Flying to Krakow, there is only a choice between Easyjet and Ryanair. Easyjet has only one flight a day which would have been suitable for going out but would have needed me to stay a further day coming back. I will not fly on Ryanair so that left me with connections. The best looked to be via Vienna, using a similar connection to the one I used going to Kosice last year. This time, however, I would use Austrian all the way partly because it was cheaper and partly because there is a shorter transfer time.
Indeed, outward, there is only a 30 minute transfer time but Austrian advertise this and the flight from London has a good timekeeping record so I thought I would give it a go. I know Vienna Airport reasonably well so that, too, would help.
The flight from London was 0915 so I caught the 0605 from Chilham. This was on time, though there is a long wait at Ashford - about 25 minutes. I also got my high speed upgrade tickets on the train and was offered a gold card discount for the return journey. We'll see how that works coming back.
A very smooth trip to Heathrow meant that I arrived at 0755 - pretty good, I thought, and was quickly through security. Then the problems started.
Fog was the issue and the flight to Vienna was delayed by one and a half hours so I certainly wouldn't make my connection and went to change the ticket. Mine was not the only delayed flight. Two or three Lufthansa flights had also been delayed or cancelled so there was a long queue. Fortunately the business class queue was not too long. I say fortunately, but there was little they could do. I had to go back through arrivals to the ticket office outside.
Here, after another wait, I was rebooked through Warsaw, and would only be an hour late and had a slightly longer connection time in Warsaw - about an hour. But, checking in with LOT, their flight was delayed by an hour, too, so that was no good.
Another wait in the queue led to a third ticket, with a two and a half hour connection in Warsaw. This should be possible, but it means I will be nearly four hours later than planned.
I was slightly dreading going to Poland today in any case, after England beat Poland 2-0 last night at Wembley. Going via Vienna would have avoided all the football fans but going via Warsaw will not. We'll see how things go.
We were eventually called to the gate at about 1120 – 25
minutes before the flight was now due to depart, though it was clear that the
incoming plane had only just arrived.
Getting to the gate displayed another aspect of the paranoia
that infects both the security and immigration departments over the prospect
that arriving passengers might come into contact with departing
passengers. In most other parts of
Europe the jetty opens up onto the departure lounge and arriving passengers
must make their way through departing passengers into a one way system which
takes them through passport control, customs and out. Automatic gates ensure that there are
definitive one-way gates at key points, so that you cannot avoid passport
control, if arriving, or security, if leaving.
But the British are so obsessed that there must be a
hermetic seal between arriving and departing passengers. I don’t know what they think might
happen. Perhaps a departing passenger
would use duty free to buy something to give to an arriving passenger? Perhaps a terrorist could carry a bomb on
one plane and the, having arrived, give it to a departing passenger? Frankly it all beggars belief.
What it means in this case is that, as the pier is only one
storey, whenever a plane arrives, the passage for departing passengers must be
closed off to allow the arriving passengers through into the arrivals
area. When they have all arrived then
the passage for departing passengers can be opened again. With a delay of 10 minutes or so – so don’t
be late for your plane!
One aspect of being re-routed is that I have a new airline
and another new airport to sample. The
airline is LOT from Poland and the plane was, as I expected, full of returning
football fans. But they were quite
quiet – either dejected or respectful, and, frankly, I didn’t mind which.
We eventually pulled away from the terminal just over an
hour and a half late, then took another 25 minutes before we took off. This means we will arrive in Warsaw, between
an hour and 40 minutes before my connecting flight leaves. Fingers crossed.
LOT business class does not, I’m afraid, particularly
impress. Like most business class
flights in Europe, it’s basically the same economy seats with the centre seat
left vacant and a curtain dividing it from the economy section. So the seats are no better or worse. Catering though, was slow to get going, and
while they nicely gave us a linen cloth for the tables, the food was not
particularly appetising and the portions smaller than most. Nor was the wine that good, but it passed.
