Canberra to Sydney:
I woke around 6:45 and was up, showered and dressed shortly after 7am. Did a quick load of washing and put that through the dryer. There was only 1 item to be ironed, so did that in plenty of time before my 9am hair appointment. Back home by 9:30 and then Bill drove me to the airport, where I arrived before 10:30.
Checked the main luggage all the way to Krakow (14.9kg) then went to the lounge for a coffee. I'd forgotten that it was a Dash 8 flight, so had to take the spare batteries out of the carry-on, as that was going under the plane. So glad that I have the electrics cube that I got from Insight a couple of years ago, so just pulled that out of the hand luggage, before handing the carry-on over to the ground staff.
The plane departed almost on time but we still landed in Sydney 5 minutes ahead of the scheduled arrival time. A very short walk from gate 16 to gate 15 where the transfer bus leaves from. Only had to wait a few minutes before the bus arrived, so was over at the international terminal by about 12:30pm. I was through Immigration and security very quickly and headed to the Qantas lounge to grab a bite to eat.
Wrote up this journal before heading out and having a wander through the Duty Free.
By the time I finished browsing and headed to the departure gate, the flight was just starting to board.
The plane departed almost on time but we still landed in Sydney 5 minutes ahead of the scheduled arrival time. A very short walk from gate 16 to gate 15 where the transfer bus leaves from. Only had to wait a few minutes before the bus arrived, so was over at the international terminal by about 12:30pm. I was through Immigration and security very quickly and headed to the Qantas lounge to grab a bite to eat.
Wrote up this journal before heading out and having a wander through the Duty Free.
By the time I finished browsing and headed to the departure gate, the flight was just starting to board.
Sydney to Singapore:
BA board by group and the group number is printed on the boarding pass. Group 1, 2, 3 etc. Parents and children also have priority boarding.
Very easily found my backward facing seat, 11A and soon settled in for the flight to Singapore.
The flight departed 5 minutes early. Drinks order and meal selections were taken around 3.30pm I’m assuming this meal is dinner.
I’m going to try a Citrus Gin. A tantalising mix of premium gin (Gordon’s I’m assuming) and citrus juices, served chilled over ice, which has just been delivered as I type this. Some very tasty moreish nibbles too. Time is 3:50pm.
The entree I had was smoked salmon with capers and a decent size serve. Delicious. I had Parsley Pappadelle for the main and Tiramasu for desert. Not what I would call Tiramasu. By the time I finished the meal, is was 5:45. I'm going to have to start taking photos of the meals.
I’m going to try a Citrus Gin. A tantalising mix of premium gin (Gordon’s I’m assuming) and citrus juices, served chilled over ice, which has just been delivered as I type this. Some very tasty moreish nibbles too. Time is 3:50pm.
The entree I had was smoked salmon with capers and a decent size serve. Delicious. I had Parsley Pappadelle for the main and Tiramasu for desert. Not what I would call Tiramasu. By the time I finished the meal, is was 5:45. I'm going to have to start taking photos of the meals.
While eating, I was watching the movie "On the Basis of Sex". I also watched the movie about WWI, They Shall Not Grow Old. Later I watched "What men Want" That one was good for a laugh.
Upon arrival in Singapore, we all had to de-plane and take all our belongings with us, which is usual but I was surprised that they didn't allow ongoing passengers, the choice of staying on the plane.
They do a total clean and re-stock on new bedding, pillows and accessories.
I went looking for the BA lounge, as they have their own lounge now, though, when doing a FaceBook check-in, I couldn't find the BA lounge listed, so used the Qantas one instead. :)
We had to go through security again before entering the departure lounge on the flight to London, which is the usual in Singapore. I'm glad I decided not to hang around in the lounge, as it seemed to take ages to pass through security.
Singapore to London:
Singapore to London:
The flight to London was very smooth. I was going to give dinner a total miss but instead opted just for the seared tuna entree. Have to say that I enjoyed all the meals that I had on both flights. I finally decided to have some shut-eye and I guess I slept off & on for a good 6 or 7 hours. I was determined not to check what the times were.
I had opted to have my breakfast served an hour out of Heathrow, instead of the 1.5hr option, but I was awake properly by 3am, so decided to watch a documentary film about Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, which was who the movie "On the Basis of Sex" was based on. Fabulous documentary and such an intelligent woman.
