Vienna to London

I woke up with a jolt at about 3.20am as I could see light through the curtains and thought I’d slept through the alarm. The light must have just been artificial. I had a bit of a lie-in and got out of bed at 3.45, had my horrid cup of tea and a shower. I had everything packed and ready at 4.35 and went downstairs to check out. I walked to the station with time to spare and found a code on the timetable for the 5.02 train that I couldn’t understand – a code A that mentioned a date in December and Easter Monday. The train never showed up, so I called the hotel to ask if I could still get a special €28 taxi fare to the airport as suggested on their website. They couldn’t help me as the phone line had been engaged for 3 hours, so I had to flag down an ordinary taxi. The guy was nice and said he’d take me to the airport for €35 (funf-und-dreizig). There was barely any traffic and we got there by 5.40, which was before the train could have arrived. I was very lucky.

I picked up my big bag from left luggage and checked in, getting a window seat. The girl at the check-in counter was nice. While I waited, I ate my doughnut and the only drink I could buy to take my travel sickness tablet was diet coke. Revolting! There was a nice man who I chatted to as we boarded too. He asked me if I’d had a good Silvester – that’s what they call NYE. We had to get a bus to the plane as it was far out on the tarmac and then walk up stairs to board. I had a row of three to myself, in a smallish plane. I felt very queasy very quickly as there was a horrid rolling motion. It passed and I concentrated, and felt better. Maybe the diet coke dissolved the tablet before it could take effect. The breakfast was awful, so I just had a cup of tea. It was great flying over England – we had a great view of Canterbury. We landed and disembarked at terminal 2, so I had to get a train to terminal 4 for the National Express connection. The bus was waiting for me when I got there. I suspect that the driver was only waiting because he was nice and that I very nearly missed it.