Day 1 - Arrival, April 13th
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Departing Seattle
Wendell Writes: We arrive at SeaTac the requisite 3 hours early to discover that the BA desk had just changed over staff. They were fresh and ready to go, anticipating the onslaught of travelers arriving from 4pm to 10PM however at 2pm we were the first. The team behind the counter reminded me of the night I observed an ER rotation from 8PM to 11PM on New Years Eve, they had downed a double latte and with not much to do, the old hands were standing back, letting the novices get some practice. We arrived with tickets to kirkwall and our clear was a relative novice. Our mountain of baggage plus our request for an aisle and window caused her to spend nearly five minutes flailing helplessly at the terminal. A senior ticket agent walked over, observed briefly, then took over, bumping us up to the bulkhead aisle (no seats in front of us) and to an aisle and a window seat. He was obviously bored, eagerly awaiting the expected onslaught of passengers, like an ER doctor with an empty triage room.
After clearing security uneventfully, we made our way to the BA 1st class lounge. We tried to get in using my AMEX card, but no dice. BA doesn’t even do day passes into their lounge. Hobbit enquired about an upgrade to Business Class, 4000.00 each, and we could stay in the lounge. The next level upgrade to world traveler plus got us wide seats free booze but no use of the lounge for 300.00 each. Hobbit has become so enamored of the first class upgrade that she’s volunteering to pay the upgrade fee. I whipped out the AMEX and once we had paid for our upgrade we were banished downstairs to wait with the hoi-polloi.
Here we sit in the sports bar, nursing a double Knob Creek bourbon until 6PM when we get our boarding call.
Hobbit Writes: There are basically two classes of travel on Brit Air international flights: First and World Traveler. First Class is broken into business and first. They are treated like royalty, have lay down seats, more dinner choices, etc. Second Class is World Traveler Plus and World Traveler Ick. World Traveler Ick is also known as Screaming Baby Zone. World Traveler Plus is basically the same as World Traveler Ick, except the seat is marginally bigger, and there are no kids.
After seeing how many little kids and babies were in the World Traveler Ick section on the plane, we upgraded from World Traveler Ick to World Traveler Plus. We’re sitting in the middle, together, but at least we went from the “kid zone” to the “no kid zone.”
Hobbit Enjoys The Video Screen In World Traveller Plus
We did hope that our extra $300 would net us more than what we got, but I still think it was worth it to be in the “no kid zone”. I didn’t sleep at all, but I got to see The White Countess (surprised that didn’t put me to sleep) and Pride and Prejudice. Dinner was good, but breakfast consisted of canned fruit, yogurt, granola bar, sweet roll and orange juice. All sweet. So, I recommend you pay extra to fly world traveler plus and bring your own breakfast.
Baggage
Our baggage inventory was extensive:
Two seabags of SCUBA gear for Orkney (each bag weighed around 40 pounds)
The BAS (Big Ass Suitcase) containing all our clothing for aboard Queen Mary 2 (two tuxedos, Utilikilt, plus other clothing suitable for QM2.
Two backpacks for touring Europe (Containing clothing etc.)
Hobbit's Camelback - used for daytrips.
My Black Bike Courier Bag - used for daytrips.
Total weight somewhere around 150-170 pounds, depending on the number of travel guides we were carrying.
Paul Meets Us At Heathrow
Wendell explains: My investigations were that baggage storage in London was going to cost a lot of money - $6 per bag per day. Three bags for 4 weeks added up to a lot of money. Given the costs of baggage storage, it would have been cheaper to rent them a studio apartment for the month that they would be in London. I belong to a martial arts emails list (I'm one of the GunFu guys) and I emailed the list and asked if anyone in the London area would be inclined to hold some luggage for us - the BAS plus the SCUBA gear when we were done with Orkney diving. Paul responded within a few hours of my posting. Not only did he offer to hold the luggage but he also came to Heathrow to pick up the BAS and on our departure from London he helped us carry our bags from North Action to Victoria Station.
