the WWDC'07 as well as USENIX Annual Tech in Santa Clara. Leaving home was easy
enough, as my wife drove me to the central train station in Oslo. After kissing
wife and kids godby, I entered the airport express train.
The train starts rolling, but after a few hundred meters it wants a rest. Power
is out, the crew announces. Now, this was easily fixed and after a few minutes
we are rolling again. Nevertheless, I got the feeling that this travel wasn't
supposed to be like every other travel from home to US I have done in the past.
After some 20 minutes on the train, I arrived at the airport and mentally
prepare my self for endless queus, as I assumes I have to check in at the
counter. But, hey man, turns out I can do self service check-in even when going
as far as US. Great! After a quick visit to the check-in station I am all set.
Only that the machine was out of baggage identifying tapes or what you call
them. So, that was unusual event no. 2. I was lucky bumping into some helpful
guy that fixed the baggage for me and after a line with only three others, I
was all set.
Security check at Oslo airport Gardermoen has improved a lot recently. There
was almost no queue at all and I passed through in a matter of five minutes. At
this stage I am impressed and forget all my concerns about the unusual travel.
But it is not supposed to last. Next thing coming up is a delay. The flight to
London Heatrow is 35 minutes late. There should still be enough time for the
transit at Heatrow, but we better be in the air after those 35 minutes. And we
are - the pilot even manage to get some extra speed out of the stylish Boeing
737 so we are only about 20 minutes late when we arrive at the airport of every
nightmare, London "Nightmare" Heatrow.
Everything looks just fine when we enter the terminal, but after following the
"flight connections" sign for a few minutes, I see a looong queue in front of
me. I assume that queue is something not concering me and walk by on the side.
To be sure, though, I show my ticket to some airport person and ask where to
go. You guessed it right - back at the end of that queue is where I belong. So
I line up, check the time, and start moving very slowly. Wondering why there is
such a queue - must be something unusual I think, stupid me. Clock is ticking,
I should be at the gate 13:30 and when it passed 13:00 I know for sure that I
will have to run thorugh the terminal. It's the security check of course. Don't
get me wrong, I have nothing against the security checks, I am all for safety
on board. But here they obviously squeeze everyone just using Heatrow for
connecting one international flight with another thorugh I bottle neck of only
four scanners. That is way to little. So all the hundreds of people have to
line up, sweat, become warm and angry and mad and every other silly thing. Not
me, of course, I just observe the madness. Still, I may have one or two thing
to say to the managere of "Nightmare" Heatrow. This does not cut it at all. I
hope they have something in the works. For the record, I will say to everyone:
Avoid Nightmare-Heatrow for connections if you can!
After finally getting through the checkpoint, I am a bit behind schedule as
clock has ticked passed 13:30. I start walking as fast as I can, looking for
places to check gate information and try figuring out in my head which flight I
am supposed to be on. "Flight is closing" blinks on the screens behind UA931 to
San Francisco. I walk faster and almost run and find gate 27 in terminal 3 and
it's still open. Turns out that flight is delayed to. So, thats probably
unusual thing no. 3 - only this turnes out to be helpful! I get on the plane
and stay there for 11 hours. Nothing particular interesting to say about that!
And with that I have had my share. I was prepared for a similarily long queue
at the US border check, but apparently there was mostly US citizens arriving at
this time, as there was only a very few persons in line at the non-us visitors
counters. My bag appear on the belt rather quick, and after a quick ride on the
BART metro system, I arrive at the hotel. Next thing is checking in at the
event, but that will be for another post.
Take care!
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