Day 3: Early Morn!!!

Well, its bloody early here in Brussels and my sis actually booked me on a British Airwways flight! As you might already guess the way the whole drama is unfolding: It gets cancelled!
So looking at other options: M went and asked the immigartion guys if they can get us a transit visa for us to travel by EuroStar and they said no and took her to the KingFisher guys who were here at the airport, surprisingly!! Meanwhile Jet is flying out of Brussels - which means that both Brussels and Heathrow are operating!!! Yippieeee!!!!! Anyhow, Kingfisher is saying that we will fly out of Brussels between 11 and 1 PM. Crossing fingers! Lets see!

Will keep you posted! :-)

Day 1: Stranded in Brussels

Left early in the morning at 6:30 AM from home in Bangalore to catch the Kingfisher flight to Mumbai at 9:05. The flight was over 15 minutes late and landed in Mumbai at 11:40 AM. Kingfisher connecting Flight from Mumbai to London Heathrow was at 1:05 PM. As we were obviously late, the airlines arranged a bus for us to catch the flight directly at Mumbai. Connected the flight without much of a hassle.

Supposed to land at London Heathrow (LHR) at 6:30 PM London time and we heard an announcement in the flight that London Heathrow has been snowed out and the pilot will try to land at Manchester instead! Well, we had already heard that London is having the coldest winter in over 30 years so that was something to be expected! Crossed our fingers and prayed.. well, an hour after the first announcement, we heard that all the airports in London are closed and that all the flights are getting diverted to either Schiphol (Amsterdam) or Brussels. As luck would have it, ours got diverted to Brussels. I had never seen Brussels so was mildly excited. Landed in Brussels and were in the flight stuck for an hour and a half when the Brussels Airport Authority came on line and told us that they are expecting a lot of flights into Heathrow to be diverted into Brussels and we disembarked.

The Brussels airport authority was kind enough to provide us with Food Coupons worth Euro 13 per person and then started the troubles! Brussels never anticipated the kind of a problem this whole snowstorm was going to ensue. There was just 1 restaurant open at Brussels and we had to stand in a queue for about 4 hours before we got food! Getting food was pure mayhem. The restaurant am sure had made more money that one day compared to a whole year.. There probably were close to 3500 people whose flights got stranded in Brussels. Had dinner, slept on bedsheets given by Kingfisher on the floor of Brussels airport at about 5AM in the morning. Up by 6, to try figure out what the plan of action is! No representative by Kingfisher.. no one even knows that Kingfisher is an airline.. Right royal mess we are in!

England: Here I come!

So, I have had to visit the UK for work for 2 and half weeks and had decided to make the best use of the trip! Who knows what happens tomorrow, might as well live it up today was the motto and I started with great gusto!

I have been shacked up at the Slough/Windsor Marriott for the duration which is pretty nice place – You actually have enough space to walk around in the room and people tell me that it is a luxury in itself. The company I have come to work with has a deal with the Marriott groups and is offering rooms at £105 and I understand that it is good rate which includes breakfast also. The breakfast is great with good choice, but the food otherwise leaves a lot to be desired! If you are vegetarian – then it you barely have any choice!

Now, I had landed in Heathrow Monday last, because it was a holiday here because of Easter. Started work with gusto, with the thought of me wanting to see the place at the back of my mind.

Do wait for my next article on London and what I did see during the weekend!