20 August, 2023

Today’s mission is to head south to Lutterworth, Leicestershire. It is only an overnight stop on our way to Anvil Green where we will be leaving our car for three months while we travel around Northern Europe. The plan is to fly out of London Heathrow airport to Warsaw on Wednesday. We will overnight at the Burns’ residence tomorrow then take a train to Heathrow and stay overnight on Tuesday at the Sofitel, Terminal 5.

On our way to Lutterworth we have a couple of things to do. The first being to stop at a car accessory store in Stafford to buy a ‘Europe Drive Pack’ so that our car will be compliant for our planned drive around the south of France which we begin two days after we return from Northern Europe in three months’ time.

The second task is to stop in Stone, a market town in Staffordshire, at The Three Crowns pub to have lunch with Bob McLean who is a former colleague of Lynn’s. It’s probably been at least 15 years since they last met.

After a delightful lunch we head on to our overnight stay at the Lutterworth Best Western Plus Golf Resort. The resort is very comfortable and we have a large suite to allow us to repack and sort our “stuff” before we have to drop off the car tomorrow for the repairs and decide what to take for our flight to Warsaw for our 3 months in Northern Europe.

We also try again to prepay the Dartford Crossing Toll which we tried over the weekend. This time they had finally fixed the online payment issues and we successfully pay the GBP4 toll. The crossing has only electronic tolls (no booths) but it also doesn’t have electronic tag accounts so the only way to pay the toll is online. The whole process falls apart when the online payment system fails. Looks like the Department of “finding the hardest way to do things” has been active again in the UK.

21 August, 2023

A sunny 21 Deg. C when we depart Lutterworth at 10:00 am, due to arrive Anvil Green Farm at 12:46 pm. All goes well for 45 minutes until we hit ‘congestion’ on the M1 – 7 kph in a 113 kph zone. The cause – 5 minutes later we pass a slight accident. 15 minutes later more ‘congestion’ due to a stranded car on the hard shoulder. What??!! – another 7 kph in a 113 kph zone due to absolutely nothing blocking the motorway??

But, a highlight of the ‘crawl’ on the M25 is the sign on the back of a Davies lorry that Lynn sees: ‘SuperCalibreFrigoLogisticsExportImportDavies’ – someone had fun coming up with that.

When we finally get to the Dartford Bridge that crosses over the Thames, it is traffic free in our direction but backed up for miles going the other way into the Darftford Tunnel.

We arrive at Alex and Ross’s house about 1:30 pm, 45 minutes late due to the tail backs. After quickly unloading the car we follow Alex to the car repair garage, drop it off and get a lift back with Alex in her ‘truck’.

Next we book and pay online for tomorrow’s train tickets from Ashford International to Heathrow Terminal 5 via Kings Cross/St Pancras, then finally get to relax over a chilled bottle of Prosecco – after all, it’s 26 Deg. C. now – while we catch up with what the Burns Clan has been doing since we last saw them in early November last year.

Finally, son Hayes returns from Cricket Camp and Ross gets home from work so we all bundle into the truck and drive to Canterbury for dinner where we meet up with the Burns middle daughter, Ivy, at Cafe des Amis, a Mexican restaurant near Canterbury’s ancient and awe-inspiring West Gate.

Knowing my policy on tipping, you will understand that I absolutely hated that the restaurant had quietly added a GBP33 tip to our bill (10% service fee) then Ross left a GBP30 cash tip not realising that the restaurant had already included their own tip. No wonder the waitress returned to our table and thanked us for our ‘very generous’ tip!!

Notwithstanding, a great evening with the Burns Clan – as always!

22 August, 2023

We leave our excess baggage at the Burns house then depart at 11:25 am for Ashford. While collecting our physical tickets at the window, the train guy suggests just going from Ashford to Stratford International – the stop before Kings Cross/St Pancras – then underground via the Elizabeth Line to Heathrow Terminal 5 – an easy change and faster.

All the trains are on time and fast. We even have WiFi on the express from Ashford. However, at Stratford we have a bit of a walk from the station exit to the Underground station entrance through a Westfield Shopping Centre. The down escalator to the Elizabeth Line platform is broken so we take the overcrowded lift down and proceed to Platform 5 only to find that the lift up to the platform is also broken. Our choice is to either backtrack a distance to another lift or for me to carry both our 20kg suitcases each up 3 flights of stairs (just like China). Pity wheel chair people…

Once on the platform we wait 15 minutes for the next direct train to Terminal 5. As we get onto the train there is a Middle Eastern guy and an Indian guy sat in area for luggage and handicapped, etc but it is an English gentleman who stands up to allow Lynn to sit next to me with our luggage. Rule Britannia!

One of the reasons we chose the Sofitel is its easy access from the Heathrow Terminal 5 underground station and easy access to Terminal 5 itself for tomorrow. The usual, lovely Sofitel-standard hotel where we finish our flight check-in and print our boarding passes.

23 August, 2023

An excellent night’s sleep thanks to soundproofing and blackout curtains followed by an excellent breakfast complete with entertaining patter from the egg chef.

Again an easy walk to the terminal from hotel. But, the big question today is: “Is Lynn going to be allowed into Poland?”

Dropped baggage proves to be a fairly easy process. Not so much security which involves more faffing than necessary with insufficient space for people to pack the bins. Time to head to Immigration.

But, where is border security?? Lynn checks with the BA Customer Centre to be told that the UK doesn’t care who leaves the UK, just who comes in. So, how would an Aussie passport holder prove that they left the UK before the 6-month deadline?

As we left plenty of time in case we had Immigration processing issues, we end up hanging around terminal gates for several hours.

Surprisingly, the BA flight departs on time and we have a vacant seat between us. Then typically, the guy behind Lynn has a coughing fit and isn’t wearing a mask. Luckily, we are. Nice, comfy seats for Economy Class but, as usual, no leg room for me.

We arrive Warsaw 10 minutes early and proceed to the ‘All passports’ lane at Immigration as I’m traveling with a non-EU passport person. There are only two booths open so it takes a bit longer than we were used to with Euro passports. Will Lynn be let in? She has all the EU documents and copies of the “Practical Handbook for Border Guards” in multiple languages printed and ready to defend her right to be excluded from the 90/180 day stay limitation in the Schengen area.

The border guard is very friendly and processes us both with no issues or drama. Just as well, as all our European travel plans and bookings from now until we return to Oz next year have been based on that right. On to baggage collection.

Warsaw Airport has very efficient baggage handlers as by the time we arrive at the carousel the last bag from the flight has already been loaded so only half an hour between plane arrival and exiting the terminal but, no driver waiting for us!

The driver was supposed to meet us with a sign in the Arrivals Hall but it turns out he is just a taxi driver who has been assigned to us. Once I get Internet in the terminal we are told to go to the Departure area which is upstairs to meet the driver at a specific door which is not sign posted. Way too hard to find. It would have been easier to just catch a cab. I usually prepay for a driver when we go to a city for the first time until we learn the best way to get from an airport to our hotel. After a phone call he finally meets us and 20-minutes later we are at the Mercure in town.

The usual Mercure-style hotel and a spacious room. And not 1, but 2 sets of vouchers for free drinks. In the restaurant we try some Polish delicacies – dumplings washed down with an apple juice and vodka cocktail. Very refreshing!

Interestingly, a breaking news report is that a plane has crashed in Russia, on a flight from Moscow to St Petersburg. Apparently Wagner chief, Prigozhin, and 2 of his leadership are on board. No survivors. It is exactly 2 months after the Wagner founder’s armed revolt.