Finally after a year of planning and about 4 months of walking in the great parks around Richmond like Forest Gump, the day to leave for France has arrived.
Early (3:30 am) wake up alarm. Most packing was done yesterday. We leave for the airport at about 4:30 and from then on everything went incredibly smoothly. Flight flight to Newark on time and time for coffee and bagel in the United Club. Flight from Newark to London was completely full and left the gate on time. About a 30 minute wait to take off due to reduction in air traffic control personnel but we still arrived at Heathrow 30 minutes early due to strong tail winds.
Immigration in London was very fast. For UK passport holders they have an automatic passport check using the encrypted data on a chip in the passport. Just scan the passport in a machine and a face recognition process scans and after about 15 seconds I was on my way to luggage claim. Luggage arrived fast and out to the bus stand where a Stansted bus was waiting. I was able to change my ticket and soon was on my way to Stansted from where my flight to Biarritz will leave tomorrow. Although I don't have a lot of luggage I decided to check my backpack since I will have to on the flight to Biarritz on Ryanair tomorrow anyway. Christa had made a bag for the backpack since I was concerned that the straps would get damaged or torn off in the baggage system if I checked it "as is". That worked fine.
The bus to Stansted 40 seater only had 4 passengers and there were no hold-ups. Arrived in time to catch the 11:15 pm shuttle to the hotel - over an hour earlier than I had expected. The bar was still open so a phone call to Christa and a beer made the day complete.
Tomorrow I fly to Biarritz and meet up with Werner and then on by bus and train to St Jean Pied de Port. I checked the weather forecast and it looks fantastic for at least the first 2 days as we cross the Pyrenees.
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