"My” Great Swedish Adventure~Resan~Flying?~Post 12
Links to prior posts in this series:
"MY" Swedish Adventure~Förbereda~Dates~Post 6
"MY" Swedish Adventure~Förbereda~Meeting Others~Post 7
"MY" Swedish Adventure~Förbereda~Finalizing~Post 8
"MY" Swedish Adventure~Förbereda~Plans/Food in Sweden~Post 9
"MY" Swedish Adventure~Förbereda~Plans/Food in Sweden~Post 9
"MY" Swedish Adventure~Förbereda~Packing~Post 10
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(continued from post 11)
... I felt for the gals at the airline counter, this wasn’t their fault (flight being delayed), but
they got the brunt of the back-lash. We were all told we would each get a $10
voucher to use at the airport for the delay. Ten dollars didn’t help…what could we buy at the airport for that, a cup of coffee? Most people didn't care about
the voucher they would rather rather see a plane. One person from
each group flying had the "privilege" of standing in a REALLY SLOW line to get vouchers for each person in their group. We all took what we could get. Hubby stood in the line and came back with the vouchers. He informed me the attendants said to file complaints with the company when we get back from our trip.
We tried to find out what the odds were of a plane coming
that evening. We had been sitting in the airport for eight hours by now and
all I could think of was the nine to ten hour sitting time we still had on the flight. Add another hour of drive time to get to the hotel. This was an awful lot of sitting. People like my husband do not sit still well. I don't usually have a problem but even I was ready to find the airport yoga studio!
Now the desk attendants were about as antsy as we were. They
felt bad for us and you could tell they really didn’t know what to say except “as they learned anything new, they would let us know.”
It was 6:30pm. We finally see a plane pull up to the
terminal, could it be for us? The attendant got on the microphone and announced
the plane was indeed for us! It needed to get gas and we would be loading by 7:00pm. You could feel, hear and see the excitement in the room. Sure enough, we boarded at 7:00pm.
It took awhile to board and get settled, it was a big plane,
a 747. People didn’t seem to be in a hurry getting to their seat, and all I
wanted to do was take off. I wanted to know the plane was flying and I was
going somewhere. Finally, everyone is seated and buckled in. Time to take off.
But, wait! There is an announcement on the loud speaker…"Everyone return to
your ticketed seat. Please, everyone return to your ticketed seat. We have an
extra person on board and we need to go around and do another count.” You’ve
GOT to be kidding me, right? I quickly talked to a steward and he said with a
half-cocked smile, “ yes, there was an extra person on the plane.”
Finally, it was straightened out. There was not an extra
person on the plane, we were set for take off. My husband proceeded to fall asleep almost
immediately. I, on the other hand can’t sleep on a plane, so out came the
crocheting. While waiting in the terminal I started crocheting a scarf. By then
end of the flight I succeeded in completely the scarf.
We were given a meal, snacks and drinks during the flight. I
was happy we were going “somewhere.” I was relaxed but kept busy, I was on my
trip of a lifetime! It was about 4:00pm London time when we arrived at the
airport.
We got off the plane and looked at everyone who was waiting at the gate holding a card with a name on it,
hoping to see our name somewhere, but we didn’t. A bus was suppose
to pick us up at Heathrow airport at 7:00am Saturday morning. It was now 4:00pm Saturday afternoon,
why would anyone be there for us?
Hubby and I decided we didn’t need to bring our phones so we had to
hunt someone down who could help us find out where and how to call the agency
that was suppose to pick us up. A very nice gal offered my hubby the use of her phone. A couple of phone calls later we found
out the company actually had a business area right on site at the terminal.
They knew our plane was delayed. Their bus was there and ready to take us to our hotels. We boarded the bus and off we went.
Thanks for stopping by!
Wishing you success in all of your genealogical treasure hunts!
Copyright © 2013 Cheryl Palmer All Rights Reserved
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