It was upon a lovely Tuesday that we were scheduled to leave our little farm village and fly to Oslo, Norway to visit our cousin and her family. Oh, the excitement! We were packed: one backpack apiece, one 'purse' apiece, and thin 'fannypacks' for our passports and cards. No checking luggage for US! We travel light and are very low maintenance.
And...the Benefiber tablets were in my backpack. We don't leave home without it.
A final check on the house, and we were out the door ... ridiculously early, but, after all, it's a long drive to O'Hare Airport. A drive made a bit longer when I discovered I had left my cell phone at home.After backtracking and restarting...a 45 minute delay...we made our way to our big Chicago Airport with no further incidents.
Remote Parking just does not do justice to how far away from ANYTHING you have to leave your vehicle. We took copious notes, hoping we would be able to find the car when we returned; we slung on our backpacks (made heavier by all the M & M's we were carrying for my cousin...a treat apparently lacking in Norwegian stores) and trudged to the train that would take us to: The International Terminal!
With a few hours to spare, we verified that our flight was on the boards, and we zipped through Security with no problems. We found our Gate, found a seat, and ... waited. But we were happycampers...better early than late, we always say!
Promptly at 7:15 pm, after a really efficient boarding, our British Airways flight to Heathrow lifted off. Oh, my, what a great feeling! On our way. I didn't really even mind that I was in the middle seat on a very full flight with a skinny, nervous, sweating, fidgeting twenty-something in dirty jeans and bad breath sitting to my right. Almost didn't mind. Almost.
BA knows how to treat overseas passengers! Even in the 'cheap seats' we had movies, audio or whatever with individual screens and headsets. Pillows, blankets, socks ...all at no charge. Best of all...FREE WINE! And a dinner that was actually edible! We wondered: what was going on in Business Class, eh?
Through the night's 9 hour flight, after watching a movie, we managed to doze on and off (despite my fidgety,oderous seat companion), and we were delightfully surprised when the Cabin Crew brought us: BREAKFAST! Also quite edible! And, almost before we knew it, we had landed at Heathrow, Terminal 5.
There is no way to describe the sheer magnitude of Heathrow .... especially Terminal 5. In case you think you are missing a session of cardio, try walking from the plane to the gates in this terminal. This task was made a bit trickier by the fact that we had to land at an outlying terminal (God knows where!) and deplane on the old stairways that rolled up to the doors, then wait on the tarmac before taking a bus to Terminal 5.
By the time we found the 'common seating area' for BA, and found our flight on the Board, we were well acquainted with the Terminal. There is shopping EVERYWHERE, and this one terminal is, I believe, bigger than all of O'Hare. We had a Starbucks each (5 British pounds for two coffees...sheesh!) as we watched the Departure Board. You are not allowed to run to the Departure Gates until your Gate shows up on the Departure Board. Then, you have 30 minutes to hoof it or train it to your Gate. This makes for interesting flows of humanity through the Terminal.
Once again, after boarding, our BA flight took off on time, and we reached Oslo in 50 minutes flying time. By now, we were into Wednesday afternoon in Europe, and learning about jet lag, but we were too excited to care.
Landing in Oslo, we cleared Customs, and got our very first stamp on our new passports! And Cousin Sue was waiting for us, waving and smiling, as we left Customs.
Part 2: Oslo and Norway, coming soon.