We arrived in Warsaw with about an hour to connect. This was a reasonable time, with no queue
for passport control. There was about a
ten minute delay for security and then another ten minute wait at the gate
before boarding a bus to the plane.
The plane to Krakow was a Q400 so, as with the flight from
Wien to Kosice, I had to put my bag in the hold and collect it on leaving the
plane. We left a few minutes early and
arrived in Krakow about 15 minutes early with a packet of cheese biscuits and a
glass of water to while away the short flight.
Tomasz collected me and we had a two hour drive to Zakopane
through driving rain – not nice.
Zakopane is a rich and historic ski resort, with its own
style of architecture – known as Zakopane style – which blends log cabin with
arts and crafts. The result is quite spectacular with gables on every side and
carved wood everywhere. In the morning
I had about 20 minutes after breakfast to walk through the town centre and see
some. I wish I had had longer.
I did my presentation first thing and when we broke for
coffee at 11, Andrszej introduced me to Jack, a student who would take me to
the airport at noon. I said we had no
need to wait and left immediately – or almost immediately at 1115. It was a dry morning, misty but with the sun
breaking through and it was far pleasanter than yesterday evening. The autumn colours were glorious here,
though it was the tail end of autumn in Poland, not the start as in Kent.
The Polish side of the Tatras is far more developed than in
Slovakia, with far fewer remnants of communism. The buildings all seem to be either pre-war
or post 1990, though the styles are very similar and it is hard to be precise
about their age. No traces of the
serried ranks of 1960s flats you can see in Warsaw.
It is only 100km from Zakopane to Krakow airport but even
with good weather it took us nearly 2 hours, which did surprise me. Jack has very little English so I dozed most
of the way. It still meant that there
was a wait of just over 2 hours before my plane left so I had a beer in the
outdoor café before going into the lounge.
Krakow is a very small airport and sadly had only a very small range of
shops. I had hoped to see knitwear because
all along the road from Zakopane there were roadside stalls selling sheep and
cowskins and beautiful jerseys and socks.
I expected they would be relatively cheap. But I had no cash to stop and buy. Only if
they were for sale in the airport did I have a chance.
The lounge in Krakow is no great shakes. They had drink but only crisps and snacks to
eat so I had to buy a sandwich from outside.
We boarded the plane early and left early. Another Bombardier Q400 rather than the
Fokker 100 I had expected. This time
the flight had business class, even though it was no longer a flight than from
Warsaw to Krakow. I was the only person
in it which was quite nice. They served
a reasonable lunch, which was better presented than in LOT and a nicer quality. The wine was better, too.
We landed about ten minutes early in Wien which left a
reasonable time to connect. Even then I
had only time in the lounge to have a bowl of soup and to ring Tom before the
sign came up saying ‘go to gate’. I
waited another five or ten minutes (just time for a glass of prosecco) before
going to the gate, even though the flight had not yet started boarding, because
most of the later flights had.
It was a long walk to G31 and just after I got there,
business class passengers started to board, so my timing was quite good. A row of seats to myself was nice and we
left Wien about 10 minutes late.
As with the flight from Krakow, presentation and quality of
the food was good – a bit better than BA I would say, the wine, though, is
dished out by the glass rather than by the bottle, which effectively reduces
consumption.
Arriving on stand at 1855, I stood no chance of getting the
1900 Heathrow Express which, in turn, meant that I wouldn’t catch the 1940 from
St Pancras and so wouldn’t catch the 2035 from Ashford. Half an hour later from St Pancras onwards
would have to do. At least, I thought,
I wouldn’t have to hurry between Paddington and King’s Cross.
Surprisingly the Heathrow Express was nearly 15 minutes late
arriving in Paddington so I did have to dash across to the Underground and just
made the 2010 from St Pancras. The good
news was that the 2035 from Ashford was running 20 minutes late, so I wouldn’t
have got home any earlier even if we had been on time
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