A brief sojourn in a foreign land
The PaperBoy has been transported from the Scottish Borders to the wonders of Stockholm via the services of KLM. Left Berwickshire this morning before the sparrows had broken wind and drove through wind and rain to get to Edinburgh Airport. Parked up, got the courtesy bus to the terminal. Found the KLM check in queue at 0900 (this for a 1055 departure) - seemingly staffed by arthritic snails on a go slow - by 1015 I'd risen to be 2nd in the queue, still with security to clear, and plenty of Amsterdam-bound travellers behind me in the queue.
To security at double quick pace. More queues, any way through for those whose gate are already showing as "Closing"? Nope. Eventually after many questions and much groping into the departure gates proper. Edinburgh Airports cunning ruse to help the plane take off on time ? To depart from the furthest gate possible.
Left Edinburgh 20 minutes late - but the pilot flew "a little faster than normal" to slice 18 minutes off the flight time to land just about on time. Result (we all thought - especially me with a 55 minute connection). Wrong! The ground traffic route at Schiphol was so extended that we arrived on stand a mere 30 minutes late, in the intervening period we hadn't actually stopped - so we could well have landed at Rotterdam Zestienhoven and completed the journey by road....
Eventually off the flight and I asked the quickest way to my departure gate for Stockholm, hoping there'd be some sort of shortcut. What a fool I am, UK = non-Schengen country, Sweden = Schengen - therefore I have to go through a whole other pile of security and a 1km walk to it, but the bonus is that the departure gate is right near security, in under 25 minutes - good game, good game.
Into the Shenanigans gates and presented with the biggest immobile mass of humanity you've ever clapped eyes on (even less mobile than the England football team's defence). Time elapsed - 9 minutes.
Eventually the arthritic snails (perhaps they'd been flown in from Edinburgh especially to frustrate me?) allowed people (including me) through security and I checked the departure board. Gate change! Time elapsed - 19 minutes.
Now the £$%&%^$ flight is leaving from the gate opposite where I've just come from - 1km walk and now I have 6 minutes in which to do that repack my bag and put my shoes back on after some close quarter inspections at security. Temperature in airport reported to be 29C. Schiphol Airport actually recommends 9 minutes for the walk from security - so now I need to be Dr. Roger Bannister (which I am most definitely not) except carrying a bag.
Somehow I made it to the end of Pier D without actually having a heart attack or flattening someone in the process - a miracle. Guess what? Plane delayed due to boarding issues!
And they say air travel is glamorous! Glamorous my £$%€!
To security at double quick pace. More queues, any way through for those whose gate are already showing as "Closing"? Nope. Eventually after many questions and much groping into the departure gates proper. Edinburgh Airports cunning ruse to help the plane take off on time ? To depart from the furthest gate possible.
Left Edinburgh 20 minutes late - but the pilot flew "a little faster than normal" to slice 18 minutes off the flight time to land just about on time. Result (we all thought - especially me with a 55 minute connection). Wrong! The ground traffic route at Schiphol was so extended that we arrived on stand a mere 30 minutes late, in the intervening period we hadn't actually stopped - so we could well have landed at Rotterdam Zestienhoven and completed the journey by road....
Eventually off the flight and I asked the quickest way to my departure gate for Stockholm, hoping there'd be some sort of shortcut. What a fool I am, UK = non-Schengen country, Sweden = Schengen - therefore I have to go through a whole other pile of security and a 1km walk to it, but the bonus is that the departure gate is right near security, in under 25 minutes - good game, good game.
Into the Shenanigans gates and presented with the biggest immobile mass of humanity you've ever clapped eyes on (even less mobile than the England football team's defence). Time elapsed - 9 minutes.
Eventually the arthritic snails (perhaps they'd been flown in from Edinburgh especially to frustrate me?) allowed people (including me) through security and I checked the departure board. Gate change! Time elapsed - 19 minutes.
Now the £$%&%^$ flight is leaving from the gate opposite where I've just come from - 1km walk and now I have 6 minutes in which to do that repack my bag and put my shoes back on after some close quarter inspections at security. Temperature in airport reported to be 29C. Schiphol Airport actually recommends 9 minutes for the walk from security - so now I need to be Dr. Roger Bannister (which I am most definitely not) except carrying a bag.
Somehow I made it to the end of Pier D without actually having a heart attack or flattening someone in the process - a miracle. Guess what? Plane delayed due to boarding issues!
And they say air travel is glamorous! Glamorous my £$%€!
posted by The Paper Boy at
18:02
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