Timeless travel

 

Operating the lift in the Sofitel Heathrow was not straight-forward. Whilst it apparently responded to pressing buttons, it did not actually respond until the room card was swiped. So TSH and Diva travelled up and down the hotel several times, under the control of guests who had swiped. As a result, they exited the lift at the wrong floor and had to use the stairs.

TSH and Diva wanted to sit together on the 9 hour plus flight and had booked seats accordingly. But TSH’s seat had broken and the check-in desk informed him that he had been moved elsewhere. It took quite a bit of discussion before a satisfactory resolution was obtained. Their profile was raised to the level where, on embarking the plane, the steward said ‘We have heard about you’.  The BA crew were very helpful and the service excellent.

During the flight, Diva’s watch was adjusted to Florida time. Involving both of them – Diva’s nail do is too precious to allow her to pull out the control buttons. It was an hour or so later that she realised that the watch was not telling the correct time and the battery had fallen out of the back, To lodge somewhere in the innards of one of the aircraft seats.  Forever.

Miami airport was chaotic. Only a handful of passport booths for a queue of hundreds of non-US citizens. TSH and Diva eventually got to a booth with a very friendly border officer. Then the ‘system went down’ – apparently a frequent occurrence, resulting in a 15 minute delay. The people organising Silversea hotel transfers were muddled and unhelpful, resulting in a delay of almost an hour. Later they discovered that their driver had been waiting in the vicinity of the airport for 2 hours.  On arrival at the Four Seasons the Silversea reception desk was already closed and very little information available. But they made it to the welcome dinner – welcome in every sense.

The journey begins

 

TSH and Diva have made it to their Heathrow hotel and are surveying their complicated luggage strewn around the room which was originally tidy. Here is the pile they need tonight and here is the pile they will need in Florida. And here is the pile they need but must not go into the hand luggage because it is liquid. And the pile which must be in the hand luggage because they can’t manage without it. And the Camera.  They are looking forward to unpacking properly on the Silver Moon, Including the Fedex luggage, which is already in the port.

The hire car was supplied with half a tank of petrol and was to be handed back at Heathrow in the same state. Calculations before departure involved tank capacity, journey miles, fuel consumption, conversion from gallons to litres, a senior accountant and a maths graduate. A satisfactory answer was eventually found.  

TSH coped admirably with the controls on the hire car, despite it being 10 years newer than his own car, with a consequent increase in complex technology. He kept insisting that the display panel was intrusive and should be folded away (??) but Diva found it very useful for navigation. Finding the ‘park brake’ (not mentioned in the physical manual or the manual obtainable on the display screen) was a bit of a challenge. When Diva pressed a candidate button, the car leapt forward, to the immense surprise of TSH, who was at that point out of the car in a petrol station (see above). They guessed that it was not the brake.

The full English breakfast was a great way to start the journey.

Wildlife sightings: Alpacas (no, not Peru yet – just near their home in Cheshire). Red Kites along the M40, Pied wagtail at car return office.

Diva in total melt-down

Diva and TSH had the wrong kind of air ticket and were told at Manchester that the only option was to pay for one of their bags for the flight to London, collect all three pieces of their luggage at Heathrow, transfer it personally between 2 terminals and re-check it in. A supervisor was called but insisted that this was how it was and it was not possible for any correction to be made at that stage.

Manchester airport was crowded, noisy, dirty (Diva cleaned their table with a wipe) and no decaff coffee could be found.

The situation was mentioned to various BA staff along the way but all said 'this happens a lot now' and took no action.

So two pensioners transferred 64 kg of luggage across Heathrow, travelling by foot and train. They encountered a member of Heathrow staff who should never be allowed to have a customer-facing role (and possibly no role involving contact with any human beings) and will be the subject of a complaint to the airport. Two and a quarter hours from landing to sitting down with the first food of the day.

 Diva has given up BA forever, in spite of the second leg of the journey being much better. BA  have a business model that involves everyone flying to hub airports like Heathrow but they have forgotten to manage the internal flights properly.

TSH is trying to get the position sorted so that this does not happen in reverse when there is a relatively short transfer time between flights.

The mood was not helped by TSH breaking a nail during the transfer and having fizzy water sprayed over him at Heathrow. OK, technically it was Diva who opened the bottle but it was Pret's bottle and Pret's water. But their meatballs in a wrap are still excellent.

Sight of the day: Young(ish) woman with a full head of rollers sitting at Manchester drinking a large glass of white wine. Not even a headscarf to hide the shame!!

Last day

TSH and Diva tucked into a hearty ship breakfast before they were ejected (politely) into the outside world. A minor scare in the Copenhagen cruise terminal (tent) when 2 of the three suitcases were not with the rest of the orange tags. Turned out the tags TSH had attached had come loose and the cases were stacked elsewhere.

Whilst waiting for the taxi, they encountered the captain, who was studying the outside of the Silver Spirit intently. Diva asked him if he was looking for the loose bit (see Good Vibrations) but he just laughed.

On arrival in Heathrow it was possible to do a spot of shopping. Nowhere in Scandinavia is cheap enough for TSH and Diva and very little money was used there. Excellent sandwiches from Pret concluded the day’s eating.