Our flight to Brussels was scheduled to leave St. Louis on Nov. 30 at 8:30 in the morning. We had planned as we always do when flying out of St. Louis, to spend the night before at Harrahs. The advantage to this arrangement, aside for the opportunity for Barb to play poker, is that we can leave our car in their lot while we are gone and that they will shuttle us to airport in the morning. So on Wednesday afternoon we checked in at Harrahs, Barb played poker and won and I played penny machines and lost the $40 I had won the week before.
Thursday morning, we awoke at 4:30 am to be ready for the 6:00 am shuttle to the airport. All of these plans went very smoothly and we were all checked in and through security by 7:00 am. We knew that the forecast was for sleet and ice to come in to St. Louis between 10:00 and noon, but felt sure we would be gone by then.......................NOT!
We boarded the airplane and discovered first of all, it was one of those small ones, you know, two seats on one side and one seat on the other. Fifteen minutes before departure, the captain announced the takeoff would be delayed because a bracket on the emergency medical cabinet was broken. The maintenance crew would be arriving soon to fix it. At nine, they had not arrived yet. At ten, they had arrived and were working on it, but in addition, the sleet had also arrived. We deboarded the plane. The flight was delayed until the sleet turns to snow...................which, unfortunately never happened. The 8:30 am flight was delayed but the 10:30am flight was still scheduled to go so we rebooked onto that flight. Hoping for the best, we sat down and waited. Eventually at 3:00 pm, this flight was also cancelled and we had to reschedule again for 10:30 am the next morning.
Okay, now what I have not mentioned is that when the 8:30 flight was cancelled, we had to go to baggage to get our luggage, lug it up to the ticket counter, to recheck it in for the 10:30 am flight. Now at 3:00 pm, when the 10:30 flight was cancelled, we had to again go to baggage, get our luggage and hold on to it until the next day when we were rescheduled to go out again on the 10:30am flight.
We were not worried about a hotel since I had reserved a room around noon at the Comfort Inn in Westport as a back up. So at 4:00 when we got our luggage again, I called for the shuttle and stood outside in the sleet and ice with hundreds of other folks waiting for shuttles to hotels. All the other shuttles came, but ours did not......................finally after 1.5 hours, I called them to find out that the shuttle was in a ditch, would not be coming and that taxis were on a 2-3 hour wait list. So we cancelled the hotel room and "checked into" the chairs at the airport. Yes, we spent the night on a chair in the airport.
The airport delivered the pillows and yellow plastic blankets.
What a long night that was! I think I may have slept about 2 hours in 15 minute intervals and I think Barb did not sleep at all.
At 4:30am we took our luggage to the check in counter again and checked in for the 10:30 flight and put our names on a wait list for the 8:30 am flight. We figured that way we should end up going on one of them. The ice had stopped and St. Louis ended up with 9-12" snow. And so we went to the gate and waited. By 9:00am, neither airplane had arrived at the gate. And to make matters worse, pilots and other airport personnel showed up and demanded (that is another story) to have the stand by seats because they had to be in another city to fly planes. Since there were 12 of them , all stand by seats were gone! Thanks goodness, we did have seats on the 10:30am flight, if it ever did arrive.
At 10:05am, the 10:30 plane arrive, we boarded by 10:45am and actually took off at 11:00. Hooray, we made it to Washington DC at 2:00pm; Washington had tornado forecasts so our landing was quite bumpy.........the plane had to circle three times before it could land.........and we bounced and swayed inside the plane. It was really quite scary.......thankfully, we landed safely. Then we waited for our 5:52pm connection to Brussels. By the way, when we left St. Louis at 11:00, they were still waiting for the 8:30 plane to arrive..........apparently, it was stuck in the ice and they could not get it out. Do not know if the plane ever left or if all of those folks had to reschedule again.
Everything went smoothly after that..................only exception was the fact that some man brought a cat on board. He had it in a carrier; the entire trip I could hear the cat meowing. Had to turn up the earphones and play music quite loud to ignore it. Had visions of the cat escaping and jumping all over the plane and into my lap!
We arrived at the Brussels airport at 7:30 am Saturday. So to give you an idea of the time we spent traveling..........we arrived at the St. Louis airport at 6:00 am on Thursday and arrived at the Brussels airport at 7:30am Saturday.
