Monday, November 8, 2010

To London I Go

It is finally happening. Even now, writing this on the plane it feels surreal. After dreaming up this idea last fall, and deciding for sure to do it last Christmas, I am actually on my way to another continent. I am thousands of kilomiters away from home, thousands of feet in the air, looking out at the great plains of the USA, and still it doesnt quite feel real yet. I am sure it will soon.

As I write, I am probably somewhere over North Dakota, although by the time I post this I will be in Minneapolis waiting for my next flight. As this morning progressed, I became more and more focused all the time, until by the time we left my grandparents I was actually quite calm.

My grandma made her famous mini pancakes for breakfast, and I scarfed down about a dozen. My family posed in all the possible permutations of the four of us and my grandparents for pictures, and we said our goodbyes to them.

Leaving Point Roberts at 11, we got to the airport at just a few minutes before 12. When I got up to the check-in counter, the lady (very nice lady) said there was an issue with my return ticket. It had been changed by the airline so that I arrived in MSP from London at 5.35, and left five minutes earlier at 5.30 to Vancouver.

As time machines are not allowed through customs, she spent some time on the phone sorting out my issues.

I said goodbye to my family at the first security point, and they headed homewards to the ferry. I dropped my bag, then went through first security, then US pre-customs without a hitch. That is a great service at YVR that lets you fly "domestic" into the states.

Having an hour and a half to wait, I wandered for a while, then settled down to wait in the secluded wing that my gate was located in.

One panini later, my plane arrived.



It was an Embreaer 175 in Northwest Airlink colors operated by Compass Airlines for Delta. It arrived pretty much on time, and our pushback was just about five minutes late.

We taxied out to the end of runway 08R and took off with no delay.

Climbing out to the south-east, we passed over the Alex Fraser Bridge, followed shortly by Abbotsford and the border.


Once cruise was attained, the lovely flight attendant came around with drinks and snacks. I chose Sprite, and cookies.



We passed over much cloud shortly, and I think I missed the Rockies entirely. We passed over one section of particularily dull clouds for nearly half an hour



Soon after, through the breaks in the clouds, I could see flat land, field after field, and I knew we had passed over the mountains.

After a little bit of uneventful smooth cruising, the crew came round again, this time with water and pretzels. I was taking pictures at the time, and in the 30 seconds I was looking away from the window, the sun set. These two pictures were taken less than a minute apart.


It is now completly dark, and has been for a while, even though my computer clock says 4.40. We have been flying away from the sun, making it set faster, and also crossing a couple of time zones while we were at it. We are supposed to land at 5.30 Pacific time, or 7.30 Minneapolis time, so it should not be that much longer.

I might add some more when I get on the ground and have internet, so this might be a bit of a funny segway coming up.

So, it turns out that you need to pay to use the internet at Minneapolis, so this won't get posted until I find internet in London.

As I write this, I am sitting at 34935 feet going 1109 kilomiters an hour. The time is 10:16 am in London, and 2:17 am at my house.

Looking out the window, I see blue sky, white clouds, blue ocean, and white icebergs as far as the eye can see.



For the last hour, I have been watching the sky emerge from pitch black to daylight.







It started with a little glow on the horizon, and grew until the sun was striking the underside of the plane. The next thing was it hitting the tops of the clouds, leaving little golden pink tufts on top.

The light slowly descended until the whole cloud surface was lit, and just now, the water as well.

I really like how this flight has personal TVs that you can get a little moving map of the flight with all sorts of information on it.

Let me backtrack a litte to the Twin Cities.

The terminal at MSP is huge. It goes on for ever and ever. It seems like you could walk for an hour in it and never see the same place twice. I wandered around for a little while, then decided I needed a meal, so I went to McDonalds. It might have been the comfort food factor that drew me to the golden arches.

I waited at the gate for a while, then went on another walk. When I got back, I went on an internet kiosk for a little while, but the mouse and buttons were really frustrating.

At around nine, they announced that there would be a 45 minute delay on the flight. The reason for the delay was, get this, favourable weather. Since Heathrow is so crowded, there is a certain time that the flight has to arrive there to get in. We were going to beat that time by an hour and a half. As it is, we will still probably arrive about half an hour early.

Getting on board, I was surprised at how cramped the 767-400 is. The aisles are really narrow, especially through the litte galleys between cabins.

My seat, 33A had one seat beside it at the aisle, and that was free, so I have room to spread out which is quite nice.

We pushed back, the had a slow taxi to the far end of the runway. When we turned onto the runway and throttled up, the engines just roaring with power, I remembered how much I love planes.

After a while of trying to get into a couple movies, and watching a few episodes of TV shows, I decided to get some sleep. That was when we were over the Ontario - Quebec border. I woke to the sound of wailing children some time later, near the south tip of Greenland.

Sleeping was great. I took the two pillows I had, and the spare blanket, and used them as a pillow, then curled up on the two seats. It was quite comfortable, and I fell asleep quite quickly.I woke just before the sunrise.

I might add some more later once I get to the internet, so once again there might be another awkward bit right here.

I am in London!!!

This post is getting huge, so I am going to put the rest of the flight in another post, and walking London in another after that.

2 comments:

  1. You got on one of only 38 764s to be constructed! Good Job.

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  2. Why thank you Carson. It was way more cramped than I pictured it. I had to turn sideways to get through the galley section cabin dividers. But it was pretty cool. Those engines at takeoff thrust. Wow.

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