Winter Adventures

This time of year I am usually very ready for a vacation - an escape from the grey, damp, muddy days of the English winter. The answer for me is often some winter sun and warmth, but I am equally happy with somewhere really cold where I can enjoy some REAL winter. In fact this exact time 3 years ago I was in Iceland enjoying just that.

This year I decided to again go somewhere cold, and so today I headed back to Sweden to visit my friend Alice and her mum, Elisabet. Little did I know that this time we would actually be having a REAL arctic-like winter in the UK, thanks to Storm Emma.

I think I got out in the nick of time - we didn’t get TOO much snow around Heathrow last night and this morning, but still - just enough to give some snow chaos. The Heathrow Connect train suddenly stopped operating just as I needed to use it to transfer between terminals. I had to use the underground instead - a longer journey with a change at Hatton Cross. Then once I finally got to T4, I heard that the flight was delayed by over 45 minutes. Once the plane arrived a blizzard started, delaying it even further.

We arrived in Amsterdam with only 30 minutes for me to make my connection, but then we had to wait for a gate. I’d almost given up hope, but decided to run for it anyway - a LONG distance from the D to the B gates - just in case it was delayed. I was delighted to see that the connecting flight hadn’t even started boarding yet. We waited ages to finally board, and then we were told that the computer system had totally gone down at KLM which was why things were in chaos. The day of the ‘Beast from the East’ was not the day for a computer failure! But without the computer failure I would have missed my connection, so it worked for me today!

So what else could go wrong? Well, my bag being left behind in Amsterdam, maybe?? Sure enough...

Oh well - it will most likely arrive late tonight and they’ve told me they’ll call in the morning and arrange delivery.

What’s most important is that I arrived safely, and have had a very happy reunion with Alice and her mum. I’ll be here for 12 days, so am looking forward to some WINTER adventures this time. Oh - and in case you’re all feeling rather cold in the U.K. - they’re having the same Siberian weather here only colder - minus 24C with the wind chill the last couple of days! Brrrr!

Check out Alice’s blip here!

[I know I’m WAY behind on my blips - I’m going to try to fill in the gaps while I’m here!)