Long travel Days
Almost a year of planning and we’re off and running. This was an overnight that started at 2:00 AM
at home and like all long travel days there was good and bad, fast and slow, in
and out, up and down, lazy and energetic.
We were already staring at each other when the alarm went off at 2:00
and with most of the luggage ready to go it didn’t take long to be at the
door. That of course gives us more time
to worry about what we’re forgetting.
Our flight was changed somewhere along the line from a 6:35 to
a 6:03 departure which meant a scheduled pick up at home by the “Super Shuttle”
at 3:40 AM. The shuttle was right on
time and already had a few other passengers on board. We can assure you that was a very quiet
crowd. The airport already had long lines
at the security check points at 4:30 which we found amazing. Our desk agent was a very pleasant fellow, all
things considered, got us all of our boarding passes and checked our bags all
the way through to Stavanger, Norway.
We were then directed to the first class security line which
moved us past about a hundred people.
You could feel the daggers from behind exacerbated by the early
hour. (For those reading our blog for
the first time, please understand that we always travel on miles which we
finagle any way we can and since it has been five years since our last major
trip we have amassed a lot of miles.)
Nothing is open at that time of day in the concourses which
means no coffee for a while. That’s
OK. We’re a little jacked up anyway so
we can cope. The first flight is to
Chicago where we were scheduled to sit for three hours but that too has been
changed. Now we will have about an hour
between flights. We are catching up on
the coffee situation. We’re in coach on
this leg because our original flight did not have a first class cabin. This one does so John marches up to the gate
agent and explains that we are traveling on a first class ticket and should be
upgraded on this flight. The guy politely
says, “The planes full, you gotta’ problem with that call the 800 number.” OK then.
Have a nice day.
The next leg is to Toronto where we are surprised to learn
that our bags have been off-loaded to Canadian security (even though we are
traveling on) and we have to take them through customs and then re-check them
at the counter and re-enter through security.
Well, that’s a bit of a pain, but little did we know. It’s now 11:00 AM local time in Toronto, we
get our bags and take them to the British Airways counter but gosh, it doesn’t
open until 3:30. Now we have 4 hours to
kill, we can’t get inside the security area where the restaurants are because
we have our luggage. We try to do an
end-run by getting American Airlines to take the bags (they are the ones who
brought them from Chicago) but they are having no part of it.
A nice airport employee (she’s Canadian ya’ know) told us
that there were some restaurant options in the next terminal so we schlep our
bags onto the rail system and go to the next terminal for a bite. It’s not much better but we have killed some
time. We see that there are quite a few
people already in line at the British Air counter by 2:00, but we can again
move to the front so we wander about until 3:15. There are now over a hundred
people in line and the counter agents begin wandering out at about 3:45, one at
a time. It’s good no one in the crowd is
armed. We get checked through right away
and we are spared the venom of the mob which has been redirected at the BA
employees.
Our lives are now good again as we move to the British air
club lounge for some gin and tonics, snacks and some re-charging for our
equipment and for us. The fun continues
when we board our flight to London, get handed a Champaign and settle back into
our individual face-to-face pods. Once
airborne we have a little martini, John has the shortribs and Mary has the sea
bass and we both have the Spanish rioja.
Some dozing, some movies, some reading, some British telly and it’s time
for breakfast.
We have about an hour and a half in the BA club lounge in
London before our Stavanger flight, also on British Air. This is a smaller plane and first class is
configured like coach but the middle seat has been converted to a sort of end
table. We are the only ones up there
(everyone else knows it isn’t a good value) so our dedicated attendant moves us
up to the first row for more leg room and so she can have some company. She brings us breakfast number two and we all
chat back and forth as we look at the great sights from the London skyline to
the coast of Norway.
We are the first ones off the plane but get passed by a
couple people on our way to passport control.
Only one of them is in front of us in the non-Euro line and he seems to
be a problem for the agent in charge.
All of the Europeans have moved through their line and are long gone and
we are still waiting for the guy in front of us. The Euro agent waves us all out of our line
and into his, but since we are first in one line we are last in the other as we
serpentine around. Now everyone is
through except the first guy, and now the guy in front of us in the second line
and us. It is again another 10 minutes
until both of the suspects get passed.
We are now 20 minutes behind all of the other passengers. The good news
is that we didn’t have to wait for our luggage.
Our lovely and patient niece-in-law Nina and baby Thilde are
still patiently waiting when we finally appear so our long tiring journey is
coming to an end.
DISCLAIMER:
Everything that we are whining about so far represent very insignificant
first world problems. Our travel
adventures can be chronologically overlaid on the plight of Syrian refugees
fleeing their country and making their way with a great deal of difficulty
through Hungary and on into central Europe.
We know how lucky we are!!
Nina hustles us to the lovely home she shares with her
husband Patrick (our nephew) and we all decide that the first order of business
is a shower followed by a nap. We are
dozing by 1:30 (6:30 Mpls. Time) and stay that way for a couple hours.
Patrick arrives home from work about 4:00 and we all head
into central Stavanger for a walk around town (lovely) a burger and a
beer. The restaurant is Dognvill Bar
& Burger and the food and service are both very good. Patrick has warned us that we should not
expect “American” level of service but this is fine. Mary and John both had the “Deep South Burger”
topped with pulled pork, BBQ sauce and jalapeno cream cheese, split a side of
fries and some local tap beer. Perfect
by our standards.
We have been to Norway before so there were no surprises for
us, but for others the prices here can be a bit of a shock. Everything is double. A ten dollar burger is twenty. A five dollar beer is ten. A thirty dollar steak is sixty. We asked Patrick how the Norwegians afford it
and he explained that they don’t eat out.
Consequently restaurants are few and far between in non-tourist areas
and options anywhere are limited. One of
the things that makes travel interesting is getting a feel for the different
economic models around the world and how policies create results, sometimes
unintended.
When weighing our after dinner options it seems prudent to
head for the house and be close to a bed.
Our mission is to make it to 9:00 local time and John’s head is bouncing
up and down on the couch at 8:45. Close
enough. We are usually very lucky with
jet lag and if we get a little nap after arrival and get close to a normal bed
time the first night we’re pretty much ready to go. We both pretend to read for about 30-seconds
and it’s lights out.
Today’s weather in Stavanger: perfect, high of 70 and bright
blue skies
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