So, it has started. Our plane out of San Francisco is delayed by 30 minutes and when we arrive in Chicago a plane has broken down in our docking bay and we waste more time sitting on the tarmac for a further hour or more. We are now hard on gate closing time for our connection and despite valiant efforts of the assistants from the airport helping us catch our plane we miss the damn thing by minutes.
We go to customer service to reschedule our flight, and the next flight out to London is tomorrow afternoon with British Airways. We receive vouchers for accommodation and meals. We are 1 day behind in our itinerary. We are given a voucher for a hotel – Best Western in the Boonies – even with the shuttle driver going like a bat out of hell we take 15 minutes to get there and its now after 1.30 am Chicago time.
Our sleep is broken but by 7.00 am we are in the breakfast room for our complimentary breakfast at Best Western. Kerry had arranged the cancellation of the hire car and had booked a new car with our friends at Green Motion Car Hire. Our check out time is 11.00 am so we catch our shuttle to the airport but there is a sense that everything is not right. We arrived at the airport very early and had to await the crew to arrive for the gate opening. However, we did not expect to be told by the BA check-in chick that our tickets were invalid. No panic just yet there was 4 hours before our flight was scheduled to depart. We fronted American Airlines. More bad news there was no room on the BA flight and American Airlines only had a flight going that evening after 6.00 pm. Over 5 hours away and we could not sit together on the flight, as we were literally given the last 2 seats.
We get assistance (wearing my neck brace against possible injury to my broken neck earns me that right) and make it to gate K 15 with hours to spare. So, we pull out the dinner vouchers grabbed some food at Starbucks and wait. Even after waiting 5 hours when we boarded the flight it again was delayed but this time there was no connecting flight to worry about – just collection of the car at Green Motion.
The flight was tolerable. I got to sleep for about 5 hours with the flight only taking 6+ hours and we arrived at Heathrow. Once again, we were met by the assistant to give me a ride to the exit door of the terminal. We now hoped to catch the shuttle bus to Holiday Inn and the depot for Green Motion. Great timing – we got to the bus stop 20 minutes before pickup so we felt we could now relax – what else could go wrong. Waiting at the bus stop, I noted the traffic exiting the area was stationery and remaining stationery with no traffic coming in. The terminal was becoming chaotic with passengers trying to catch their flights and those trying to exit the terminus. No one could explain what was happening other than a serious motor vehicle crash has stopped all traffic. We had to think of another way to catch the shuttle bus but not one caught in this jam. We dragged all our luggage around the terminal to the underground and rode the subway to Hatton Cross. I hailed a cab and told him our destination. The driver warned that everything was closed down by the crash in the terminal 2/3 tunnel and we should return and wait for the traffic to clear.
That was not possible as we had to collect the car and then drive to Ipswich. We had to try another direction and Kerry thought that we needed to go to terminal 5 as it was unlikely to be closed down by the traffic delays crippling terminal 2 & 3. The plan worked but it took a further 2 hours to pick up the car whereas it should have taken 20 minutes. Not happy Jan.
After going through the painful process at Green Motion we obtain a car – not the one we had requested but a car bigger than Kerry wanted and a hybrid. Kerry soon got the hang of driving the bigger car and the drive to Ipswich and our hotel took over 2 hours but we made it and were surprised by what awaited us. My next blog will tell you of our stay at Ipswich and our rushed visit to Sutton Hoo. Read all about it in “THE RETIREES GO AROUND THE WORLD – LONDON HEATHROW UK to IPSWICH & SUTTON HOO UK”
PS no pictures due to stress, worry and a not to cheerful disposition.
glendon1954 