Touch down at Heathrow at 5am and after de-planing, there was the long walk from Terminal 5B to International Connections in Terminal 5A. Through there and into the BA Northern Lounge and was having a shower, shortly after 5:40am.
Felt so nice to be in clean clothes. I just had a cup of coffee instead of stuffing my face with another breakfast.
I then caught up with emails and things but had forgotten to turn off mobile roaming. There were a couple of emails that were rather large and shortly before 7:30, Telstra sent me a message saying that I had already used $100 worth of roaming data. Oops. Switched the phone to flight mode and there it will stay.
As I had almost 12 hours here in London, I decided that I wasn't going to spend all that time at the airport and I didn't want to go into the city, so decided to catch a local bus to Windsor.
Thankfully I could leave my carry-on in the BA lounge, so I was free of that.
Heathrow security only escort international transfer passengers, who wish to exit the airport before their next international flight out of Heathrow, once every hour, on the hour.
I found out from the information booth, that I needed to speak to the BA customer service people, who were on the departure level. Found them and that's when I found out about the hourly thing. That was at 8:15am, so I couldn't leave the airport until 9am.
Back to the lounge for half an hour or so, then back to the BA service counter, where a security guy came to escort 4 of us out.
Before we had gone too far, the security guy discovered that one of the men, needed a visa to enter the UK, so he couldn't leave the airport. The other woman has lost her European identity card when she was doing some duty free shopping, just before boarding her flight and her passport was back at her home, so she had to sort that out, which I gather could be done in the area just before to 'enter' the UK. The American guy and I were the only 2 who could leave and re-enter easily. We went through 3 different check on the way out.
Just before exiting into the arrivals terminal, there were a couple of guys who were helping people who wanted to use the Heathrow Express.
One chap asked me if I needed it and I said no, that I was catching a local bus to Windsor, so he told me where the bus company was, so I could buy a ticket and I went on my way. Just after I got to the arrivals hall, the other chap caught up with me and said that the bus company the other chap had mentioned, didn't go to Windsor but he offered to walk me to the departure stop, where the bus to Windsor did leave from. It was now 9:20am
This guy lived in Windsor.
Cutting a story short, I caught the #8 Blue bus to Windsor, from the #8 bus stop outside terminal 5 and the return adult fare cost me £7.00 and took almost an hour to get there. When departing, the driver told me that I could catch another #8 back to Heathrow or a #9, which was slightly quicker. When we arrive in Windsor, the Main Street was closed, as the Coldstream Guards were doing their daily changing of the guards and the place was packed with people
.
I had visited Windsor Castle, when I had a week in London quite a few years ago, so I didn't need to see the castle but I waited until the band and the guards departed the castle, after the change-over.
I was thinking about joining the queue to get into the castle grounds but seeing the length of the queue, decided not to.
Instead, I went for a walk through some of the streets and also down to the Rail Station, which has mostly been turned into a shopping/eatery area, as it was when I was here the time before.
I then found a bus stop that had a #9 Windsor to Slough to Heathrow stopping in 10 minutes, so decided to wait for that and go back to Heathrow and have a late lunch back in the lounge.
There is a smokers area just outside of the arrivals level at Terminal 5, with a fountain shooting up and umbrellas hanging down
Back to the lounge and grabbed myself something to eat. After that I picked up my luggage and have been updating this, while waiting to find out what gate my flight departs from. Heathrow only post departure gates about half an hour before boarding is due. It's now 20 to 4 and the flight to Krakow is due to start boarding at 10 past 4, so I guess the departure gate will be up on the board soon.
I'll finish updating this when I get to the Mercure Hotel in Krakow.
The plane was scheduled to depart at 16:55 and arrive in Krakow at 20:25. It left the gate at that time but it was another 25 minutes before we were airborne. Heathrow really is a big busy airport.
I wonder why they have extension cords hanging on the outside of the terminal.
Touchdown in Krakow was on time and we had passed through immigration/customs and in the luggage hall by 8.45. It took a while before luggage stated coming through but mine turned up shortly, I went out through the "nothing to declare" door, easily found the driver with my name on his piece of paper. It was around 9pm by then.
He dropped me off at the Mercure and I was checked in and in my nicely appointed room 117, by 10pm.
That's it for now. It's 11:45pm, so I'm heading for bed.
Night all.
