day 10 -britain again

This was a relatively short day. I realised I'd been pounding pavements and cobblestones for at least 8 hours a day each day. My feet were starting to hurt. I visited the Jorvik centre (which had a sit down train like tour, Barley hall - which was a hands on museum - I put my butt on seats to read up on the rooms and went to the train museum to stroll around and eat dinner. They have an inside picnic area.
For lunch I had pork and crackling sandwich & viennese truffles from Thorntons chocolates for dessert. This is my most favourite chocolate of all time - or almost - they don't make the dark chocolate one anymore :(
There were some heavy downpours that i missed by being indoors during all of them. I did walk home in drizzle though (5:30pm)

one of the royal carriages - through a window

Jorvik centre. apparently they found fossilized human faeces while digging for viking archeology

these passageways are normal - not just a "didn't join the buildings" they are designed for foot passage

Barley hall...seats mmm

The river had risen somewhat - no sitting for me

The ruins of one of the church/monastery's that had been sacked. Probably by Henry the eighth - though I don't quite recall

back to the Britain trip - day 9

Yup, frightened of spiral staircases. After doing some sales shopping at The Edinburgh Woolen Mill, I went for a hike around Clifford Castle. I felt terrified and dizzy on the spiral staircases. It didn't help that Clifford Castle was built on a large mound of earth that couldn't support the weight of the walls properly. This meant that one wall slumped sideways (big crack in wall) and the spiral staircases, as well as being spiral, are on an angle. The mound of dirt had been put there for an earlier fort and the stone castle walls were an upgrade if I remember rightly. Clifford Castle was also the site of a massacre of Jews during a dark period in York History. There is a memorial to it at the front of the castle. This was one of the periods that the castle burned down (only the stone walls remain).
After this i went to the merchant adventurers hall. This is an impressive example of how the earth build to bury stuff. the hall which was used at one point as a hospice, is much lower than the gardens outside - they have flooding issues and have had for hundreds of years. But I think it used to be much higher up. The gardens just got higher over time. I also had coffee in the oldest Coffee house in York (very tall skinny cafe restaurant now, about 3 or 4 floors and the staircase was not quite spiral)
Next on my quest to do everything was, in order; Visit to the treasurers house, the railway museum and high tea at Betty's - very posh & I have photos (i am such a tourist). After that I did a 2 hour walking tour. I got home at 9pm and planned the next day for maximum efficiency. My feet were very sore, but the skies had been lovely and blue so I took advantage of it.

Clifford Castle spiral staircase

Merchant Adventurers Guild

High tea

Roman fort tower wall (with more recent wall - medieval - on top)

Day 6: saturday the 30th of June

Back to the trip - its been so long now, I'm glad i kept a diary.
Saturday was drizzly on and off and I did a lot of walking.
Went to King Richard III museum at Monk gate and then got a quick personal tour of St Marys hospital Ruins (by a tour guide who was waiting for his tour group to turn up). The hospital has roman sarcophagi just sitting around - they were dug up when the railway station was upgraded and they were moved to the ruins since there was space there. Anyone could just wander in and take one...assuming they had superhero strength and could disguise the 6 foot sarcophagus under their coat.
Then I went on a 2 1/2 hour walking tour of the city walk which was entertaining and informative. I ate lunch and took a river cruise (freezing and drizzling but the next day the river cruises were shut down because the river rose so much, so its good i went when I did). I went to the Yorkshire museum to get out of the cold and then to the model train museum. Then I had coffee at the train station and walked to betty's where i had carrot and coriander soup, rasberry lemonade and a marzipan cake in the shape of a cabbage. Thoroughly fed and damp, i went back to my B&B, had a hot shower and washed all my dirty clothes by stomping on them in the shower and squeezing them out. They dried remarkably quickly when hung in the cupboard.

back to the good stuff: aka day 5

I slept in on Friday the 29th (since breakfast wasn't till 8:30am) and when I woke, the niggling headache I've had for months was gone. This came back during the travel stress. My back still ached from the luggage carrying, but not too badly. I bought a Yorkpass and caught the sightseeing bus to look at the town. I went to York castle museum - can take hours to get through, The york dungeon - very commercial, could have been anywhere, the micklegate museum, the regimental museum, the York Minster undercroft & then to evensong - good acoustics + mitres, incense and robes. I had a wild boar burger and fat rascal for lunch, and went to the golden fleese (oldest pub in york) for dinner. It was built before 1503 and all the floors and walls slope.
Then I went back to my B7B...exhausted. Did I mention the B&B had carpet in the bathroom?

