Day 16: Porto to London

Rose bright and early (actually did it this time) and was walking towards the train station while it was still dark (ish). So apparently my hotel was just really soundproof as there were a fair number of drunken Porto residents making their way home at 5:45 in the morning. Again, what is it with people and singing… It’s not that I mind people singing when they’re having a good time but the group of 3 sixteen-seventeen year old girls belting out songs at the top of their lungs couldn’t carry a tune if their lives depended on it…

The walk from the hotel to the train station took about 10 minutes so by the time I got there and bought my ticket I had about 15 minutes to wait for the train. It was just me and a couple of other people and the trains that stopped were mostly deserted… Until the train to the airport arrived. It was packed… With an interesting mixture of people on their way to work it appeared, people heading to the airport and a bunch of quite drunk and very loud teens. Even the locals were shooting them dirty looks as they yelled, sang, banged on windows and basically annoyed everyone on the train… Fortunately the majority of them detrained after about 6 or 8 stops so it didn’t last long.

Once at the airport it’s a short walk from the train stop to the departures area and everything was well signed and easy to follow. I dropped my checked bag at the TAP Airlines counter (no line up at all), headed through security (a decent-sized line but they had it well organized and moving quickly), searched out a shop to grab some yogurt for breakfast and then headed for the gate area. Porto’s airport is very clean and very modern – definitely one of the nicer ones I’ve been to. Lots of shops and services for passengers and reasonably comfortable waiting areas.

I finished off the blog post for the last couple of days just as they started boarding the flight, then headed to the plane and got settled. The flight was quite empty and I lucked out and got an empty seat beside me (always a treat no matter how short the flight is). They even fed us on this flight – it wasn’t much, just a ham and cheese mini-baguette but it was quite tasty and they served the usual assortment of sodas and coffee and tea, etc. Not bad for a 2 hour flight… Westjet didn’t serve any food on the flights from Victoria to Dublin, Ireland…

I honestly don’t understand some people, though. The couple across the aisle from me (I’d say they were in their mid-60s) apparently requested a vegetarian option. Wires got crossed somewhere and there was no vegetarian option for the woman… Annoying, yes. And the flight attendant was very sincerely apologetic (Air Canada take note). That wasn’t enough… The woman proceeded to loudly drop her seatback table (I didn’t know that was even possible) and commenced mumbling and grumbling under her breath and directing comments at each member of the crew unfortunate enough to be in her general vicinity… All of whom apologized most profusely. Finally, the woman reached into her bag and pulled out a massive sandwich she’d clearly been planning to eat all along… All that over a bunwich and you brought food so you’re not going to go hungry… I get you’re frustrated because you didn’t get your $1.50 baguette. Make your point and move on… After all, we’re flying at 36,000 feet – what do expect the flight crew to do about it… Turn the airplane around and get you some carrots?

The descent into Gatwick was a little bumpy – a few good drops and some sharp turns – and the young (early 20s maybe) guy in front of me seemed to be having a bit of a panic attack or really hated flying… The flight attendants were excellent with him… A few other passengers were clinging pretty tightly to their companions and a few were gripping the headrests in front of them with white knuckles… I didn’t think it was that bad… But I always just watch the flight attendants… When they look nervous, things aren’t going well… They were all cool as cucumbers so nothing to worry about. The one male flight attendant – never did catch his name – was the epitome of excellent customer service – friendly, chatty but not annoying or creepy, super efficient and could write the book on politeness and manners. It’s always cool seeing someone who is really, really good at their job…

After we landed, there was the usual crush of people at the back of the plane pushing and shoving to get closer to the front. I don’t get that… it’s like merging on highways… it’s not difficult but some people can’t seem to figure it out… I guess I understand if you’re worried about a connecting flight or something but at least make a point of apologizing to the people you’re cutting off and elbowing in the kidneys to get past (maybe they have connecting flights too). Once off the plane, there’s a bit a of trek to get from the arrival gate to passport control (both the agent in Porto and the agent at Gatwick were friendly and professional… both scanned through my passport, asked me questions about my travel planes, compared the picture to me..). I achieved a coveted landmark – the guy in Gatwick, looking through my passport stamps made a comment to the effect “you’re very well travelled…” Yes! When the border guy thinks you’re well travelled you know you’ve logged a few miles!

