I haven’t travelled the “friendly skies” or any other skies since the 9.11 attack on the U.S. This is mostly because I think the nations effort to “do something” has been ridiculous and more costly than one can imagine. However even before this my wife and I arranged a wonderful vacation holiday in Great Britain. The holiday itself was indeed wonderful but traveling to it destroyed any future plans for travel. Being a bit of a snob thinking that anyone would want to hear of our trip I wrote in a little journal about it. I include my travel thoughts.
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On June 13, 1998, we left XXXX by limo which took us to XXXXX,. The car was a Lincoln towncar and was uneventful. At Air Canada we asked to have our tickets reissued because the return flights had been changed. This resulted in many problems, eventually resolved by the agent pasting stickers on them. We sat about, confident and expectant. The flight to Toronto was scheduled to leave at 5 pm., going to Toronto by 6 pm. then leaving Toronto at 7 p to arrive at London at 6:45 am. Jun 14.
As the arrival of our plane seemed not to happen, a vague sense of unrest developed. 5 pm. came and departed and we were told that our plane was to come in from Toronto but that Toronto was closed and the poor plane had yet to even take off.
The sense of unrest become worse. The air plane people had no information about connecting flights but assured us since the Toronto airport was closed, the flights to England would be late.
About 7:340 pm. we left XXXX . At the gate as we left we were told we would not make our flight to England. They put us on standby for a flight scheduled for 10:45, already overbooked. Then the agents computer screen changed and yet another person put us on a flight to Glasgow.
We travelled along. In Toronto we found we were indeed going to Glasgow, Scotland, then to London arriving there about 12:15. June 14. We asked where the luggage might be. We were told to go to another area. There a helpful man called the back room and assured us it would be on the 10:45 flight direct to London and we could pick it up there.
Time goes by. The plane to Glasgow is roomy. We have 3 seats for 2 people. We eat, we drink, we get tired, we do not sleep. We worry. I worry a lot. It is June 14.
In Glasgow we wait, then board a plane to London. The immigration people stamp our passports but do little else but produce lines.
London has the largest international airport in the world. We walk over much of it. A bus takes us to another terminal where an Air Canada agent assured us our baggage would be. At terminal 3 however, our baggage was not. We then found that it had not left XXXXX (our site of original departure).
(snip….. we reached our hotel) . We tried to sleep. In the evening we met the tour guide, a rather bubbling lady and the other tour folk . We then joined a couple for what was to have been a very light snack, but turned out to be a 2 1/2 hour meal at a nearby restaurant.
We found most people on the tour had been in London 1 – 3 days already and were rested, had seen the Queen troop the colors, had visited the nearby Herrods store, looked at the flower gardens and had received the luggage.
ON June 15, I woke about 3:30 am and spent the next couple of hours watching the crack of light in the drape get brighter. Brightness occurs slowly and the rosy fingered dawn of Homer is not seen in London.
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It took two more days before our luggage found us. I must admit that the tour of Great Britain was superb and remains a wonderful memory until the trip back to the US. Then we boarded a plane and I was seated with my wife on one side of an aisle and myself on the other. We were surrounded by many people from many countries who seemed to reek of smells from their bodies, their breaths, and Lord knows from what other part. My wife and I kept exchanging scented wipes to hold under our noses for the flight. Not surprisingly our luggage didn’t quite make it back to the US for two days.
So although I would love to visit international places like the Balkans, Constantinople, Greece, Egypt and Asia, I’ll just have to look at videos and imagine being there – – it’s close enough for me. Actually we did a cruise once – – another total disaster but that’s another tale.
