Christmas in Madrid, a lovely sounding time yes? No. I vowed long ago never to fly during the Christmas season. A white Christmas means that it is either snowing, about to snow or we’re digging out. These things in Boston may mean the airport is shut for a day or so, but in London it is a disaster.
As I boarded my flight to Heathrow on Friday, the ticket agent could not give me my seat assignment from Heathrow to Madrid. I didn’t think anything of it, ha ha! Something should have warned me that I had my seat assignments for the rest of my trip including the seats from Madrid to NYC and Boston. Never dawned on me that they were messing with me.
Arrival at the grueling hour of 6:30A was not a big deal for me. I have flown into Heathrow many times before. I knew the drill. I checked into BA got my seat assignment and settled into a good movie. Ooops it’s snowing, oh well no big deal, it was the fluffy white stuff, nothing serious. Then all hell broke loose, I got to the gate and they denied me access. Seems the airport had shut down and all I could do is wave goodbye to my flight to Madrid. And that was the end of all flying for Saturday.
If one watches British T.V, or follows the monarchy one thinks of the Brits with excellent manners. Talk about lying in the media. Things at Heathrow deteriorated very rapidly; BA ran away from their desks and hid. No one would tell us anything. Ah thank heavens for the massive display of electronics I carry with me at all times. That and credit cards which I have no problem using when hooking to my IV line of wifi. Boingo I love you! I was soon on all the major sites. Then I realized the way to solve this problem was not going to happen at the airport. Thank heavens I gave up by noon and went off to find a hotel. There were thousands stranded there last night sleeping with thermal blankets and NO TOILET PAPER in the loo! (to say nothing of no food, water or other essentials)
I got a hotel about 15 minutes on a good day from the airport. The taxi driver relished telling me of the horrors yet to come because of the drive, the inability of the authorities to take care of the runways and generally implying that not only might I never get to Spain but that there was a good likelihood as a result of this trip I may just have to become a British citizen.
BA is picking up the tab for my staying at this dump, and Betty, it is indeed a dump replete a veritable UN of disgruntled people begging to pay the $200 to get a room. Ah the Internet. Yee Haw! I queued up to sign in and was ensconced in my room by 2ish. However I had not eaten which has continued to be a problem here in Felltham.
Quickly I figured out the way to get out of here was to Skype American Airlines in the U.S. Over here it is the inmates have taken over the entire city and there isn’t a drop of haldol in sight. After an hour I got through and got a reservation for Sunday.
The Fascist Major Domo at the restaurant refused to give me anything to eat because it wasn’t time yet. Thank heavens I was carrying contraband cheddar cheese for my daughter, which I swiftly broke into. My stomach howled until 6:30P when they opened for dinner. Along with other stragglers I made my way to the restaurant only to be asked if I had a reservation. Are you kidding? I was just here 4 hours ago and you said to come back at 6:30P, no mention of a reservation. However some very nice Finnish people with their baby (who had come in from Uganda) asked me to sit at their table while I watched their daughter Annabelle play with a wind up butterfly and slurp plain pasta. Yes it is an Italian restaurant, but they were out of almost everything.
I rose early this morning since I did have a confirmed reservation to Madrid. Ahhhh, no. Airport was totally shut. That’s how I met Christie (from North Dakota) husband Andy (from Spain) and the mother in law who was suffering from advanced stages of Alzheimer’s. They were stuck here and mom was having a hard time and kept wandering the halls asking people if they had seen her dog. Christie and Andy were worried that it was so hard on her and I flipped back that even if it was she wouldn’t remember. Her dog died 15 years ago. They had come in from Texas and were totally bent out of shape. Seems they had gone to the airport and were flagged away. They weren’t letting anyone in or out of the airport. OMG it’s getting to be like a Hitchcock movie.
She couldn’t figure out how to get on the internet (that’s because if you didn’t buy it at the airport you couldn’t sign on here. )Too much of an overload. Of course, somewhere I remember dialup Internet don’t I????
So the fam tramped up to my room and used Skype. Continental basically told them to fart in the wind. They then tried BA but they weren’t answering their phones here or stateside. Iberia had gone into hiding and only Alitalia, which was of no use, even answered the phone. So I called American for them but after an hour on hold they said whatever Continental said they agreed. They left my room. They were supposed to pick me up for dinner (to avoid the Fascist downstairs another night) but I haven’t seen them since.
Not having learned my lesson, (though I did make a reservation) I ambled down to the restaurant where Mussolini was ignoring everyone in line. Finally I told him I’d do take away and he then reviewed all the things they didn’t have. However there was a guy trying to get to Helsinki who had an IPad and said there was a Chinese place across the street that he had eaten at last night. So I booked it across the street to the nastiest Chinese takeout place I’ve ever seen. Makes my local dive look like a palace. It was run by a Chinese Brit but it bore no resemblance to Chinese food I have eaten before. What I’m eating Chinese take out in a suburb of London while praying that tomorrow I can get the 6P plane to Barcelona, stay over night there and take the bullet train to Madrid on Tuesday.
At least from my window I can now hear a plane taking off. Although the Chinese Brit did relish telling me that when it happened here last Feb. people were stuck for a week.
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