Day 4: If could go wrong, it did!

We were up and on a bus to the airport for our flight to Basel, very early. We then had to change buses at the Central Transport terminal at Heathrow to get to Terminal 5.  Being the weekend, and a public holiday, the services were reduced.  We just missed a bus and settled down to wait for the next one anticipating it would arrive according to the timetable.  But it did not, so we went to get a train to Terminal 5 which we managed to miss by about a second.  Fifteen minutes later we were on the next one and headed for check in.  It took us a bit of time to get our boarding passes and when we tried to check our bags in, it would not take them.  A bored customer service agent told us we had missed our plane.  Fortunately, a less bored person put us onto the next flight which was seven hours later. Fortuitously, we were not charged (apparently a nice thing BA were doing for Easter).  We also had to buy new tickets for our connecting train to Strasbourg.  Unfortunately, they were not non-refundable or transferable. 

Up until now, most travel for us has been problem free but for some reason we have managed to rack up: a non-entry into Singapore, broken wine bottle in a suitcase, lost e-reader, missed flight and missed train.  From a positive perspective, it just shows that sometimes the best laid plans can go awry and accepting that, and solving the issue is the least stressful way to manage. 

We spent the time until we left for Basel in the terminal.  T5 is a hanger like building which is similar to the terminal at Hong Kong Airport.  It was full of people and for a while we wondered whether we would find a place sit.  We had a nice breakfast in Waggamama, part of the same chain that is in Wellington.  We sat there for quite while before we decided to relocate and find another coffee.  Pret à Manger was the next venue where we found a table and based ourselves there for the next three hours.  We also browsed the shops a little and Bev purchased a paperback to substitute for her mislaid e-reader.

I was really feeling like a salad for lunch and it was wonderful to find a superb range which turned out to be as fresh and tasty as they looked.  As far as airport food goes, it was reasonably priced too.

Our flight left on time and arrived early.  That was fortunate for us because several other flights had landed at the same time, so immigration was having to process a lot of people.  Once we got to the front of the queue, the process was quite fast -  a stamp in the passport and we were through.  Our bags were waiting for us and we quickly went out to find a taxi to get us to the nearby station in time for our connecting train. 

Fortunately, there were several taxis available and due to my poor pronunciation and thick accent it took our driver a while to understand where we were going.  Finally, all was clear and she was off very quickly to the station.  It was with some relief to find that we arrived with about five minutes to spare. 

We had an event free journey to Strasbourg.  The e-ticket for the train worked well.  At Gare de Strasbourg it took us a bit of time to find the right train, but thanks to a map on the phone and some inadequate signposting, we found the right tram, changed at the right place and then with the help of Google Maps we finally got to our destination just as it was getting dark.

Aurore our host spoke a little English which was better than my French. However, I was surprised to find the right words for things popping out of my mouth even if my sentences probably made little sense to Aurore. 

It was too late to get any food so we found a pizza in the freezer which we will have to replace later but it did fill a bit of a void.  Then two very tired people went to sleep.