as well. My carryon bag was a little slow in coming but got through eventually. Then I had to put everything back - laptop, iPad, camera, etc. Now that we were there, we had to wait for them to announce our departure gate (figured it'd probably be the same one as before). They were supposed to announce that at 10:05. We figured we had a bit of a wait, so we went to Eat...to eat. Had a muffin, it was too early to grab a sandwich. Wandered through some of the stores - Hamleys, WH Smith (no Tiger Nuts at all this time!), sat down, got online a bit, waited.
We were more than a little surprised when, at 10:05, they announced our gate and, yep, it was the one at the far end of everything. Went downstairs, turned left, walked, 180 degree turn, walked back, up an escalator. Could they not have laid things out better? Our flight was a bit delayed for boarding, so there wasn't any of this "If you're seated in rows..." stuff, everyone was in line. One of the attendants must have noticed me limping up to the line and suggested that there was no rush - I could sit down to wait if I wanted to. I said I was fine. Got through that line and still had a bit of a walk to the plane. I was behind an older couple who commented on the amount of walking. They laughed when I said "What you don't realize is that they're making us walk back to Nova Scotia".
The flight itself was fairly smooth, did some napping, naturally. And my sound system worked this time, so I was able to listen to some TV/movies. I was awake for both the meal and the snack this time - pasta/potato salad/roll shortly after takeoff and a Cajun chicken wrap near the end of the flight. Landed on time, and then waited for the absolute most fun part - customs. Every time we've flown, I have checked off the "not bringing food" box because they specifically mention meat, dairy, produce...so when the lady asked what food I had, she was a little upset that I had fudge, chocolate & cookies. It was food, I should have declared it. She wrote on my form that I had food. I thought for sure I was going to get an extra luggage search, but, nope. Neither of us had to do that.
Didn't get Dad to pick us up this time, had Atlantis Limo pick us up. That went quite smoothly and I was home around 2:30.
Trip #7 to England now concludes. When we will return? Qui sait?