Departure times on this occasion were fairly civilised - 7.30am at the airport for the 8.20 "shuttle" to London Heathrow. Unfortunately the flight was delayed - due to the late arrival of the inbound aircraft because of a technical fault - so we didn't depart until 9.20.
The plane arrived at Heathrow Terminal 1 at 10.05, with our onward flight leaving Terminal 4 at 10.50 - Oh dear.
Luckily there were several people on the flight in the same position and it was with some relief that British Airways were waiting at the T1 gate to whisk us directly to the T4 gate to get the plane to Boston.
The plane started his engines bang on time - or should I really say engine, because that's as far as he got before announcing that there will be a delay because number two engine is refusing to start and an engineer needs to be called. Some time later the report is that the igniter on number two is faulty and we will need to be pushed to a stand away from the building to be repaired. This happens and 2 hours later (having stayed on the plane all that time) we were off.
We landed at Boston at about 3.15pm local time. Unfortunately our luggage didn't.
Spent an age reporting it, but the BA rep. was quite insistent that is was on the flight arriving later and we would definitely get the cases tonight.
On, then, to Alamo car rental. Those who have read my account of my car hire in Hawaii will know I am not Alamo's number one fan. Today's experience has not changed that at all, either. It took three attempts to get a car from them that had a full tank of petrol because instead of taking it away and filling it, they insisted on allocating another car - even the third car wasn't full. We had already wasted enough time with Alamo so we conceded that we would never get out of Alamo what they were contractually obliged to supply, and the assistants weren't bothered, so we accepted it and went on our way into, what was now, rush hour Boston traffic) about 5.30pm.
We had been given several copies of the directions to our hotel, each went the same way and each had different mileages. As it turned out I took a wrong exit, and it was only by magnificent navigating by Val did we get to the hotel by a TOTALLY different route to that advised. I should point out that, unlike the UK where if you take a wrong turn you turn round go back and have another go, this is not an option in Boston.
After checking in and receiving the 3-inch thick pile of maps and other information supplied by Tourco, we nipped to a supermarket to stock up with a few vitals.
On returning, Sean, someone from our village now living in Boston, turned up with some information, too, so we adjourned to the bar for cocktails.
Having stayed up in anticipation of luggage, which didn't arrive, we gave up and went to bed. We had to brush our teeth with the brush supplied by BA in the flight bag thing and it was like using a shoe brush - I hope the stuff arrives tomorrow.
Goto Day 2: Boston sightseeing
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