It's been a little over two months since we've done any significant travel. That's a long time for us and we were more than ready to take on our next adventure. Little did we know what an adventurous start it would be.
Our wonderful friends "ubered" us to the airport and sent us off with well wishes for a good trip. We checked our bags and zipped through TSA without any delays. Appreciating our good fortune in such an easy entrance, we decided to stop in at the Pub at CLE for lunch with plenty of time to spare. The Pub looks very British so it was an appropriate start to a trip to the UK.
Boarding our flight to Philedelphia posed no problems and the short flight on the little "puddlejumper" was good. Philly's airport is large and we had to find our way to the international terminal. Luckily it was all well directed with signs and we hopped on a shuttle bus that took us there. With a little time to kill again, we had coffees and debated whether we wanted a light dinner before boarding. Since we had a late lunch, we really weren't hungry and we anticipated a meal, albeit a bit late since our flight was scheduled for takeoff at 6:45. That would turn out to be a mistake.
We enjoyed chatting with a young man on his way back to Ireland where he is originally from and is now doing some impressive study in Dublin, then hustled to our appropriate line to board our large British Airways jet. Boarding was done with ease and we found our seats and settled in.
So far, so good. The plane taxied toward the runway then stopped. Not unusual. Lots of times there's a short delay if there is a lot of traffic. We didn't worry until the announcement came that there was a lot of bad weather passing through the flight path that our plane was to take. So okay, we thought, we wait it out a bit, short delay, and we would be on our way. Nope.
To make a long story-and I do mean long-short, we sat on that tarmac for the full two hours that the regulation allows while our pilot who kept us updated on the half-hour (another regulation) let us know that he was working hard to get us another flight path since ours was now closed. Back and forth with all the powers that control such and he sounded a bit exasperated at times but still kept a slightly humorous tone or light tone. Hands were tied. Meanwhile we watched quite a lightening display as the storms moved through.
After two hours, we taxied to another gate where any passengers who desired to disembark were allowed to do so. Now we were approaching well over three hours as the few who disembarked needed to have their luggage retrieved from the cargo hold. It took a good half hour for ground crew to find it all. We sat at the gate for a time and finally received the news that we could at least pull back from the gate and once on the tarmac again, fingers crossed, get the okay for the new flight path.
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| The Ivy restaurant |
A rousing cheer went up with applause when the pilot announced we were on our way and began the approach to the runway. Another cheer and applause when wheels lifted off the ground five hours after we had been originally scheduled. Meanwhile, in the plane's little kitchen, the dinner food had been ruined by waiting in the warmers too long. Instead, we got to eat the planned breakfast snack which was a warm rolled up breakfast sandwich. I thought of those granola bars I had been tempted to pack and decided not to. I won't do that again. Lesson learned.
So, all in all, we could have flown most of the way to Japan in the twelve hours we sat on the plane--only six of which were actual flight time thanks to a tail wind.
We did breeze through immigration, retrieved the luggage, had time for a light breakfast which was really more a brunch and waited for the next National Express bus to Winchester. We couldn't transfer our original ticket purchase to the later bus but the gentleman in customer service said we might get the money back from the airline because of the delay. Bob will work on that.
An hour ride to Winchester, a short local bus ride and a seven minute walk in a misty rain and we finally arrived at our B&B, The Old Vine. The rooms are over a pub and the bathroom has two packages of ear plugs should the noise get too loud for us. It is definitely a lovely quaint establishment and room. We crashed for a short time but then needed to find some dinner.
While the pub below offers food, we found an interesting place called The Ivy nearby and decided on that. So glad we did. Wonderful shephard's pie and pasta with a creamy tomato sauce. After such a long day and a half, we treated ourselves to dessert as well. It will be an early night between jet lag and not much sleep on the plane but we are looking forward to a better day tomorrow exploring the town and the cathedral, the Winchester Cathedral. (Okay all you 60s teenagers, don't tell me that song isn't playing in your head now.)
