My direct flight from Denver to London was scheduled to take off at 8:20 PM Sunday evening. At 7:30 a big storm settled over the airport in Denver and the flight was delayed until 9:00 when the storm subsided. We then got on the plane and the pilot announced that lightning around the plane had caused so much static electricity that the flight computer was malfunctioning. We had to deplane and wait for the maintenance people to fix the malfunction. We finally departed at 10:30.
The plane was only half full or half empty depending on your perspective. I found an empty row and stretched out for what I hoped would be a transatlantic slumber. I never could get comfortable so I got some rest but not a true long siesta.
We were scheduled to land at Heathrow at 12:30 in the afternoon. We didn’t land until 2:00. The pilot had the ground crew in Denver put extra fuel in the plane so he could put the pedal to the metal and make up for some of the delay.
In London my bags were on the carousel when I got there and it took five minutes to go through customs and passport control.
I splurged and hired a driver to take me from Heathrow to the Standstead airport for my 6:30 direct flight to Santander. It takes two hours to drive from Heathrow to Stanstead and I was warned to get to Stanstead at least 3 hours before the scheduled departure of my flight because it was taking forever to get through security at Stanstead.
When I exited the international arrival gate at Heathrow I expected to see my driver with one of those signs with my name on it. No such luck. I can’t find my driver. I spent the next 45 minutes trying to find my driver. After 4 phone calls with the dispatcher at the car service I finally found my driver. He apologized profusely and said this was the first time in 10 years that he failed to meet his client on time.
Now I am very nervous and worried that I would miss my plane. We got to Stanstead at 5:00 and I got through the checkin and passport control and security process in 45 minutes and ran to my gate for my 6:30 scheduled departure. They kept us waiting in line at the gate for more than two hours while they worked to repair some malfunction on one of the engines. And did I mention that it was a blazing hot day and there was no air conditioning in the terminal?
We finally got on the plane at 8:30 for our two hour flight to Santader.
After we landed in Santander I quickly picked up my bag, breezed through customs and their COVID control process and caught a cab to the alburgue.
That’s all for tonight. Good night from Santander.
AbeAndMarkontheCamino 