Outside of the club football season, I decide whether or not to buy the Wobby based on the website's lead stories. At the moment, they're leading with this: http://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/sport/9698702.Sun_take_title/ please log in to view this image
Blimey what a morning...just finished my last post and we had a major failure and all our call centres went offline and we could not update our engineers....took an hour to get it back and another hour to recover! My best experience in an airport was at that ****e airport at that dirty tramp town. I was coming back from Amsterdam on a little twin prop plane with about 10 people on it. I was busting for a leak (I had spent an hour or 2 in bar at Schipol) and rushed off the plane and straight into the bogs - by the time I exited, the passport checkers had all gone and I just walked through. With no bags to collect as I was on a week-end visit back to the Shire, I was in a taxi in 5 minutes!
As a totally different experience, a good few years ago I flew from Oz to Frankfurt for a six week holiday with no luggage other than a toilet bag - I saw no reason to take with clothes with me that were totally unsuitable for the climate & intended buying some when I arrived. I had no problems getting through passport control, but the customs officers were a different kettle of fish. They couldn't accept that anyone would do that, so I had to endure the indignity of a full body search. Was so angry that I barely resisted the temptation to crap on his hand.
Wow, that sounds exciting Bolton's Boots! On the subject of annoying airport experiences, I will always remember my wife and I's first holiday abroad together. We went to Fuerteventura, which is renowned for wind. So, the landing was hairy enough. It felt as if we landed sideways. So we went to the baggage claim point, and our first bag came out fine. We were still waiting for our second bag, and the number of holidat-goers was falling sharply, and we were beginning to realise the same lone bag had been going around the conveyor belt for the past 20 minutes. Then the belt stopped. My wife cried. We were meant to be meeting the rep outside in the car park to catch the shuttle bus. It was a 2 hour drive to the hotel, so we didn't want to miss it and pay the taxi fee. So, I rushed out to an empty car park, with one coach. Engine running, eager to leave. When I tried to get back to my wife to help with the lost baggage claim, I was met with a gun and an angry Spanish policeman. After 10 minutes of arguing I wasn't a terrorist intent on damaging the logistical infrastructure of the second largest Canary Island, they let me in. Fortunately for us, the lady at the lost baggae counter, was completely unwilling to help at all, passed us a form in Spanish, and didn't speak a word of English (well, she just didn't speak). Fortunately for us, the only Spanish words we knew were cherizo and Barcelona. The day before we were due to fly back home, at 10pm at night, we were reunited with our lost bag. It was sent to Corfu, then Munich, then Madrid, then Gatwick and then Fuerteventura. Oh, and when walking round the supermarket, buying essential supplies that were in our lost case, a bottle of lemonade exploded, covering my only T-shirt, 50% of my leg-wear and 100% of my socks in cheap, Spanish-supermarket-own-brand, sticky lemon "flavoured" carbonated soft drink.
Contrasting experiences of Guarulhos airport in São Paulo. The best plane to exiting customs 15 minutes, the worst in the imigration queue for two hours. The real problem is Sra and Jr are Brasileiras and go swanning through the nationals gate and I get it in the neck because I have to go through the foreigners gate. Most places I don't have problems at all, except LAX and my one visit to MIA.
Great tales I was once separated from my luggage on arriving at new delhi when going trekking in Ladakh.... no clothes for 10 days... well when you are trekking what does it matter.. but then when we got to Leh in Ladakh... it was there.... how it got to me there is one of those lifetime mysteries.
Anyone been to Frankfurt, Brussels or Buadpest airports? I'm going for a week's break to Budapest at the end of August but as I'm spending a night with my Mum at each end of the trip, going out I fly via Frankfurt and coming back via Brussels. The annoying thing is if I'd booked the trip going "directly" from here it would've been just a change at Heathrow or Gatwick. H, the week I'm going is the Jewish festival there and they say that there will be delicacies (not just the usual dishes) in the food area. Any suggestions of what might be worth a try if it's there?
You need to travel with one of these passports. please log in to view this image Why does an island need its own passport? Why are you with all these children with different names? Where is Ãsland? Never heard of it!
Jersey - Frankfurt is a nice airport and Brussels use to be a right tip, a bit like the old T2 at Heathrow. My worset bag experience was flying from Heathrow to Milan and then 2 days later to Madrid. Dickhead at BA checked my bag right through to Madrid. When it did not turn up im Milan I eventually found it in Madrid and asked them to hold it there - and brought some nice gear in Milan on the company. When I got to Madrid, the bag had gone AWOL - so no problem I would use the hotel laundry service in Madrid. Next day we had a company event in Madrid (free Bacardi) and the sales director insisted on taking me to a swanky restarurant that night. So I missed the laundary and I got back to the hoteal about 3.00 am in a bad way. In my drunken stupor I had a brain wave - I would leave the shower on and steam my shirt for a few minutes. I woke up at 08.00 am with the room full of steam and the bathroom ceiling haven fallen in! My bag turned up in Lima (LIM) - they made a typo when typing in LIN for Linate! and I got home with a rotten dose of food poisoning from the swanky restaurant!
I just happened to flick through 3CR. Apparently the Bedford regatta has been cancelled because there is too much water in the river.
Apart from a cancelled flight from stav to Manchester ,I have been fairly lucky with my flights ,but travelling with Mrs N and going through airport security is a drag because here oxinium knee sets of the alarms every time .
My worst in-flight experience was in the mid 90s in Queensland on a flight from Rockhamptom to Townsville. About halfway, we hit the mother of all tropical storms which buffeted the plane everywhichway but loose. Whilst the sounds and smells - retching and praying - will probably be with me forever, my overriding memory is of a Greek gentleman who kept ignoring the cabin staff instructions to stay seated & kept trying to get to the toilets at the back of the plane. During his last attempt, he was crawling along the aisle on all fours when the plane went into a nosedive, at which point he less than gracefully slowly slid back down the aisle, vomitting as he went. Not an experience I want to repeat.
Thanks for the caramel latte Ak I feel bad that i have only ever had a 5 hour delay at an airport in Tunisia and my airport stories don't get more exciting than that! A Jewish Festival at the end of August?? Oooh a Festival about Judaism? Well, all Jewish food is amazing of course lol..but definitely you want to have a proper fallafel which is typically Israeli (make sure it comes with all the trimmings) and if it's more traditional Jewish food, you can't beat a good salt beef sandwich or a bowl of Chulent which will have your stomach sagging on the ground after a few mouthfuls, and you won't need to eat for a week...but of course, never forget, chicken soup..which has to have lockshen, kneidlach and kreplach in it if it's the real stuff
Thank you for that H. I remember having an English teacher who was Jewish and was going to take the class into London (I can't remember where) for a salt beef sandwich but it never happened. Here is a little info on the festival: http://www.budapest-tourist-guide.com/jewish-summer-festival-in-budapest.html
