Day 1 19-20/6/2019 Flying etc

We just got into our accommodations….what an interesting 27 hours it has been.  And where do I start.

1. (and yes there is so much that I need to number them!!!!)  We are sitting here in Solingen (Dusseldorf), no phone connection, our bags are MIA apparently on the next flight from London….we hope.  But I digress let me start at the top…..
2. We left home with plenty of time to spare only to discover (around the intersection of Boronia and Scoresby Rds - I (Maritta) had forgotten my phone – we turned around and headed back home.  Picked up the phone and discovered that the National Trust cards were in the letterbox (finally) … 1 month late!! We also forgot to turn off Daisy’s (TA14 Alvis) battery – safety precaution.  Now we headed back to the airport…still with plenty of time….  
3. We checked in and checked the bags all the way through to Dusseldorf ….we gratefully agreed to have them automatically transferred to the BA flight : London to Dusseldorf.  Makes things easier….so we thought!!
4. Melbourne airport…Royal Brunei flight leaving at 4.15 pm….until a technical glitch had us stranded at the gate for 2 hours…not too bad as we were swaning it up in business class!  Technical glitch finally fixed with techos and engineers and miscellaneous hangers- on coming and going from the cockpit – being in the front of business class we had a birds eye view into the cockpit.  So that put us late getting into Brunei. 
5. Flight leaving Brunei 2 hours late to compensate …. Puts us 2 hours late into London…..

Melbourne Airport, Not sure what Maritta has lost but a lot more goes missing, our plane in the background

 

HMMM, At least they found a problem now, not at 40,000 feet

Approaching London

6       BA notified we could be delayed but they agreed to “wait”.  Rep was waiting for us at Heathrow and had a golf cart waiting to whiz us off to terminal 5.  I actually thought we had plenty of time as we arrived (at 8.10 am) and the BA flight was leaving at 10.45 am but they thought that was tight. 
7        Took the golf cart (terminal 4) to the bus connection for terminal 2 then another bus connection to terminal 5……unbelievable …we went around in so many circles and back tracked a number of times …no wonder they were concerned!
8       We tried to check in but it was not clear where that was meant to happen but we found a kindly lady who processed it for us and sent us through to departures.  Found the BA lounge but did not have much time…a coffee and hash brown later we were off. 
9         BA flight was actually quite good except we had to catch a bus …crammed on the bus we were transported across the tarmac then had to clamber up the stairs and I developed quite severe cramp in my calf so Dale had to carry my office bag as well as his backpack up the stairs. 

Another view of London, look carefully you can see the London eye (clue, its side on)

Dusseldorf from the air.

Arrived in Dusseldorf and waited at the carousel for the bags to arrive….no bags…head off to BA customer service and the chap was already briefed and filled us in.  1 bag didn’t make the flight …. Didn’t know anything about a 2^nd bag!! That bag has my good trousers for the audit in it!!! Plus lots of other highly important things!!OK no bags ….. we went to pick up the hire car…very helpful AVIS ladies as they could give us a cable for our GPS (our cable is in the missing bags) – had massive difficulty finding the hire car – Dusseldorf Airport is huge ….. and this weird symbol with a car and a key under what looked like an arrow but it turns out is a roof, kept leading us (dale) astray.

Finding the accommodation – what a nightmare….round in circles (took about an hour to find it) but eventually we got there.  This was more the pilots fault as he was coming to terms with driving on the wrong (right) side of the road, manual car, a diesel that insists on turning off when you stop at the lights, and doesn't always start when you expect it (A Citroen CACTUS, who would be proud to call their car a cactus?). 

Now we need to find a supermarket and some dinner!! So far so good!!
(Did have an excellent dinner of schnitzel at the hotel not far away.)