My Trip to England

Editor's Note:  Since this is a family blog, the colorful language will be omitted.  As reading this post, feel free to start adding in language as you see fit, increasing use as the story goes on.

So my first flight over to Lancaster was from Green Bay at 2:30 on Wednesday.  My next flight was in Chicago, leaving at 6:30, giving me about 3 hours between flights to mill around and relax.  Plenty of time to get things situated.  Well, in Green Bay, I get to the United gate and what do you know, my one bag is overweight.  The gentleman at the counter let me rearrange some weight to make my bag underweight.  As we start walking towards the waiting area, the United guy tells me that my flight is being delayed for an hour but not to leave the airport.  No big deal

We got to the airport at around 12:30 so my parents and I watched tv and played cards for a little bit until it was about 2:30, then I decided to head into the terminal.  As I go through security, I get randomly searched.  That was a riot.  I finally get to the gate and proceed to watch my flight get pushed back again.  Now I am in jeopardy of missing my connection to Manchester.

About 30 minutes later, my flight gets delayed one more time, now I won't make my connecting flight.  I talk to the United guy at the front desk and he gets me on a later flight, it is a 7:50 flight to Amsterdam, then to Manchester.  Next thing I know, my Green Bay flight is delayed again because the plane that we were supposed to get on had to make an emergency landing in Green Bay with mechanical problems.

The United guy gets me on another flight with another airline.  My original flight was through BMI, my second try was through KLM and now he has me on British Airways for a 8:25 flight to London, then a connection to Manchester.  I think I might make this flight because another plane is landing that we can hop on and go.

We hit a bit of trouble because this plane on its landing hits a bird.  Now this is a huge airplane and birds are not that big but apparently if you hit a bird, it requires a 30 minute check of the whole airplane for damage.  I am sitting on the plane in horror as I have now missed my 8:25 flight for London.

So this plane takes off and we get to Chicago at about 9:30 or so.  I haul tail down from Terminal 3 to the International Terminal hoping that I do not have to spend the night in Chicago.  When I get to the terminal, there is a guy who I thought worked for BMI, my first flight company but actually worked for SAS.  I tell him my situation, his name was Ashor by the way, and he says that they can take me on their flight.  I say fine, not really knowing where "their" flight is going but I don't want to lose time spending the night in Chicago when I can sleep on a plane that is moving.  I then run to the gate and realize that this plane is not going to England or Amsterdam, I am boarding a plane for Copenhagen.  That's Denmark.  So I jump on this plane and end of sitting next to a Norweigan guy who wasn't very talkative and ended up monopolizing the armrest.

Since I am sitting in Economy, there is no room to sleep so I pretty much stay up all night listening to music and watching "The Fugitive" as in flight entertainment.  I get to Copenhagen at about 2:30 local time, then wait around 3 hours for my flight into Manchester.  As a sidenote, the Copenhagen airport is really nice, I didn't mind walking around it for 3 hours.

I end up talking to a guy from the UK, but was originally from the US and he lets me borrow his phone so I could call my sister and let her know that she can tell my parents that I am fine and just enjoying Denmark.

I finally get on a flight at 5:30 local time for a flight to my final destination.  I get to Manchester and in what is probably the least surprising news you will ever here, my luggage didn't not make all the transfers I did.  I take the one piece that did make it with me, fill out a lost luggage form and continue my trek towards Lancaster.

The trip to Lancaster required a train ride north to Preston but the train had to stop short of Preston because of construction and we had to take a double decker shuttle bus to Preston where I had to board another train for Lancaster.  Had I arrived to Lancaster when I was supposed, the school would have had a shuttle bus for me to take but since I showed up at 10:38 local time, I had to take a taxi to the school.  I finally did arrive to the school at about 11:15 local time Thursday night for a trip that started at noon on Wednesday.

Overall, the people at the airports were super nice.  They treat you well if you are not an angry jerk to them and they all came through pretty clutch for me.  My luggage is allegedly on its way to Manchester and will be delivered to Lancaster as soon as it arrives.

I will tell you more about Lancaster next time but its bed time for me and I'm a little tired.