I’m not certain the E300.00 upgrade was worth it. Our 250.00 NW Air First Class upgrades in Hawaii was a much better value than our WTP upgrade. The seats were a bit of an improvement over World Traveler, however they weren’t the equivalent of 1st class on Northwest. I got about 2 hours of sleep, interrupted every few minutes as my head fell off the pillow and boinked onto the side of the seat. We arrived in Heathrow at 11.30 and arrived at the passport inspection desk. Hobbit’s passport got its first stamp as we cleared customs. We were amused by the ‘eye in the sky’ that looked like it had been purchased surplus from a md-70’s Las Vegas casino. Yes, it was a disco ball. AS we worked our way to the baggage check, I was amused to notice a bunch of one way glass walls for customs inspectors to watch us. We retrieved our bags and were pleasantly surprised to note that baggage trolleys (carts in the US) are free at Heathrow.
Paul met us as we departed baggage check and helped negotiate the warren of tunnels, lifts, elevators (UK/US lift/elevator, elevator/escalator) Getting from terminal 4 to terminal1. We arrived at Terminal 1 checked in. I visited ATM got 100 pounds and had 45 minutes to wait before security. We wandered upstairs and bounced around until we found an Italian café. Paul and I ordered a light snack and I found a table to await its deliver. As soon as we parked all of our baggage on an empty chair, an alarm began ringing all through the terminal. We watched as people began moving toward the exit doors and Hobbit and I asked Paul if we should start moving out as well.
Paul opined that, while the police were walking through and clearing people ahead of them, none of the people in uniform were running so we should not be too concerned. Lunch was delivered as we began loading up our baggage, so we grabbed our plate and headed for the exit. Once the entire terminal had been evacuated, it was determined to be a false fire alarm and everyone went back inside. We said goodbye to Paul and headed through security.
Hobbit writes:It was great to have Paul, our local contact, get us around Heathrow Airport. We had the quintessential Heathrow experience. While we were just about to sit down to lunch, they evacuated the entire airport. We had just gotten served our food, so Wendell picked up his plate and walked out. He didn’t miss a beat. In reply to the weird looks he got, he said, “As you can see, I don’t miss many meals.”
Heathrow Arrival - Paul, Hobbit and the occupants of Terminal 4
The Brit Air goober in Heathrow messed up our check in. Even after I TOLD the counter person that we were not checked through to Kirkwall and needed to be, she still checked only our luggage through and not us!! Our luggage in Kirkwall without us doesn’t do us much good!
Then as if that wasn’t enough, the idiot told us to wait at Gate 5, and they would announce what the actual gate was. We did check the gate list, and it said 5. I had a bad feeling about this half-baked system. Sure enough, when Wendell went to check again, it said that boarding was CLOSING on our flight at Gate 95!!!! Did they ever make an announcement? NO!! Every BAD thing that you have heard about Heathrow is TRUE!!!
Having heard horror stories about lost luggage in Heathrow, we took some preventative action with it. The only reason our luggage didn’t get messed up is because we got it off the airplane in Heathrow and re-checked it to Kirkwall ourselves.
We actually made it to the plane to Aberdeen because we ran. Luckily, the staff in Aberdeen was awesome because our plane landed later, and check-in for our plane to Kirkwall was closed. They checked us in anyhow and sent us to the wrong gate. The pilot waited for us to get to the correct gate before taking off. Our flight attendant assured us that our luggage hadn’t made it, but in spite of Brit Air’s attempts to leave Wendell and I stranded, our luggage made it to our final destination with no problem.
Departing Heathrow
The Heathrow Checkin Desk told us that our gate had not been assigned yet and to wait in the lounge until our gate was announced. We waited, dutifully, for them to announce our gate. 15 minutes prior to departure I decided to visit the restroom and on my way back, I glanced into a lounge and saw a signboard that announced our flight as departing from gate 94 in 12 minutes with a flashing GATE CLOSING next to it. I dashed back to Hobbit and we sprinted to gate 94. We were the last people in line to board.
