Trains, planes and automobiles

Last weekend Garry and I took advantage of some cheap airfares and flew to Amsterdam. Well, we attempted to fly. We'd booked seats on the last flight out of Heathrow, departing at 8:00pm Friday. Garry cautioned me sternly on Thursday to leave work in plenty of time to get to the airport. However, his counsel was in vain.

To reach Heathrow we generally catch the tube to Baker Street, then change for Paddington. From here we catch the Airport Express train direct to Heathrow. However, this time, the standard 20-minute train journey to Heathrow did not go as planned. Ten minutes out of Paddington our train ground to a halt as a massive signal failure stopped traffic on the line. We found ourselves stranded more than an hour and 45 minutes. By the time we reached the airport, our flight had long since departed for Amsterdam.

We made our way to the First Class service desk (hooray for Platinum Frequent Flyer status) and explained our situation. It seems we weren't the only people with a train delay story. At least four other Heathrow Express trains were held up by the signal failure. British Airways kindly offered to rebook us on an early morning flight at no extra charge.

Four hours after leaving for the airport, we found ourselves walking not into an Amsterdam hotel room, but back into our own home. Our alarm clock was set for 4:00am and a mini-cab booked for a 4:45am pick-up. We hit the hay exhausted. I swear that mere moments passed before our alarm clock signaled the start of a second attempt to get to Heathrow.

This time luck was on our side. We arrived in plenty of time to enjoy a healthy breakfast in the airport lounge before boarding our 6:35am flight to Amsterdam. Shortly after 9:00am local time we finally found ourselves on the ground in Amsterdam. It was here that our second train mishap occurred.

I managed to get us onto the wrong train from Schiphol Airport to the city centre. After several stops when the error became apparent, we retraced our steps and tried a second time to catch a train into town. By the time we reached central Amsterdam another 20-minute train journey had become a journey lasting more than an hour.

Almost 12 hours after our planned arrival we'd finally made it to our hotel. In the process we'd spent more time on trains going nowhere than we'd spent in the air. On reflection, a mini-cab in London was probably our fastest mode of ground transport.