We Held Our Breath...

Oct 30, 2010
10:30am

We held our breath. Did we have everything? Were all the appliances unplugged? Toilets flushed? Widows closed? Heat down? Were the keys in the right place for our return? Tickets? Passports? Credit cards? Cash?

Oh, there are no tickets anymore. Only ‘e’ Tickets.

We left Axxis at 10:30am and excitedly walked to the C-Train. Roller bags followed noisily, like they were complaining about a long, long lack of use. The train was waiting at the 10th Street Stop. I gallantly held the doors while Richard purchased the tickets – total cost $5.50 – then we took our seats. I looked around at the assortment of Saturday morning travellers, expecting some of them to nod in envious encouragement because we were travelling to the North East with luggage. Get it? Luggage? Airport? Vacation? No one noticed. In fact the entire Calgary Transit network didn't give a hot @#$%. The City Centre train moved out of the station. Our journey had finally begun. This, our fifteenth journey of a life-time. This, the trip we spent more time planning than the travel would actually take.

At Whitehorn station the up escalator was exactly where I remembered but the last time we were there it was not Out Of Order. We lugged our bags up three large flights of stairs while my heart flailed around like a punctured balloon. But there was some good news. We hardly had time to succumb to cardiac arrest before bus 157 arrived to take us to the airport. Imagine! Such a good connection. The driver carefully inspected our C-Train tickets and waved us aboard.

YeeHaa! Next Stop, London.

Check-in at Air Transat (code share Thomas Cook Airlines) wasn’t that busy – we were only about 4,000 people away from the agent. The line moved slowly along. Then the dreaded announcement ripped into our smooth connection like an irascible buzz saw. It screamed pleasantly about how very sorry they were - they being Air Transat and Thomas Cook – because the plane we were in line for was somehow still in Iceland. Iceland!!? Yes, the calm voice went on, Iceland. The voice then explained that a passenger on the flight from London to Calgary had become ill (a stroke) and the pilot had to make an unscheduled landing in Reykjavik (try shouting that after climbing three flights of stairs with luggage). Of course, in order to make a premature landing fuel first had to be jettisoned over the ocean. Well too bad for us, the pilot did not jettison quite enough and consequently got himself involved in a ‘heavy’ landing. While that may not mean much to many of us most of the time, unfortunately in this case, ‘heavy’ meant blown tire. Well if you have a flat tire, fix it, Richard, my motorcycle mechanic, has always said. Even the Queen of England would agree with that. But no. Air Transat concluded that they didn’t actually have a replacement tire in Reykjavik and subsequently would have to fly in a tire and a mechanic to install the tire from England. No tires in Iceland? No qualified mechanic for an A330 Airbus in Iceland? Why a load of horse… No blood… I instantly realized that the tire difficulty probably arose because the Brits cannot spell the word tire correctly, they spell ‘tyre’ so how could the Icelanders, who are a little frozen at the best of times, understand what was needed? But wait! The buzz saw was still screaming. ...by the time the tyre and the mechanic arrive, well it will be way past the legal working hours of the flight crew so everyone, including all the passengers, will have to go to a hotel for a nice little night night in Iceland. We stood there with our mouths open. Unable to breathe. facing an extensive delay, the voice said... departure time unknown... will not be leaving Calgary until at least tomorrow morning... call a specified telephone number for updated information... Then we heard the most cherished and prized word in our vocabulary. Free. Free taxi vouchers for passengers who needed them, free dinner vouchers, free to leave now...

A manageable disappointment. But what did the sudden change of plans really mean to two very excited people just starting their fifteenth trip of a lifetime? People who had only moments before made the smoothest train/bus connection in the history of Calgary transit? Life is full of unexpected pleasures. Free vouchers...

Taxi from the airport to home - $41.25 (bus and train for two, $5.50). Dinner vouchers for the Hotel 5 Restaurant were worth $50. Late in the afternoon Transat’s voice message clearly stated that they hoped the flight would leave at 8:30am Sunday and check-in would begin three hours prior. We had to do damage control when we arrived home because we would miss our Easy Jet connection to Alicante. We would not be able to keep our hotel reservation in Alicante either. Two hours later we had revised those plans and left for dinner. Yes the new plans would cost us money, most of which we would try and recover from cancellation insurance.

