The trip started off on an interesting note. We had checked in for our 8:30 p.m. flight on Aer Lingus at 8:00 a.m. Boarding passes in hand, we arrived at the airport at 4:30. When we approached the check-in counter, the first words out of the clerk's mouth were (and we quote) "your flight has not been delayed, it has not been canceled, it has been re-timed. The luggage check-in will open at 8:30 tomorrow morning". WHAT???? The plane wasn't leaving until 12:30 p.m. the next day! Look, "re-timed" doesn't cut it. That's called a d-e-l-a-y. Big time. The people in line were having none of it, and within a few minutes Aer Lingus gave up their attempt at avoiding the hotel vouchers and started handing them out.
At this point, we asked what about our connection in Dublin. They had no answer to that. Call this 800 number. Useless boarding passes and hotel voucher in hand, we now called the 800 number. Finally, sanity. This person said oh heck no you're not going on that delayed flight and arrive in Dublin at one o'clock in the morning and wait until who knows when for a connection to Gatwick how about we rebook you on American Airlines to Heathrow instead? Well, OK, let's do that, and we'd figure out how to get from Heathrow to Gatwick. Must be a bus.
Checked in with American, got upgraded to Economy Plus (where the wine was free), flew to Heathrow, yes, there's a bus, and we arrived at Gatwick two hours earlier than planned. Now that's retiming. OK, so what happened next was just more of the same. We were staying overnight at the Bloc Hotel at Gatwick. It's right on the airport and the gimmick is the computer-controlled room. Everything's operated from an iPad installed in the wall. That's great until the system fails. Which it did. We had to go out into the hall and call reception to have them turn on the air conditioning and lower the window shade. OK, fine, but then the air shut off and the window shade went up at 6:00 a.m. At least the water was hot and they bought us breakfast for our trouble. What else can happen, you might ask? Oh, you'll find out...
So, now, off to Goodwood. Saturday wasn't quite as rainy. More about the rain later. It was a good day to walk the track and look into the pits.
Period-perfect architecture:
And we watched the first session of the most fun race of the weekend, the St. Mary's Cup:
And airplanes! Here's Red Bull's Lockheed P38L in action:
Here's what else can happen. It's about the rain. Southern England had an abnormally large amount. The spectator areas were mostly covered with mud. We felt sorry for those folks who put a lot of work into the period dress...Wellies and poodle skirts don't work well together. The buses, so they would not be stuck in the mud, were put into a paved parking area about 10 minutes away. Goodwood would run a shuttle from the front gate to the buses. Trouble was, they needed more shuttles. The shuttle line backed up, it started raining, it was a long wait, a fight broke out, and the security people gave up and walked away. We had gone back to the bus about an hour early. Everyone else showed up about two hours late.
Second day, more racing, more airplanes, and more rain.
The winner!!
Behind the wheel of this NASCAR-themed T-Bird is "Tommy Lee Kristensen". Really, Tom Kristensen who holds the record for the most wins at the 24 Hours of LeMans. Nine wins, six of them consecutive.
Beautiful vintage airplanes:
The shuttle situation was marginally better. Marginally.
We spent a couple of days in Portsmouth, shopping, eating fish and chips and pies, doing laundry and walking around, then moved to Southampton to catch the Queen Mary 2 to New York. The crossing started with a stop at Le Havre, France, where we were saluted by the fire boats spraying water. We started out on a great crossing. Captain Peter Philpott (could the name be any better?) announced fair sailing each day.
The main restaurant:
Until we encountered the remnants of Tropical Storm Jose. Jose was still in pretty good form and our last 36 hours were spent in 80 mph winds and 25 foot seas. Captain Peter Philpott pointed out that QM2 is not a cruise ship, but an ocean liner, and she's built to take the weather. Good thing, because we were on the very top deck (we're talking 13 stories here) and the spray was hitting our balcony. The wind was so high and the sea so rough that our sliding glass door came unlocked and slid open in the middle of the night. The view of the storm from our stateroom was interesting, but when you went down to the restaurant on deck 3, it was a sight to behold. Most folks, including Mercury here, held up pretty well, but the crowd thinned out as quite a few retired to their rooms, seasick.
Arrived New York, and had an uneventful flight home.