Just the bad stuff part 2

So there I was, in Germany, with no euros, no phone card (by the way I tried about 5 methods to phone out from the airport and the only one that worked ended up costing me Au$70..twice! and I could only do this because I had visa), only a grade eight understanding of the language...and the english translation of things in writing was limited, though most people spoke english. Fortunately while I was at the hotel, I'd managed to find out that if I could get a piece of paper from Flybe which stated the reason that I missed my flight was technical - eg plane not flyable, my insurance would pay for me to buy another ticket, on another airline. Just in an aside - Flybe still hasn't sent me this information. So while at the airport, waiting for China airlines to open their ticket gate, I found an agent to see if there was any other way back to Australia. I'd also got my parents to contact my travel agent - she cancelled my domestic connection so I wouldn't lose the money and could get her to rebook once I got back in Australia, but she couldn't find a seat for me.

Yes! If I wanted to pay Au$5000 and fly to Korea on Korean airlines and then to Australia on some airline I'd never heard of. Given the cost I thought I'd give it a miss unless the Flybe paperwork came through.

As it happened, as the gate opened, I rocked up to the ticketing desk and got an immediate seat...the problem was apparently the next leg which was overbooked by 4 people. The flight after that was overbooked by so many people I had not a hope of ever getting on it. They did give me a waitlist boarding pass for the next leg - normal boarding pass with no seat allocated (this came in handy later on).

Ah well, there's me, stressed, stomach churning, trying to make a phone call to let my also worried family know I was at least getting closer to Australia, tired but unable to sleep and getting on a 15 hour flight to Taipei in a plane which was full, cramped and too dry to sleep. I kept waking up coughing and thinking I didn't have enough air. I had very little appetite either, though I ate a bit of my meal.

When I went through security they took me to one side and made me pull out all my camera gear. They swabbed this for explosives. I really didn't care at this point.

At Taipei I went to the China Airlines transit counter. I have to say they were very, very professional, calm and tried all sorts of things. I did feel looked after. They made sure my luggage was identified and held in their hold until they knew I would be getting on a plane, they got me a room in a hotel at the airport, told me how to get there, assured me my waitlist boarding pass would get me through the multiple security checks and told me where and when to come back to the desk. They also assured me they would make sure the next shift knew exactly what was going on.

I had a nap in my room - day rates in the airport hotel were really cheap and the room was large and clean. The whole thing however got me so stressed by this time that I was gagging with nausea. I really, really, really do not like being totally dependant on other people when I travel. I like to at least be in a position where i can decide when to go to the airport, what I will do, choose my own options, etc etc.
The hotel also sold phone cards where you could talk to Britain for 5 mintes for about Au$4. cf Au$70 from Frankfurt!

I ended up buying a vege-subway and eating a few bites. It was the mildest thing I could find & I thought some of my nausea might be because I hadn't eaten. I had huge plans of eating Shibu-Shibu in Taipei, trying all the local foods in the airport and strolling all the shops. Unlike Frankfurt, Taipei has an interesting airport. It even has a museum. I felt too depressed and sick to do any of it.

I went back to the transit desk at about 7pm and checked in. The new shift were just as professional but told me that couldn't tell me whether I'd have a seat till the check-in closed at 8:30pm. They made sure that the check-in supervisor knew about me when check-in opened. Then they told me that the lines at check-in were so long, it might take longer before check-in could close....great, just what you want to hear at this point. I even suggested that if it was possible to bump me up to business class, I'd be willing to pay the hundreds of dollars more...the guy took my ticket & I think he was going to find out. While I was waiting, I slowly ate the rest of my sub - it took me over an hour.

At 8:55pm he handed me a boarding pass (economy - I assume that he was waiting to see if I could get on without paying extra before he offered me the option) and told me he'd ensured my luggage was put on the plane. Then I ran from terminal 1 to the skyrail, through terminal 2 and lined up for security, then ran through terminal 2 to the gate. I got there as they were saying "any further passengers for flight XYZ should now board the plane."

The flight to Australia was just as painful as the others and I still couldn't eat. When I got to Australia and though customs and quarantine, I rang my agent, told her I was now in Sydney instead of Brisbane (did I mention the plane went to different parts of Australia on alternate days?) and asked her to get me a ticket home and to charge any excess to visa...lovely, lovely plastic.