Touch down at Heathrow at 5am and after de-planing, there was the long walk from Terminal 5B to International Connections in Terminal 5A. Through there and into the BA Northern Lounge and was having a shower, shortly after 5:40am.
Felt so nice to be in clean clothes. I just had a cup of coffee instead of stuffing my face with another breakfast.
I then caught up with emails and things but had forgotten to turn off mobile roaming. There were a couple of emails that were rather large and shortly before 7:30, Telstra sent me a message saying that I had already used $100 worth of roaming data. Oops. Switched the phone to flight mode and there it will stay.
As I had almost 12 hours here in London, I decided that I wasn't going to spend all that time at the airport and I didn't want to go into the city, so decided to catch a local bus to Windsor.
Thankfully I could leave my carry-on in the BA lounge, so I was free of that.
Heathrow security only escort international transfer passengers, who wish to exit the airport before their next international flight out of Heathrow, once every hour, on the hour.
I found out from the information booth, that I needed to speak to the BA customer service people, who were on the departure level. Found them and that's when I found out about the hourly thing. That was at 8:15am, so I couldn't leave the airport until 9am.
Back to the lounge for half an hour or so, then back to the BA service counter, where a security guy came to escort 4 of us out.
Before we had gone too far, the security guy discovered that one of the men, needed a visa to enter the UK, so he couldn't leave the airport. The other woman has lost her European identity card when she was doing some duty free shopping, just before boarding her flight and her passport was back at her home, so she had to sort that out, which I gather could be done in the area just before to 'enter' the UK. The American guy and I were the only 2 who could leave and re-enter easily. We went through 3 different check on the way out.
Just before exiting into the arrivals terminal, there were a couple of guys who were helping people who wanted to use the Heathrow Express.
One chap asked me if I needed it and I said no, that I was catching a local bus to Windsor, so he told me where the bus company was, so I could buy a ticket and I went on my way. Just after I got to the arrivals hall, the other chap caught up with me and said that the bus company the other chap had mentioned, didn't go to Windsor but he offered to walk me to the departure stop, where the bus to Windsor did leave from. It was now 9:20am
This guy lived in Windsor.
Cutting a story short, I caught the #8 Blue bus to Windsor, from the #8 bus stop outside terminal 5 and the return adult fare cost me £7.00 and took almost an hour to get there. When departing, the driver told me that I could catch another #8 back to Heathrow or a #9, which was slightly quicker. When we arrive in Windsor, the Main Street was closed, as the Coldstream Guards were doing their daily changing of the guards and the place was packed with people
I had visited Windsor Castle, when I had a week in London quite a few years ago, so I didn't need to see the castle but I waited until the band and the guards departed the castle, after the change-over.
I was thinking about joining the queue to get into the castle grounds but seeing the length of the queue, decided not to.
Instead, I went for a walk through some of the streets and also down to the Rail Station, which has mostly been turned into a shopping/eatery area, as it was when I was here the time before.
I then found a bus stop that had a #9 Windsor to Slough to Heathrow stopping in 10 minutes, so decided to wait for that and go back to Heathrow and have a late lunch back in the lounge.
There is a smokers area just outside of the arrivals level at Terminal 5, with a fountain shooting up and umbrellas hanging down
Back to the lounge and grabbed myself something to eat. After that I picked up my luggage and have been updating this, while waiting to find out what gate my flight departs from. Heathrow only post departure gates about half an hour before boarding is due. It's now 20 to 4 and the flight to Krakow is due to start boarding at 10 past 4, so I guess the departure gate will be up on the board soon.
I'll finish updating this when I get to the Mercure Hotel in Krakow.
The plane was scheduled to depart at 16:55 and arrive in Krakow at 20:25. It left the gate at that time but it was another 25 minutes before we were airborne. Heathrow really is a big busy airport.
I wonder why they have extension cords hanging on the outside of the terminal.
Touchdown in Krakow was on time and we had passed through immigration/customs and in the luggage hall by 8.45. It took a while before luggage stated coming through but mine turned up shortly, I went out through the "nothing to declare" door, easily found the driver with my name on his piece of paper. It was around 9pm by then.
He dropped me off at the Mercure and I was checked in and in my nicely appointed room 117, by 10pm.
That's it for now. It's 11:45pm, so I'm heading for bed.
Night all.
Hotel: Mercure Kraków Stare Miasto.
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