WEARY TRAVELERS: Our morning on Thursday started at 6:30 London time. When I turned in for the night in Seattle later that 'day,' I'd been up for 25.5 hours.
We got to Heathrow with plenty of time to spare, but first, we had to return the rental car. We were NOT looking forward to going to Enterprise and dealing with the repercussions of the motor home hitting us at Old Sarum. However, checking in was a breeze. A nice Englishman inspected our car, and - get this - he didn't even notice any damage - until he punched the rental numbers and his eyes widened and he saw the flag on the account and asked if we'd been in an accident. Yeah, getting hit by a motor home definitely counts as an accident.
Truth be told, it kind of burned our butts, because if we weren't the honest types, we apparently could have turned the car in with nary a catch. Instead, our 'reward' for being honest was that even before seeing the car, Enterprise charged Christian's debit card for 700 pounds (that's $1,100 US). That is just such complete BS, given that we were 110 percent not at fault for the accident. Enterprise has not heard the last of us. ...
I do have to say for the record that the Vauxhall Corsa we were driving was a tough little car. The driver's side mirror managed to absorb being struck and then dragged by a motorhome without caving in!
Our London outbound plane boarded on time, but as we sat there and waited and waited to take off, finally, a voice came on the intercom and said we were waiting for TWELVE late passengers.
That did not sit well with us, as we had 50 minutes to make a connection in Amsterdam. We finally left the gate about 30 minutes late, and were thinking we had the 'luxury' of 20 minutes to make a connecting flight. WRONG.
As we started our descent to Amsterdam, the first officer came onto the PA and informed us that anyone with a connecting flight before 14:55 (2:55 pm for us yanks) would NOT make their connections, as Amsterdam gates close 15 minutes prior to take off time. Our flight was scheduled for departure at 14:55.
As we descended, we readied ourselves to spring to the front of the plane ASAP and hit the ground running, and we did just that. We had FIVE minutes to run 26 gates and one concourse away.
You know those crazy people you see in the airports, wild eyed, red faced and on a dead run? We were those people in Amsterdam.
When our gate was finally in sight, we could see it was empty and they were breaking it down. However, huffing and puffing, we made it just in the nick of time. Once we arrived we found out why they shut down gates 15 minutes prior to take off - it's because they have a full fledged TSA-type search right at the gate. So we had to pull out all electronics, get the full body scan, be patted down (I apologized for us all being so sweaty!) and so on.
Once on the plane, we had the pleasure of sitting on board for the next 11 hours. Good times.
As we taxied out of Heathrow, we passed this green monster at a Virgin facility.
I had no idea what to make of it, but suspected if I hit 'the Google,' I would be able to find out. Sure 'nuff it turns out to be an airport firefighter training plane.
Somewhere over the frozen tundra in the Arctic Circle, a woman went down and out at the bathrooms. First time I've been on a flight where the steward staff has taken to the PA to ask for any passengers with medical training to render aid.
She was down for a loooong time, and they even busted out the defibrillator pack. We were just certain we'd be making an emergency landing in Toronto or somewhere. The land we were over didn't look too hospitable. ..
However, fortunately the patient must have sufficiently rallied, because we didn't stop early or unexpectedly. We made it all the way to Washington state, where we could see lovely views like this lake in a mountain in the Cascade Range.
