The 36-hour Day

Pffff. What a day it was!!!

I have been in Spain since Tuesday evening and have recuperated nicely from the massive flight to Alicante via Sydney, Bangkok, London and Amsterdam. Lucky enough, I had no real jetlag this time either. I already went running twice in the searing sun (alas some heavy showers today, although the skies are clearing now).

Here are some thoughts on the actual trip to Spain, which took me app. 36 hours (23 hours flying and 13 hours waiting around).

After a final farewell to the Sydney Harbour (and mainly its two icons the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge), I went back to the hostel to collect my luggage. I decided to use the Airport Link Train again. Very nice and quick ride to Sydney Kingsforth Smith International Airport (apparently Charles Kingsforth Smith was an aviation pioneer).

At check-in, I found out that my suitcase weighed only 18 kilos. It meant that, after returning to the Netherlands, I wouldn’t HAVE to go back to Bussum to ditch some of my stuff (for the Transavia flight, the suitcase cannot weigh more than 20 kilos). In case of a big delay (it was as if I already had a gut-feeling, more about that later), I could just stay at the airport.

I passed through customs and security without any problems (the x-ray machines seemed to accept me and my backpacks :P). I first enjoyed the many shops at the airport, very nice (almost seemed like I was at a mall, not an airport). Then I uploaded some pictures to my Facebook page. While I was doing that, I heard that flight would be delayed for an unkown period of time. Apparently, there was a problem on the pilot’s window which had to be looked after. Eventually, boarding did commence.

The plane (a Boeing 747-400) was probably only half-ful, the seat next to me was empty. Shortly after entering the plane, the pilot got on the intercom and informed us that there would be an additional delay. The previous evening, another Boeing 747-400 of Qantas stranded in Bangkok (our stopover city on the way to London) with engine problems. Therefore, our plane had to bring a new engine to Bangkok. An additional engine was attached to the left wing of the plane, this wing was now carrying three engines instead of two. Also, because of the extra weight the plane wouldn’t be able to fly at full speed. Meaning: an even bigger delay on arrival in Bangkok.

No problems with the flight though. Take-off was beautiful, we saw the sun setting over Sydney (amazing red skies, the sunset I never had at Uluru). Flight from Sydney to Bangkok took over nine hours, it took us about five hours to actually get out of Australia (shows again how big this country really is). It was a very smooth flight, hardly any turbulence. Good food and a nice and helpful cabin crew. I had my own entertainment screen, watched a movie (The Green Lantern) and listened to some music. I even slept for a couple of hours (had two chairs to sleep on, which was nice).

After a nine something hour flight, the plane touched down at Bangkok S…..bhumi International Airport. I knew that I would have to wait for a while, before I could get on the plane again. And I wanted something light to eat. That proved to be very difficult. I had no Thai money (expected to be in Bangkok for less than an hour) and could not find an ATM. Most stores also didn’t accept credit card. Eventually, found one store that did. Bought a big bowl of fruit for 90bth. That sounded really expensive, but it turned out to be only 2 euros and 22 cents lol.

When I got back to the gate, I saw that the spare engine that we brought over from Sydney had just been detached from the plane’s wing. That took up quite a bit of time. The new pilot also wanted to make sure that his window (which had been repaired in Sydney) was still in good shape. So some engineers took another look at the window. By now, it was almost certain that I would miss my connecting flight in London (the plane was already delayed for about three hours, I had only 1.5 hour layover time in London). I didn’t worry about this too much at the time….

There was one big advantage to the delays: Qantas had put the passengers (who started their journey in Bangkok) on another flight to London. This meant that our plane left Bangkok practically empty. I had no problem with that, had three seats for myself :P. I would be able to make my own little bed out of those three seats. Very nice, since the flight to London would take about twelve hours.
I was lucky to be again greeted by a friendly cabin crew. One of the stewardesses told me that was normally one of Qantas’ busiest flights. And now, due to the delays, there were only a few passengers on board. Because of the limited number of passengers, we probably got some extra attention from the crew. They passed through the cabin regularly with drinks (water, juice, coffee, tea). My body was getting a little confused when it came to food though: it wanted breakfast, since it was already morning in Sydney. Instead, it got dinner, since it was still evening in London. I did eat my dinner though, because I know that –if I decide to skip a meal– I would just get sick. My advice is to eat AND drink plenty when you are on long distance flight.

I was lucky that I was able to sleep for quite a while, no real turbulence again and three chairs to lay on. I eventually got sore in the back, one of the armrests I pulled up had been poking in my back. So I decided that I had enough sleep. I watched a movie (the excellent Red Dog) and later put some music on. When we approached London, a steward informed me that I had been rebooked on a later flight from London to Amsterdam. That was all taken care off then, I just hoped that my suitcase would be put on the same flight!!

After a perfect landing at Heathrow (apart from all the delays, the flight from Sydney up to London had been as smooth and comfortable as it could get). From the Qantas coupon, I bought myself a nice lunch. After relaxing for a little while, I made my way to the gate of the next flight, which was (surprise surprise) delayed! Originally, without delays, I would have had about seven hours of lay-over time in Amsterdam. Now is was going to be close. It got even closer, because it was a very busy time of day at Heathrow, a lot of planes were standing in line for take-off (alas we were in the end of the line). After a long wait, our plane was finally allowed to leave. Yay!!! The landing was awful though. The plane almost seemed to sway off the runway, don’t know what the pilot was doing. I was really happy when the plane finally made it to the gate.

Hurried to the baggage claim. And one of the first suitcases out was MINE!! My suitcase had survived the huge flight and all the delays!!! After getting some fresh clothes out of my suitcase (I had been wearing the same clothes for way too long ;)), I made my way to the check-in counter of Transavia. There, I burst out laughing: the plane was delayed for thirty minutes!!!

I went through security anyway, wanted to have that over and done with (security people at Schiphol are usually very unfriendly). I passed the security screening without any problems. But my smaller backpack didn’t (it had been carrying the same stuff during the entire trip and got through security in Sydney, Bangkok and London without problems lol). I let a grumpy security guard check my backpack and of course he found nothing.

No problems at all with the flight to Alicante (apart from the delay of course). I was getting a little sick of all the flying, but that is no wonder after being on a plane for about 22 hours lol. So I was happy when I reached Alicante and about an hour later my final destination: Benissa. After a very late dinner (didn’t matter, my eating pattern was already messed up anyway :D), I went to bed and slept soundly.
So, this was my report on the enormous flight to Spain (glad though that I did it all at once!).

Probably will post one last blog about my amazing holiday.