We went to bed early last night, after organizing our suitcases and getting things ready for the early morning and woke up in Southampton. Our disembarkation time was 8:15, so in order to shower, have breakfast and meet in the theatre to get our airport bus number and all that, we had to be up and out of the room by 7-ish. I hate going home. I mean, I like my home, but I could travel for much longer periods of time.
I took this picture at the port, it’s just a cargo ship, but for some reason I really love this picture. Maybe the colours or the calmness, I don’t know, but I love it.
We disembarked on time, and walked forever to get to the luggage place. Thank goodness it was all downhill, switchback after switchback, it was insane. Finally we arrived at The Hall Of Insanity & Suitcases. It was organized in maybe a 7 out of 10. We found both of our carry-on’s and found our bus. It’s was about an hour and half to Heathrow, and it was actually a nice drive though the countryside,
I haven’t been through Heathrow in years, I try to avoid it at all costs because all I hear is horror stories, but it was easier to navigate and get through than Calgary is. Honestly! Maybe it was the day of the week and the time of the day, but sheesh, we were though security and in the hall in no time.
Our flight was scheduled to leave at 2:10, and considering they want to you there 3 hours early, I was worried about the timing, line-ups, customs and all that, but we had time for lunch and some perusing of the stores that I can’t afford to shop in. Gucci, YSL, and even a Tiffany’s. I wonder how good those stores actually do in an airport? I just bought a bottle of water and a giant bag of M&M’s
When we were leaving Canada, two weeks ago, we met a couple in the Calgary airport who were going on the same cruise as us, and even on the same deck! We never saw them once on the cruise, but we did see them in the hall here at Heathrow! We compared notes, and had a little chit-chat and then boarded.
The M&M’s were a pain in the ass to carry and my bag was so jam-packed that there was not even room for a peanut, so I quickly wrote a note on a Post-it (yes, I pack a little pad of Post-its) saying “Thank’s for dealing with a plane load of (often) miserable people. Have a treat on us” and I handed it to the flight attendant on our way in. Well, you’d think I gave them gold coins. All through the flight they profusely thanked us, and at one point four of them, two of which were men, came to our seats and said “Shannon Smitna? Steven Smitna?” And I really thought they were going to tell us that air marshals were going to escort us off the plane when we landed. But it was just an appreciation “visit”.
The flight was good, the food was fine, we had no empty seats beside us, but my seat mates both were tiny and slept the whole way. I watched the new Mission Impossible, The Last Showgirl (man, Pamela Anderson was so good), Companion (a strange sci-fi/thriller) and Deaner ‘89, which is really bad Canadian made comedy. It’s so bad that it is awesome, very much like Trailer Park Boys with a heavy metal/hockey theme. I snort-laughed a lot. It doesn’t seem to be streaming anywhere, but omg, keep your eyes open for it.
And in no time we were back in Calgary. It was almost midnight according to our body’s time, even though it was only 4:30 pm here, but we were pretty tired and when I had booked these flights, the idea of then waiting for hours and catching another flight to Cranbrook just seemed overwhelming, so I had booked us a room at the Airport Marriott. We stay there whenever we fly into Calgary after a holiday, or sometimes we stay there if we have an early morning flight, and man, worth every penny. It’s a 5 minute walk from getting off the plane, and a literal 2 minute walk the next morning to get to the domestic terminal. No going outside, no shuttles to wait for or taxi’s to call, to me, pure luxury. And a restaurant right there as well.
We zonked right out, and slept until 8 the next morning, I think we each slept about 12 hours. Our flight was on time, Scott was waiting to pick us up and that was that. Back to our regular lives.
So. A few random thoughts. I guess all airports have gotten rid of the “remove shoes” policy as we didn’t have to do that anywhere, thank god. That was the worst part of travel…the rush and haste and trying to not hold other people up. No one wanted to see my bag of liquids either, although all the security lines still say that you have to have no more than 100ml containers in the quart size bag. All the airports were so well organized and easy to navigate. Well, except the lounges in YYC.
The port in Belgium is the world’s largest port for the import and export of new vehicles, handling over 2 million a year. Right now there are tens of thousands of Russian cars stuck here, due the war in Ukraine. We drove by them and the size of the lots are mind boggling.
People’s opinions on cruises are so varied. I’m always annoyed when someone gives that condescending look and says “I’d never cruise, stuck in a Petri dish of germs, you don’t really see anything” and blah blah blah. But, crowds are crowds, whether you’re in Disneyland, or in Vegas, or at a conference somewhere. And those crowds are far worse than off-season cruise crowds.
I like unpacking once and yet still seeing different places. I’d rather spend 3 days seeing Norway on a cruise than not seeing Norway at all. But I also like to go on a holiday where we drive ourselves to different places and sleep in a new hotel every night. People can like two different things. Non-cruisers don’t seem to understand that. We can enjoy more than one kind of travel.
Anyhow. Here are my favourite pictures from each place.