Dinner was interesting – as per the voucher we had a choice of two downtown restaurants. We chose Hotel 5 because they offered two menu items we love – a Thai Rice Curry Bowl and Beef Vindaloo. We followed orders and ‘just sat anywhere’. Then we noticed how truly busy the place was, and how few staff members they had. We also noticed that most of the people in the restaurant had the same voucher we did. The waitress took our order. No, the waitress asked what we would like. Beef Vindaloo, we both said. Oh, she said, I’m sorry but we are out of the Vindaloo as well as the Rice Curry Bowl. Hmmmm, we said. ‘Other’ dishes took about forty minutes to arrive and the restaurant added a mandatory 18% gratuity to the bill, more than $8.50, so the vouchers didn’t even cover the cost. Oh well, unexpected things happen when you travel, we reminded ourselves. Hey, wait a minute, we left home at 10:30am, it was now 9:30pm and we were still in downtown, only six blocks from our condo. What kind of travel was that? At that rate the fifteenth trip of a lifetime would take about fifteen years.

A check with Air Transat when we got home confirmed that the flight would leave at 8:30am and check in would begin at 5:30. We set the alarm for 3:30am and booked a taxi for 4am. The taxi back to the airport cost $32.00, paid by the second voucher. Check-in opened at 5am and we were among the first in line. The nice lady assigned us good seats and gave us two breakfast vouchers. Happy. The maximum weight on free checked luggage was 20 kilos per person. Richard’s bag weighed 19.1 k’s. We ate at Kelsey’s. They were really busy at 6:30am, short staffed and people were flashing vouchers like they were winning LottoMax tickets. Richard ordered crisp bacon with his eggs and was upgraded to two sausages. No worries…at least we were in the airport and had boarding passes in hand.


October 31, 2010

10:30am

Hard to believe but after another small delay our A330 Airbus finally rose into the air at 10:30am – exactly 24 hours after we boarded the C-train for the airport. Quarters inside the aircraft drew comment from Richard. He said there was no room for his legs. I replied that if he expected to bring his legs along then he needed to pay more money for his ticket. The person next to me roared with laughter. She was a large lady from Medicine Hat who was moving to England to be with her husband. She had a ffine sense of humor.

The nine hour flight was smooth and considerate and really quite enjoyable. The pilot announced that this aircraft was the newest in the Thomas Cook fleet and had the most state of the art entertainment system of all TC planes. In fact we had to agree – movies, movies and more movies that you could start anytime. Movies and shows that could be fast forwarded and rewound as well as maps, radio and comedy, even the stopper for the kitchen sink. The flight attendants served food a couple of times - we wanted to pay extra for the meals but they said it was included in the miniscule price we had paid. No problems, man. We arrived Gatwick November 1st at 12:30 am (London time), an hour earlier than we thought simply because the UK went off daylight saving time while we were in the air. Insult or Injury? For some reason there was a problem with the luggage. A delay of almost an hour before the conveyor belt showed up with everyone's bags – one final, last, flashing red light at the end of many problems with that flight. At least we were not stressed about the delay, we had to wait several hours for our Easy Jet connection anyway.

Easy Jet – our original scheduled departure was 2:50pnm, October 31st; our revised departure, 6:50am, November 1st.

In our temporary home at Gatwick we lived with a very interesting assortment of mismatched humanity for several hours. Of course, anyone who scrutinized us thought the same because we had been enroute to Spain for something like 192 days and we were not about to take a shower in an airport toilet. Note to self: don’t worry about anything at all, nothing whatsoever, absolutely not one single thing, ever again. If many of those people could make their way in life, to any destination outside of where they were at that very moment, then we could shout Reykjavik from the top of the stairs at the top of our lungs every single day for the rest of our lives.

