Well I got an earlier flight from Hannover to Frankfurt with a hope to get an earlier flight from Frankfurt to London and not wait 6hours and get to London at 11pm. I got to Frankfurt and asked at the British Airways (BA) desk if I could possibly get an earlier flight - they couldn't find the ticket number in the system and insisted that it was a Lufthansa ticket and I needed to go back to the other terminal - the terminals are connected by a SkyLink which is a monorail type train which takes about 5minutes between stations (after you have gone up several sets of escalators etc). So I did go back and asked at the Lufthansa desk to be told this was not correct and I needed to be at the BA. SO, back I went to the other terminal and was greeted by a gentleman who knew what he was talking about. He found my ticket number and got me on an earlier flight, saving me about 3hours.
So off to the lounge I go to wait my 3hours. During this time I got a text from Kev. He was flying back from Amsterdam and was landing at Heathrow just 20minutes before me so within a few more texts we arranged to meet and have dinner at the airport hotel where i was booked in. Kev had his car at the airport so drove around to Terminal 5 and off to dinner we went. Noice stroke of luck there. Twas great to catch up Kev.
Overnight stay in London and back to the airport in the morning for a 1pm flight. The Galleries lounge at Heathrow craps on many other lounges at other airports i can tell you (Frankfurt is hopeless).
Flight to Baltimore was on a BA 767 and I was in seat 1B - although the layout on this plane had half the people facing backwards, strange feeling when you put the hammer down for takeoff. Bloody BA and their on-demand in-flight entertainment system, I demanded and got nothing back. Off to sleep then.
So I land at Baltimore (touching down at 4.17pm on Friday 14th Nov.) and had to go through all the questions at immigration and customs (why are you here?, how long will you stay?, what company do you work for?, what is your job title?, is this your first visit to the US?, when were you in the US last time?, how long did you stay?, what are the samples you have?, what are they for? etc etc). By the time I get to the Baggage collection most other people had already been cleared, collected their luggage and on their way home. I see my bags, grab the first and then the next, hang on a second. That's not my tag. Oh sh*t!!! Someone had taken my bag which looked the same. So I go to the desk and explain the situation, they take information and can see the Hamster look-a-like bag belongs to someone who had 3bags - So at this stage we hope they return the bag.
Well overnight I got an email from the person who mistakenly took my bag and I am hoping it turns up over the weekend. Thank goodness.
Next - off to the Hertz desk to collect the car (Ford Edge AWD) which had been booked. Finally get the Sat Nav and tollway gadget sorted out and it was time for the drive north to Harrisburg in the rain. Arh, my first traffic jam already. I did manage a quick snap.
The Sat Nav lady did a great job guiding me home. Off to sleep, it had been a long day.
Saturday 15th - the first day in our new home.
FOOD - Down to the shops to get some brekkie and lunch. I went to a supermarket called Wegmans (about 5miles away) and loaded up on some groceries. I also managed to become a member of the Wegmans Shoppers Club, yippee.
Its raining outside so I thought I'd sit and write this entry
Here's a view from the balcony.........
An indoorsy kind of day. Good day for a rest.
Cheers, Hamster
4 comments:
Its been pretty much non-stop rain down here in DC Hambone. Reads like you've had a bit of an adventure or three already. So was it Tom-Tom or Garmin for the hire car? (I'm just conducting a survey on Kev's prompting).
Yeah. It rained here most of the day too. Sat Nav - it was a system that Hertz has called Never Lost. The user interface is not as modern as the touch screen devices but once you get used to it its OK.
Well done mate, fourtunate bit of luck to be able to catch up with Kev, is he looking fit and at fighting weight, he has some grand (fondo) plans.
Good to know you have settled in camp Hamster and even joined the shopping club. have you noticed how big some of the products are, i have no idea why anybody would have want to buy 4kgs of peanut butter at a time.
There was a bit of rain in Sydney too but Gerard, Mike and I managed the valleys ride without getting wet.
Catch ya later
Ham, glad you are beginning to get settled mate and I hope your bag shows up soon. Let me know your address and I will ping a TomTom over to you. Euro, UK and US maps all on board. Managed to get two hours in over the weekend and like BT dodged the rain that was threatening.
Some very nice autumnal colours in London at the moment. I took my camera to take some shots but forgot to check the battery doh! Hope the leaves are still on the trees next week so i can take some pics to share. Hope your first week in the US is a good one.
Post a Comment