Getting to Brussels

My recent trip to the USA started off with a visit to the US Embassy in Brussels. The theory being that it was as easy going to Brussels as to London - or so we thought.
The cab came at 4.45am on Monday morning - got to Leeds Bradford airport at 5:15 ready for the flight at 6:40. Brilliant.

At about 6:20, just as we were all getting ready to board, they announced a delay. The flight was going to be rescheduled, but they weren't going to be able to tell us the new time until 8:40. Damn, this put my 11:15 appointment at the Embassy out of the picture. I called the Embassy and rescheduled the appointment for the next available time - 9:15am Weds.

At 8:40 they said 'next info 9:40' and at 9:40 they announced the flight would leave at 10:10. Wahoooo! At 9:45 they cancelled the flight! CANCELLED!

I've never had a flight cancelled on me before! Fortunately the airline had a flight that afternoon which they transferred us all on to - and we picked up our luggage and I got a cab to work.
3pm I got a cab back to the airport for the 5pm flight. At 4pm the flight was marked up as "delayed" at 5pm it was cancelled, and by 6pm I was back home. 2 flights cancelled in one day. Never!

Apparently the reason for the cancellation was industrial action at Brussels airport, but ever hopeful, I got myself booked on the next morning's flight and set the alarm for 4am again. I was getting a bit tired by this time! I checked the flight before I left home and it was still on time, but I was not too surprised to see as soon as I walked into the airport that the flight had been cancelled. I was so not surprised that I actually had the cab driver wait for me. He took me back home again, and a couple of hours later I went in to work.

During this time Atilla (from work)had been monitoring all the flights which had been coming in and out of Brussels airport and noticed that *some* airlines were landing, and others weren't. He identified that (surprise surprise) Brussels Airways were landing, but BMI wasn't! In a final last ditch attempt to get there, I decided to get the train to Manchester and pick up a Brussels Aiways flight from there.

JP drops me off at the station but by the time I get there, the train is delayed 3 minutes. I look on the board and in fact, all of the trains are delayed - up to an hour. There are signal failures up the line. Could I BE more unlucky? This is most unlike me! Luck normally follows me around! I always get a parking space, a good seat, find exactly what I'm looking for. Not this time tho - I reckon all the bad luck owed to me must have been saved up to be doled out in one fell swoop!
Anyway, the train was a little bit delayed (20 mins) but I did get to the airport for 3pm - with a 4pm flight it was a little bit tight (especially when I realised that the train comes in to one terminal and I'm flying out of the other) but after a bit of panicing in the terminal bus, I was checked in and having a beer.

In the end, the flight was on time and uneventful - and even with the baggage handler strike at the airport (there were PILES of luggage EVERYWHERE in the arrivals hall) our bags came out in about 5 minutes. Amazing. Much less than you normally have to wait at Manchester - with NO baggage handler strike!!!

The only upside to this traumatic travelling story was arriving at the super trendy boutique hotel in Brussels which was the nearest "IBM approved" hotel to the US embassy. It's called Hotel BLOOM. The rooms were dead trendy (check out the sillhouette mural of things "hanging" on my bedroom wall) , the food was great, the wine even better!

PHEW, I'd got there!

Read the next bit here....The story of the Visa part 1