The plane was late arriving to Aberdeen. We discovered that a) we needed to go to check in and get seat assignments for ABZ-K01 b) they had closed seat assignments c) they had closed check in. We got a seat assignment and dashed to gate 5 only to be told that we needed to got to gate 4. Bear in mind that, following maritime tradition, the gates were laid out so that odd numbered gates were to left of Gate One and the even numbered gates to the right. Loaded with 20+ pounds of carry on baggage, we sprinted about 1/4 mile to Gate 4, dashing our way through the crowd at a dead run. My 220 pounds laden with luggage moving at a dead run through the airport was pretty intimidating - we were dodging little old ladies and hurdling baby strollers as we sprinted for the gate.
We arrived as they were closing the doors. The gate agent took us out to the prop plane that ran ABZ-KOI. The flight attendant had us put our carry-ons under empty seats to save time required to cram over gear into overhead compartment. She then, quietly, apologized to us that they had not been able to locate our checked baggage on the plane from Heathrow and our baggage would be delivered to us the following morning. Grumbling at BritAir (we were now on LoganAir) we took our seats.
The Captain then made an announcement apologizing for the delay in departure, "we were waiting for two additional passengers."
We waved to the other 14 passengers in the plane and said, "Sorry about that!"
The other pasengers all chuckled.
We spent the 30 minute flight trying to figure out a plan in case our SCUBA gear didn't arrive in time for us to get out on the dive boat.
We trudged into the Kirkwall Terminal and waited at the Logan Air desk for someone to arrive so we could file a missing baggage report. After a few minutes, the Logan Air Staff person arrived, somewhat out of breath. We recognized him as the same LoganAir person who had flagged the plane into its parking strip and pointed us toward the terminal.
"Sarrrda fur th' delae, Arr wuzz bizzae oonloodin baggage. Hoo kin Ah healp yoo?"
I translated for Hobbit. He said, "Sorry for the delay, I was busy unloading baggage. How can I help you?"
We started filling out the paperwork for our missing bags of SCUBA gear and, just as I was finishing the last page of the second form, our seabags popped out of the baggage carosel - they had made it after all.
Hobbit at the Ring of Brodgar
Remember, the people that live in Stromness and the Orkney Islands are Orcadians, not Scottish. They firmly believe that they should be their own country. There was some import tax burden put on them a while ago that is gone now, but they are still bitter about it. When I asked how long ago it was, they said 1750s. It’s been three hundred years. They need to move on.
The wind blows constantly and it is cold. Our B&B host said something about having the heat on not as high in the summer. Our B&B is awesome. We have a big room, lots of fluffy towels. Neil picked us up at the airport. They drove us around the island and helped with gear cleaning at the end of our stay. Breakfast is really hearty. I tried the haggis but didn’t like it.
Arrival On Orkney
Kay runs the B&B that we're visiting. She sent her husband Neil to pick us up at the airport. He picked us out of the crowd at the airport really easily - we were the only people he didn’t recognize getting off the plane.
He gave us a tour of the island on our way to the B&B, including a visit to the Standing stones of Stenness and the Ring of Brodgar. Both are contemporary of Stonehenge, however neither has an 8 foot cyclone fence around it.
One of the broken stones had a sign next to it explaining that it was hit by lightning in 1980, shattering it near the base and breaking the stone into 3 pieces, . This lightning could account for the many broken stones in both circles, versus the previous theory consisting of tour of group WSU students, out after the pubs closed, frustrated at a lack of cows to tip.
We ate at the Ferry Inn and our waiter gave us some excellent tips about dives. The pub restaurant is a favorite with divers, and the pub owners go so far in assisting divers as to have dive site maps under the table top glass. The dive shop "The Diving Cellar" is behind it, and the harbor is in front of it. MV Halton, Stormdrift, Jean Elaine are less than 100 yards from the front desk of the Ferry Inn. We got to bed around 8.30 PM, and awake at 7AM, 10 hours of sleep to help ward off jet lag.
Wendell touches the stone
Hobbit touches the stone
Hobbit reading the documentation at Standing Stones of Stenness
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