20091115 - I arrived home... and so did my baggage

On Saturday we (Stefan, Dominik and Anita-from-the-Mumbai-group) went sightseeing in Bangalore as long as possible. Although I didn´t feel very well, I was not about to miss out on my last day in India... We hired a car and driver and went to the Bangalore Palace (more a castle), Cubbon Parc, the ministery with opposite the street the High Court, the Bull Temple and the Botanical Garden.

After a quick shower, Stefan and I took the taxi to the airport. At the check-in desk, the ground stewardess kept repeating to me that I had to collect my baggage at London and then check it in myself to send it on to Amsterdam. I told her that is not the way it normally works in Europe, but she was very convinced. All in all my check in went very quickly. Stefan however took a lot longer. He had to pay airport tax (at a different counter), although CDC had said that this was already included in the ticket. As they would not check him in if he did not pay the tax first, he paid the tax and off we went to the departures area.

There was a ´domestic flights´ and an ´international flights´ area and as we both first had to go to Mumbai (different airlines though) we went to the domestic flights. I had to go in the ladies line and Stefan to the men´s line. Again I was ready quite quickly and I went to wait for Stefan. Then I saw him really confused getting his stuff back in his backpack and following a man to another place...

So there I was, all by myself in the boring Bangalore terminal after a month of being surrounded by 8 colleagues almost 24 hours a day... But I found out that I could use the WiFi for free and I could charge my laptop. So I started writing these blogs while charging my laptop. A good way to kill the 3 hours I had to wait before the flight would take off.

In Mumbai I met Stefan when I arrived at the International Terminal. So the trip had gone right with him after all. I had assumed so, but could not be sure off course. Stefan had also met Dominiks girlfriend at the Mumbai airport as she was on her way to Bangalore. What a coincidence! Anyway, it was good to have company at the Mumbai terminal as that terminal didn´t provide laptop charge functionality, nor did it seem to have free WiFi. Stefans flight left earlier than mine though, so I did have to kill some time by myself.

Once all passengers had boarded our plane, the plane could not leave for another 2 hours as it was too busy at Mumbai Airport ?!? Unbelievable! But for me it didn´t matter as I would have to kill another 4(!) hours of waiting at London Heathrow anyway, so I was in no hurry.

Once arrived at London Heathrow, I went through customs towards the baggage-belt as instructed in Bangalore and... my baggage was not there. Really annoyed I went to the Baggage Services to ask where my baggage could be, then noticing that my voice had disappeared overnight. The simple answer was: ´But ma´m, your baggage is shipped through to Amsterdam. You will have to collect it once you arrive there´. So first I had been waiting in line for customs, then I had been waiting 1,5 hours for my baggage not to be placed on the belt, for nothing! But again, as I was in no hurry (the delay of my flight to London was only 30 minutes as they had made up a lost of the lost time) because I had a lot of time to kill, it was quite allright. Only I really felt ill (headache, sore throat, coughing, voice dissappeared)...

So I went to the check in desk to get a ticket, stood in line again for security check and then another line for customs. The ´collect-your-baggage-in-London´-activity had taken around 3 hours all in all, so the good thing was that I had little time left to kill until my flight to Amsterdam left. Once I had arrived in Amsterdam, I went to my favorite airport location by now... the baggage belt... I waited and waited and the by then to me so familiar sight repeated: people getting their baggage of the belt and leaving... When I started to think that again my baggage would not arrive, it finally appeared on the belt as one before the last item...

Paul was there to pick me up and after a short nap I finally had... a nice and juicy entrecote accompanied by a glass of red wine :-)