A
short day to counter-balance the long Day 1 when we flew to San Francisco.
When
I woke the air show on my screen showed we were over the Hebrides with less than
two hours to go to Zurich. More than nine hours had gone by and we had hardly
noticed. In fact, Jane still wasn’t noticing as she took time waking after
taking a sleeping pill before turning in.
Swiss’
breakfast offering could best be described as sparse with fresh fruit and
Bircher Muesli. There was also the traditional European addition of cold meats
and cheese. Unlike Jane who was served from a different aisle, I was offered
the alternative of scrambled eggs which I was only too happy to accept. My
solitary cup of tea didn’t get a refill.
We
landed in Zurich sometime after 4:00 pm about 25 minutes late as a result of
the delay in getting away from Los Angeles. The approach was surprisingly
twitchy for such a large aircraft – reminiscent of Wellington in a strong
northerly. I wondered whether it was a relatively inexperienced co-pilot over-correcting
on the ailerons.
As
previously reported, Jane worries a lot when there are planes to catch. The
late arrival into Zurich wasn’t good news for Jane as it left us 45 minutes to
make the connection to London leaving from a different terminal. As we were taxying to our gate the usual Swiss efficiency clicked in with the entertainment screen displayed the gate
numbers of flights with tight connections with the message to go to straight to
the gate. And those heading for Stockholm were to be met as they left our plane
and taken to their gate. The fact that our London flight did not feature on the
screen did little to calm Jane!
Finding
the other terminal and the gate couldn’t have been easier. A driverless
underground train took us between terminals in next to no time. There, the
security check was more rigorous than in Los Angeles with Jane’s iPad having to
come out of her bag. I triggered an alert passing through screening and
received the wand treatment – turned out to be my belt buckle. Jane fared worse
with her backpack being set aside for a search. That took a while as they
couldn’t find whatever it was that was bothering them – turned out to be her
inhaler. We got to the gate in plenty of time for the flight.
It’s
not only the trains that run on time in Switzerland. Our Swiss A321 pushed back
on the dot of its scheduled 17:05 departure time and arrived early at Heathrow.
Service on the flight was great – Jane described it as a three course
degustation menu complete with wine. On leaving the plane the captain was
standing at the cockpit door saying goodbye to everyone.
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| West London - River Thames As Seen On The Approach Into Heathrow |
As
usual at Heathrow’s Terminal 1, it was the usual long walk from the gate to
customs where the hall was virtually empty. I sailed through the smart gate but
after four attempts Jane gave up and was ushered to a customs officer. While it
appeared Jane had put the wrong page(s) into the machine, Jane vowed never to
use the technology again!
The
walk and delay at customs did have the advantage that our bags were on the belt
when we got to the baggage hall. On the minus side, there was no sign in the
arrivals hall of the “Simple Airport Transfers” driver we had booked to take us
to Chiswick. A quick phone call to their office determined the driver was just
parking (we thought cynically that had the advantage of minimising his parking
costs). Our journey along the M4 and through the streets of West London were
taken at speeds way in excess of the speed limit and we arrived at Sue and
Richard’s house in not much more than an hour after landing at Heathrow.
Following
supper at Sue and Richard’s with Caroline and Laurence Richard
suggested he and I should go to the Cross Keys, his local pub, to watch the
second leg of the European Champions match between Manchester United and Bayern
Munich. We saw the last thirty minutes of a disappointing United performance
that resulted in them losing 4-2 on aggregate. In addition to being Richard’s
local, the pub is also frequented by James May who just happened to be standing
at the end of the bar. He spent all the time we were there studying his phone.
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| James May |
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