The chicken above has nothing to do with anything - more of a here's what we found in Belgium instead of 'Bernard Matthews'.
We were visiting January son and daughter-in-law in Belgium last weekend. We enjoyed the visit very much. Weather was icy cold, sunny and beautiful. Trees were bare and some fountains were frozen. Everyone was wrapped in swaddling clothes and the atmosphere was great. We went to Stokkel open-air market and ate warm waffles, shopped in busy, busy mall that had lots of different shops that we don't have here (of course they have C&A - huh!).
On Sunday we visited the Tru Troc Art Exhibition in Brussels, where free pastries, juices, waters and beers were being demolished in double quick time.
It was very enjoyable - lots of modern art - most very good, but not always to my taste, though I loved seeing it all.
Then we ate in the Sablon area - always loads on the plate - I had Mexican spare ribs mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm - and then we all headed back to G&H's.
Over the weekend we drank too much red wine,(n.e.v.e.r!) ate lots of lovely food (thanks G&H) laughed a lot playing Tangrams and we also played cards (sometimes 'Scabby Queen' which is always good for a laugh). We watched the snow coming down on Monday morning before we left and although traffic had slowed down a bit on the way to the airport, we arrived safely.
When we arrived in Prestwick the snow had already made its appearance and, unknown to us, flights were being diverted from Heathrow and the USA.
We waited in the longest queue imaginable to get through passport control - an hour. - it's a small airport. We had to queue behind a plane load of immigrants, who were filling in documentation and having it checked at immigration. Was there an immigration officer allowing British Citizens through first? Nooooo - Did they tell us why we were being delayed? Nooooo - this was Scotland, not USA or London! No communication. Then we found that our luggage had been taken off the conveyor belt and thrown into corners, though no-one thought to tell us . We could've flown back to Brussels in the time it took us to get out of the airport that day. I acknowledge that the whole country was in a sort of emergency state, but communication is a wonderful thing - pity they don't always know how to use it at airports.
6 comments:
Sounds like a neat trip. You are so fortunate - you can just take a run over to Belgium! Here it takes us 8 hours to go anywhere really fun (like Montreal). (0:
Indeedy doo! We are quite lucky from the ponint of view that we can get to Europe very quickly by air - having said that, if we decide to venture to London or further south - that can take about 8 hours - maybe longer - depending on traffic. I'm sure you could come to Scotland in the time it takes you to get to Montreal. Now there's an idea! xx
Ryanair are closing all their check in desks at Prestwick and its gonna be totally on-line check in soon. You'll hand your bag into a security baggage drop and thats it. No frills right enough.
An hour sounds a dreadful amount of time to wait, poor you.
Be thankful you werent met of the plane by armed guards like I was in Detroit....!!
R xox
Yes R,I heard about Ryanair closing check-in desks because, according to them, 75% of people check-in online (which you can only do if you're not checking in luggage). Only about 5% of passengers walked through priority boarding when we were in Prestwick. However, I suppose they can do as they wish - prices are still good in comparison to other airlines.
An hour was a dreadful time to wait. In fact it was a dreadful ridiculously long, patience-trying time-consuming, stressful time to wait in skittery wee Prestwick where there are no toilet or drinks facilities after you leave the plane to after you're through passport control. We'd normally have been through passport control in 10 minutes. We'd also have appreciated being allowed through before immigrants.
I can't get access to your blog anymore, R, and can't figure why, so I'm out of touch with your Detroit tour and the armed guard scenario. At least if they'd been there for us they would have got us through passport control in double quick time, which might have been preferable! Frightening for you eh? xx
Blog was locked for a day or two but should be up and running now for you - drop me a line here again if you still cant get through. As a diehard Celtic fan, I chuckled at the turkey named 'Gers'.!
Yep - I'm into your blog again but you're as bad as I am - you haven't posted since 18th Feb - tut, tut, tut!!!
I laughed when I saw the Gers chickens. Football named chickens - now that could be something that would catch on.
Imagine if your favourite 'team chickens' were out of stock - well what could you do - you'd have to buy mince! xx
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