I caught the bus to the domestic terminal, picked up my boarding pass from the ticketing desk (at least I didn't have to queue this time) and went through security to the main area.

I still wasn't hungry - even the chocolates and Krispy Creme donuts left me cold. I did buy Freakonomics to distract me and I had a couple of naps in quiet corners while waiting for my....wait for it....delayed flight.

Yes, there was fog in Melbourne that morning that had caused rolling delays. My flight left 2 and a 1/2 hours later than it should have. Fortunately my connection in Brisbane had a gap of 3 and 1/2 hours so i still had an hour to kill when I got there. I killed it by staring, shell shocked, at the wall.

I must say, both my domestic quantas flights had about 15cm more leg room than any of the international flights...in each case i was asleep before the plane had levelled off. The first flight I woke as my ears popped painfully, the second flight I woke just after dinner had been served...which I finally had an appetite for.

I have travelled to Britain 3 times. The first two times I had one day of jetlag when I got home...this time I had a week of jetlag and was still shaking it off when I got back to work. I blame extended flights, anxiety and an inability to eat or sleep sensibly on the way.

Next time, Qantas all the way!

just the bad stuff

For those who can't wait for me to go through all the good parts of my holiday before they find out the bad stuff;
here it is

There were floods in Yorkshire, so I went to York. The only bad part here was that every day started wet and ended dry or vice versa. Oh, that and the river rose and flooded the walking path along side it so I couldn't stroll along it.

When I got back to Scotland everything was hunky dory. Actually the only bad part in Scotland was when I went to Fort William with the intend of going on a seal cruise when I got there. The tourist place gave me a map and when I said, "so I go to the pier to get on the cruise?" they said yes....the only pier on the map was a commercial one at the other end of town, across the busy road, with big "no access" signs on it...and was the wrong one. By the time I'd figured this out, found a local to point out where I should go and got back there...100m in the other direction from the tourist centre...it was too late. I watched the boat set off as I stood at the ticket gate.

Things started to get curly when I got to my hotel at the airport...or rather, got off the train, failed miserably to find a courtesy coach and walked with all my luggage in the increasing drizzle to the hotel i could see in the distance.

The hotel had a sign up saying get to the airport terminal 30 minutes earlier than you planned. Also, there was no courtesy coach to my terminal anymore as the police had road blocks up after the bombing attempt. This meant I got up at 3am and walked with all my luggage, the 400m to the terminal. And then they didn't open check-in till 1/2 an hour after i got there.

All was going well and the call to go to the gate was fine...then just as we were about to go through, they stopped us as the plane had been found to be un-flyable. It took them 45 minutes to find another plane, decamp all oour luggage and the in-flight service stuff and reload. Then they put us on board and told us that it would be another 45 minutes till they could take off. At this point I realised i would miss my connection....and I did...by about 15 minutes.

They gave me a handwritten note to go to transit services in Frankfurt & my luggage was supposed to keep going without me. I don't know what I would have done if you need a visa to go through passport control as this was my only option. If I'd arrived in time I could have nipped up the stairs and gone straight to the next gate.

With my shiny entry stamp in my passport, I found that my luggage hadn't gone through and if I hadn't checked, I would have left it behind in Frankfurt. I then went to the info desk and said "please do any of you speak english". One guy popped up "yes , goodmorning, goodevening, goodbye" Then he asked "how can I help you?" Apparently the directions the plane had given me were wrong, but he put me straight and I circled a desk twice before deciding that I would just talk to the person near the FlyBe sign...who was the right person.

Result:
China Air won't let you fly another airline at their expense to catch up to your next connection, so i lost that too
They only fly one plane a day and all the future flights were fully booked so I had to waitlist.
the lady said I could be there for a week
Flybe put me up in a hotel in the middle of nowhere (which if I'd had to pay for it would have cost me over Au$300). - I had no assurances that they would continue to look after me if I couldn't catch the next plane.

This meant there was nothing to do - though by this time I was so stressed I just wanted to curl up in a ball. I had three meals at the hotel, the first two weren't anything to sneeze at and by the third (breakfast) I was so wired I couldn't swallow solid food...and it was really nice too.

I went back to the airport and hung around waiting for the check-in to open....stay tuned for more.