Check-in for Easy Jet opened at 4:30am. We were there! and only a little concerned (see above) about our online ticket changes. (Why wouldn’t the revisions be okay? We paid them enough money, right?) All good. We breezed through security and into the departure area for breakfast. This time Richard got what he ordered. Man, those Brits can do anything. At lift off we were only one hour and fifty minutes away from sunny Spain (Espana).

Smooth and fast, in no time we were waiting for the conveyor to cough up our luggage again. Outside was the real surprise. Mid morning in Alicante was cold, cloudy and very windy. Everyone wore full on jackets and long pants. Yikes! We rushed to the Alsa Bus stop and waited in line, holding tightly to everything including our sanity, so it would not blow away. Later (rather than sooner) we were on our way. Tickets cost 7 Euros each. An hour later (Donna slept most of the way after being awake 2356 hours) we got off the bus on Avenida Europa, grabbed our luggage and stood there with our mouths hanging wide. The wind was gone. The sun was shining. Benidorm palm trees were high. Flowers were bright. Then we saw them, there, there, there and over there. Hundreds of well scrubbed, chubby British people walking around in small beach clothes. Hundreds of others were sitting at outdoor cafes drinking beer. Many were drinking coffee with brandy. It was only noon! Benidorm, the largest British enclave in Spain, was alive, alive, alive in the sun and filled with sinful (sunful) forgotten pleasures. YeeHaa Benidorm! This was our fourth visit, but the last was ten before. What the heck took us so long?



November 1, 2010

Noon

We only made about 100 metres from the bus before we had to pull in for fuel. Our first cold beer in the hot sun in 1,000 years (give or take). People all around were speaking British, many of them we could even understand. It was very easy and felt real nice to blend in so completely with the disproportionate many. Unlike some resorts we had visited in the past where everyone looks perfect in designer flip flops and even the bag ladies sport designer bags, Benidorm is an ‘anything goes’ kind of girl. The beer tasted better than any beer ever tasted in history. No Kidding! But we had a job to do, even though we hated to drink and run…

Before leaving home we looked online at the Google map for our apartment, so we had a good idea of where it was. Soon enough the sign outside the Levante Lux Apartments filled our eyes with cartwheels of happiness (for Shirley's sake). We had booked our stay online through a large UK tour operator called First Choice Travel. They seemed to be the only company offering such a good deal for three star accommodation, way too good to pass up. In total we prepaid UKL315.71 for 25 nights. At a 1.8 conversion rate that equals about CA$570.00 or about CA$22.80 per day, tax included. We were a little worried because it was so inexpensive. We were in for a surprise.

The L.L seemed well situated up a slight hill, about 500 meters from the beach, close to 3,254 British Pubs, grocery stores, internet cafes, markets, nightclubs and every amenity necessary to infuse ones life with the very best of British Bull Dog power. Rrruff! The building itself was not new but fairly modern with only extremely worn furniture in the lobby. Fernando, our check-in agent, was waiting and called us by the name Kane before we even identified ourselves. Now that’s ‘ready’. He was young, handsome, Spanish with English nouns, and was working his first day at the front desk of the Levant Lux. Normally, he said, he works at the Levante Beach Hotel, but today was just a little side-step to help the Levante people out. He was quick to warn us, however, that this was his last day at the Levante Lux because tomorrow he would be flying to Tenerife. Hmmm, first and last day on the same day? How do you get a job like that? Anyway, he assured us that he had a lovely room set aside for our seven night stay – room 2C. Second floor. Seven nights? We told him to look a little harder at the reservation before he finished his last day to ensure that we got all our entitlements – ie 25 nights. He gave us the room key and said to come back in an hour or so.

We had butterflies when we opened the apartment door. It was a surprise. Had a lovely large balcony with new furniture overlooking the swimming pool. Had a little kitchen with a hob and fridge. Hob, for you non-bulldoggers is a stove. Had a living room with a little tiny teeney weeney television. Had a separate bedroom. Had a big closet with hangers. Had bedside reading lights. Had a bathtub and shower. Had an indoor toilet. In fact it had EVERYTHING!!!

REYKJAVIK!!!!!