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Having never organised an overseas trip for Guides before (but
having lots of experience of taking Guides all around the UK!) I
decided to "cut out the middle man" and booked directly
with the airline, a decision I have had no reason to regret.
KLM, the airline operating out of our local airport, Humberside,
could not have been more helpful. Even when we had to alter our
return booking once we knew where we were staying for the second
week, they changed our tickets straight away, AND at no extra charge
despite the increased distance.
The Outward Journey :
We flew from Humberside Airport, on the south bank of the Humber
just across the Humber Bridge, purely out of convenience - it is
our local airport and meant that the girls' parents were able to
take them to catch the plane, thus saving the cost of further transport
for the party.
The first "hop" took only an hour and
twenty minutes in a small propellor-driven plane which was little
more than a flying bus, and we had barely finished our breakfast
before we were landing again! Schipol Airport, however, was a different
matter, a major international airport, but we found our plane (a
"proper" plane, this time, a Boeing 737) without incident
and boarded in plenty of time.
We had all settled comfortably into our seats when an announcement
informed us that our take-off was being delayed because a passenger
whose luggage had been checked in and loaded into the hold had failed
to board the plane himself, so naturally his luggage had to be removed
for security reasons. This was duly done and the plane took off
without too much delay.
The flight was excellent - the weather was perfectly
clear and although we were flying at 33,000 feet we had a panoramic
view of Holland, windmills and all, and soon came down to land in
Copenhagen. That was when the fun started.
We stood round the luggage carousel, waiting for our rucksacks to
appear. When the conveyor belts stopped moving and it became obvious
that there was no more luggage to come, we still had only six of
our twelve bags. (We weren't the only ones luggage-less, one American
traveller in particular was telling the world at large - very loudly
- what she thought of European airlines in general and KLM in particular.)
If there had been only one of our bags missing we could have coped
and travelled on to Sweden, leaving the airline to deliver the missing
bag when it turned up, but twelve people into six sleeping bags
simply doesn't go! so we decided to wait for the next flight in
from Amsterdam and see what turned up.
It was pretty obvious what had happened - not only
had they ejected the missing passengers luggage, but about 20 other
items also, ours among them - but they simply would not admit it,
which we found irritating to say the least. After SIX hours waiting
around Copenhagen airport (mostly in the Burger King.....) and ringing
the campsite to warn them that we would be late, the next flight's
luggage duly arrived and our bags were the first off ..... five
of them, that is. We waited in vain for the sixth, then decided
we had to travel on and get to the campsite before nightfall.
At this point our luck changed : we met a very
friendly and helpful Swedish Scouter who organised our train tickets
and saw us safely onto the train to Kristianstad, the nearest railway
station to the campsite near Rinkaby. It SHOULD have been a through
train but due to "major engineering works" (sound familiar?)
we had to change three times, which proved interesting to say the
least. But in spite of the delays,we eventually arrived in Kristianstad
to find a bus from the camp waiting for us, to deliver us, and our
luggage to the site, and finally walked (or staggered) to our allotted
site just as dusk was falling - to find, to our great relief, that
the WONDERFUL Swedish scouts we were camping with had put up all
our tents for us and there they were, ready and waiting!
The Scouts rallied round with spare bedding and
after supper we were soon FAST asleep! (The missing bag was eventually
delivered, by taxi, right to our tents, on Tuesday.)
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