Our Baltics Cruise begins
We boarded our Cathy Pacific flight on Sunday at such a realistic time...1pm. Oh so nice! Paul and I had decided to pay the extra and fly Premium Economy and boy it was worth it....all the way to London. Just that extra leg room and wider seats made all the difference, especially when we are sitting there for over 19 hours.
The departure from Hong Kong had been delayed an hour whilst connecting passengers from other flights flew in later due to bad weather en route. This made our arrival into Heathrow an hour late. Mmmm concerned as I was to connecting with our pre booked and pre paid shuttle bus to our hotel. Would they wait? They knew we were flying in with Cathay Pacific and the flight number but would they wait?
As Paul now uses the aid of a walking stick we were able to use the wheelchair assistance in both Hong Kong and Heathrow. Great. In Hong Kong everything went according to plan, however in Heathrow, the airport has a segmented flow of people using wheel chairs. We were last off the plane as expected and Paul had an assistant to push him through, what I think is one of the furtherest arrival gates to a main section where several covered walkways converge. We were transferred to an electic cart to proceed another long transverseway. We had to wait for another passenger to join us before it would leave. Waiting.... 30 minutes later, with no extra passenger the driver decides to take us, to what seems to be at least a kilometre to another drop off area where Paul is placed back into another wheelchair, along with maybe another 10 people in wheelchairs to wait their turn to be pushed down ramps and through customs. By now I am freaking out......45 minutes since we have landed, our suitcases would be riding around on an almost empty carasel, maybe collected by an opportunist, never to be seen again and our shuttle connection would have given up waiting for us.
Eventually Paul's turn comes to be wheeled through customs. One good thing to come out is we didn't have to wait in line to have our arrival checked. I haven't finished yet...the person pushing Paul doesn't have the clearance to go through immigration and has an auguement with someone about not continuing, so I just push Paul on down ramps. along corridores and into the baggage collection and our now not revolving carasel. Relief to see our two suitcases left on the floor with I am surprised to note, a few other suitcases. I don't know what the owners of the suitcases were doing as we it is now an hour after the plane landed.
Now Paul has to alight from the wheelchair and wheel his suitcase using one hand and with the other use his walking stick to support him. Through customs with no holdups and out to the arrivals hall to see if our shuttle connection is still waiting. Yes...bingo! He is. Holiday Taxis waited for us and drove us safely to our hotel in South Kensington. Bliss.
Once at the hotel we checked in but as it was so early (9.30am) our room wasn't ready. Ok, we knew this may happen so leaving the luggage at the reception area we buy tickets for the Hop On Hop Bus and walk a block to the bus stop. Equipped with a bottle of water and a sandwich each from Tedesco's we sit in the top open area of the bus and enjoy the sights of London. The day in London was cloudy and slight wind but no rain to dampen our ride.
Some of the streets were blocked off, allowing the marathon runners access to the streets. It was also a public holiday (Bank Holiday I think) with thousands and thousands of people were out and about on London. The city had a real buzz to it.
Back to our hotel to collect our keycards and crash for the night.
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