Susan and Nick met us at the airport and drove us to their home in Erbaut. Peter and Caroline were waiting for us there. We spent the rest of the day visiting.
Next post will be about our trip to Amsterdam on Sunday.
Love and hugs,
Linda and Barb
Thursday morning, we awoke at 4:30 am to be ready for the 6:00 am shuttle to the airport. All of these plans went very smoothly and we were all checked in and through security by 7:00 am. We knew that the forecast was for sleet and ice to come in to St. Louis between 10:00 and noon, but felt sure we would be gone by then.......................NOT!
We boarded the airplane and discovered first of all, it was one of those small ones, you know, two seats on one side and one seat on the other. Fifteen minutes before departure, the captain announced the takeoff would be delayed because a bracket on the emergency medical cabinet was broken. The maintenance crew would be arriving soon to fix it. At nine, they had not arrived yet. At ten, they had arrived and were working on it, but in addition, the sleet had also arrived. We deboarded the plane. The flight was delayed until the sleet turns to snow...................which, unfortunately never happened. The 8:30 am flight was delayed but the 10:30am flight was still scheduled to go so we rebooked onto that flight. Hoping for the best, we sat down and waited. Eventually at 3:00 pm, this flight was also cancelled and we had to reschedule again for 10:30 am the next morning.
Okay, now what I have not mentioned is that when the 8:30 flight was cancelled, we had to go to baggage to get our luggage, lug it up to the ticket counter, to recheck it in for the 10:30 am flight. Now at 3:00 pm, when the 10:30 flight was cancelled, we had to again go to baggage, get our luggage and hold on to it until the next day when we were rescheduled to go out again on the 10:30am flight.
We were not worried about a hotel since I had reserved a room around noon at the Comfort Inn in Westport as a back up. So at 4:00 when we got our luggage again, I called for the shuttle and stood outside in the sleet and ice with hundreds of other folks waiting for shuttles to hotels. All the other shuttles came, but ours did not......................finally after 1.5 hours, I called them to find out that the shuttle was in a ditch, would not be coming and that taxis were on a 2-3 hour wait list. So we cancelled the hotel room and "checked into" the chairs at the airport. Yes, we spent the night on a chair in the airport.
The airport delivered the pillows and yellow plastic blankets.What a long night that was! I think I may have slept about 2 hours in 15 minute intervals and I think Barb did not sleep at all.
At 4:30am we took our luggage to the check in counter again and checked in for the 10:30 flight and put our names on a wait list for the 8:30 am flight. We figured that way we should end up going on one of them. The ice had stopped and St. Louis ended up with 9-12" snow. And so we went to the gate and waited. By 9:00am, neither airplane had arrived at the gate. And to make matters worse, pilots and other airport personnel showed up and demanded (that is another story) to have the stand by seats because they had to be in another city to fly planes. Since there were 12 of them , all stand by seats were gone! Thanks goodness, we did have seats on the 10:30am flight, if it ever did arrive.
At 10:05am, the 10:30 plane arrive, we boarded by 10:45am and actually took off at 11:00. Hooray, we made it to Washington DC at 2:00pm; Washington had tornado forecasts so our landing was quite bumpy.........the plane had to circle three times before it could land.........and we bounced and swayed inside the plane. It was really quite scary.......thankfully, we landed safely. Then we waited for our 5:52pm connection to Brussels. By the way, when we left St. Louis at 11:00, they were still waiting for the 8:30 plane to arrive..........apparently, it was stuck in the ice and they could not get it out. Do not know if the plane ever left or if all of those folks had to reschedule again.
Everything went smoothly after that..................only exception was the fact that some man brought a cat on board. He had it in a carrier; the entire trip I could hear the cat meowing. Had to turn up the earphones and play music quite loud to ignore it. Had visions of the cat escaping and jumping all over the plane and into my lap!
We arrived at the Brussels airport at 7:30 am Saturday. So to give you an idea of the time we spent traveling..........we arrived at the St. Louis airport at 6:00 am on Thursday and arrived at the Brussels airport at 7:30am Saturday.
Susan and Nick met us at the airport and drove us to their home in Erbaut. Peter and Caroline were waiting for us there. We spent the rest of the day visiting.
Next post will be about our trip to Amsterdam on Sunday.
Love and hugs,
Linda and Barb
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