Above: Rives de Clausen area.
Heathrow pick-up and drop-off hell
As we had retired early last night, I woke at 0530. It was very light already. We were ready to go by around 0700 but stayed a bit longer to say good bye and make sure our morning nature calls were answered.
Leaving around 7930, we got to Heathrow T4 around 0915 to pick up Matt with whom Kim will be travelling for the rest of his UK stay.
There is a GBP5 drop-off fee at Heathrow and despite following the signage to the best of our abilities to the pick-up area (presumably free), we ended up at the paid drop-off area. Damn!
As we were ready for breakfast, we headed to the nearest Greggs which unfortunately we located within a petrol station where we filled up. It didn’t have any seating so we tried looking for alternatives which wasn’t easy with poor signal and ended up at a McDonald’s where we ate and caught up with Matt from 1000 to 1100.
Kim and Matt have a 2h drive to their accommodation in the south of England with a check-in time at 1500. They decided to head off early as Matt had flown all the way from Auckland in one hit and hopefully, they can get into their room early.
We were determined to have me dropped off at Heathrow T3 free-of-charge and avoided the GBP5 drop-off area. There is seemingly a free remote pick-up area that was meant to be located within the carpark.
History repeated itself and despite following the signage as best as we could, things went wrong. The multi-storey carpark turned out to be the wrong place with no grace period but a minimum 20 min charge of GBP7.50.
To make matters worse, once inside, we couldn’t find the payment machines. At one lift lobby, payment can only be after taking the lift back down to the ground floor. Fortunately, there was another lift lobby that had machines on the same floor.
Flying to Luxembourg
I said goodbye to Kim and Matt around 1120 and walked from the parking building to T3. The courtyard outside the terminal seemed pleasant except that the sun was beating down through the clear awning.
Inside, there was very limited seating except for the needy. I didn’t want to proceed airside until I had eaten my sandwich and finished off my water. I managed to kill 2h in an area before heading airside, with efficient security taking only 5 mins and no passport control.
The lounges here are often busy and involve a waiting list so I had booked a guaranteed entry for 1500, which is 3h+ before my 1805 flight. Again, I managed to kill over an hour in the zoo that they call the seating area rather quickly.
I was into the Aspire lounge when I arrived at 1445, a little before my pre-booked time. The GBP6 was probably worth it as I was let in immediately while other people had to wait to be called.
It was busy and a large noisy Caribbean group was playing cards at a big common table I managed to get a little table to myself and the crowd cleared out during my stay.
The food here was a little cheap, eg. bean stew, noodles with hardly any meat, slaw, lettuce leaves, pickles and cheese. Still, it’s better than paying airport prices.
I managed to stay in the lounge for about 2h30 and combined with the time landside and airside, it was possibly the fastest 6h that I ever made disappear at an airport. Doing things slowly, paying bills, work on the computer, eating etc.
We were in the air for less than an hour after a 20 min delay. Seating on the British Airways A320 seemed tighter than on Ryanair! The crew were not very well-presented for a full-service airline. The male cabin chief had unkempt long hair with a hair band on. A small bottle of water and a yummy pack of corn was handed out.
Why Luxembourg?
Why am in in Luxembourg? Back in September last year, I had no idea what I wanted to do after the UK except that it made sense to do something on the continent.
The cheapest flight international flight out of the UK that I found was to Luxembourg and it was on British Airways, meaning that I could carry two pieces on board, totalling 46kg! It’s a play of the American way of unlimited weight I guess.
The total paid was GBP46 of which fare was GBP7 and fuel surcharge GBP2.50. The remainder was government taxes. That’s only a little more than the cheapest possible ticket on the Eurostar to Paris and it worked out better for meeting up and collecting Matt. And the base fare was exactly the same as 20 mins of parking at Heathrow!
Then I realised that Luxembourg is a financial centre or banksta city with hotel prices aligned to banksta budgets. So lowly travellers like me have to bunk at the youth hostel.
Arriving in Luxembourg
Landing around 2040, we disembarked by airbridge into the small terminal. I was one of few people that needed manual immigration clearance and that took only one minute.
I walked straight out to the bus and after hardly a wait, was on the bus to Luxembourg Youth Hostel with a change en route. Public transport in Luxembourg is free and it made it even easier. The big buses go on the narrow roads of city and the windy hills as well.
Little evening walk
I was at the hostel about an hour after touch down. I was going to settle in but John from Burundi (working in Ireland) invited me for a short walk. We ended up in what I call Pub Street where there were lots of drinking holes and restaurants. Officially it is the Rives de Clausen area.
Card fraud again!
Back at the hostel, I received an email from my bank asking them to call regarding 2 fraudulent transactions. In the meantime, they had blocked my card.
The card had only been replaced less than a year ago, when the same thing happened at the beginning of a trip. Fortunately, I’m not reliant on the card much in the next weeks in countries where card acceptance is low.
Fortunately, the bank also advised on the phone that Google Pay will continue to work on my phone despite the card being blocked.
It does mean that I have to review any upcoming hotel bookings for scheduled charges and guarantees on that card. An inconvenience while on the road which I’ll attend to tomorrow morning.