I left on the 8th of July for Cardiff, UK via Brussels to Bristol, and no, I didn’t travel by hot air balloon although the journey felt that slow. This picture was taken from my hotel room my first morning there.
My plane left late due to some computer difficulties United was having with its booking software. I was afraid I was going to miss my connection to Brussels via Chicago but I got in their just as my group began boarding.
I had a five hour layover in Brussels which was not fun. I just wanted to get flat and rest. But I had to settle for sleeping on my pack sitting up. I fell asleep listening to To Kill a Mockingbird.
The airplane on which I flew to Bristol looked like a model airplane, like I could reach down through the window and pick it up in two fingers. I wish I had taken a picture. It was a small aircraft but it was also a long way down to it. We actually had to go downstairs and out onto the runway and climb back up the steps to the plane as it was too short to reach those accordion hallways to the terminal. It had two seats on one side of the aisle and one seat on the other side. I got the one seat at the very back next to the jets. Didn’t bother me at all. I fell asleep and missed the snacks. The very nice flight attendant brought me some juice when I woke up and saw everyone else had already eaten. He also loaned me a pen to fill out my landing card, which I returned to him on the way out. He reminded me of Stephen Fry.
The passport control man in Bristol was very friendly but asked the strangest questions.
PC (passport control): What are you going to be doing while you are in the UK
Me: See my daughter graduate from the University of Cardiff. She is going to show me around Wales for a few days.
PC: (nodding) Then what are you going to do?
Me: Go home.
PC: Where are you from?
Me (thinking he already knew as I had handed him a US passport): The United States.
PC: Where in the United States?
Me: Oklahoma.
PC: How did you come here?
Me: (Looked at him quizzically).
PC: Did you go anywhere else first?
Me: Oklahoma City to Chicago to Brussels to here.
PC: (nodding) Okay okay. (Looking at my passport) You have never been to the UK before?
Me: Yes, I have. My passport expired and this is a new one since then.
PC: (nodding and stamping my passport): Enjoy your stay.
Me: Thank you.
I was telling this to someone else and when I got to the question How did you come here? She told me a story about a previously attempted visit to the UK. She said when they asked her that question, she answered, “By plane! This is a f***ing airport!” She said that is probably where the conversation started to go downhill. They put her on a plane back to the US.
Kathryn met me at the Bristol airport. She said that they almost didn’t let her in because she didn’t have a printed copy of her return flight back to the United States. She couldn’t get her data roaming to work so she couldn’t bring the confirmation up on her phone. She said they quit asking questions when she told them she was meeting her mum who was also coming from Brussels in a couple of hours. Her PC lady nodded and let her in.
Phew!
We had to take a bus from Bristol to Cardiff. Kat hates buses. By the time we got here, we were ravenous. We checked into the hotel then went to three different places before we found one that hadn’t closed up their food service to get ready for the evening’s drinkers. The place we found was in the midst of a trivia game. Too bad we didn’t get there earlier, it would have been fun.
Bed! What a day.