After passport control it was a short walk to baggage collection and from there a short walk to the exit… Where I am now sitting at a coffee shop waiting for Caitlin and Marie to arrive. Their flight was delayed leaving Dublin so they didn’t land at 1:20 as expected but are supposed to be touching down at 2:15… Before staking out my territory to wait for them, I navigated through the lineups and schedules, etc. to buy our tickets on the Thameslink train from the airport to West Hampstead (note for the future – if you buy three tickets, you only have to pay for 2… which helps when the tickets are £16 (just over $32 CDN) each!… I think they do that to compete with the cabs which are about £50 – £60 from the airport to West Hampstead apparently…). Hopefully this last part of their trip will go smoothly once they’ve arrived and we’ll be at the hotel shortly… They’ve been traveling for 24 hours now and are probably feeling pretty ragged…

Once they get here we’ll be heading to our hotel, catching up on the last couple of weeks (although we’ve been in touch via FaceTime and text and they’ve been reading the blog so it won’t take long to catch up) and then heading out to grab a bite to eat and maybe do a bit of exploring to keep them busy until they can go to bed at a more or less normal time (hopefully a bit earlier than they have been lately) so we can hit the ground running tomorrow morning… Up first is Buckingham Palace – so Caitlin will want to be looking her best for her audience with the Queen…

Update: Marie and Caitlin arrived more or less at their adjusted time… Of course I’m standing like an idiot at the arrivals exit waiting for them with a “DOHERTY” sign because Caitlin has commented many times about wanting to have someone standing at the airport waiting with a sign for us (we’re way, way too cheap to make that happen)… Where do they come from? The door behind me… Well, it was the thought that counts right? Strangely, the way they entered (they flew from Dublin), they didn’t have to go through customs… Or get a UK arrivals stamp… I flew in from Portugal and had to clear border control and get a visa/passport stamp… I suppose all this stuff makes sense to someone but it all seems very confusing to those of us doing the travelling…

We found our way to the Thameslink trains, found our way to the correct platform and boarded about 8 minutes later (good timing). The ride to West Hampstead (where our guesthouse is located) took about 45 minutes so we were able to get caught up a bit on the ride. Once we arrived in Hampstead we found our guesthouse (about 500m from the train station), got checked-in and settled then headed out to find something to eat. Our guesthouse (Charlotte Guesthouse) is quite nice – the triple room is very spacious compared to many we’ve had, there’s an abundance of plugs for charging (not always the case trust me) and the shared bathrooms are clean and quite large… The only downside is the shared bathroom, the lack of WiFi anywhere other than in the reception area which is across the street and the $170 a night price tag… And this was one of the cheapest places we could find in London… And even then we’re 35 minutes by subway from London proper…

There’s quite a few options for food in West Hampstead so we looked around for a bit before settling on a pub-style BBQ place with lots of craft beers and I had a pint of a good beer while Caitlin and Marie has the £10 for 2 drinks special… Caitlin’s first legal drink! For dinner Caitlin had a starter sized macaroni and cheese, Marie had a pulled pork sandwich and I had a 1/2 rack of BBQ pork ribs. The food, drinks and service were all quite good but the $100 price tag hurts (in pounds it was a reasonable £48 for three meals, three drinks and tip) but the exchange is going to kill us…

After dinner we went for a short walk and then headed back to the hotel we all took turns using the shared bathroom (groan…) to grab a shower… After that, Marie promptly went to bed while I repacked (my bottle of port took a bit of a beating on the flight so need to figure out a better system for packing them for the next 5 weeks) and then Caitlin and I played a quick game of Rummy before we all turned out the lights and called it a night…