My trip got off to a less than ideal start... I rocked up to the airport, smile on my face and asked if it was possible to check my bags all the way through to London Heathrow. ‘No problem’ replied the ticket agent, ‘that’ll be $1800 excess’. As it turns out, Cathay Pacific only allow 20kg baggage allowance and some extra allowance for sporting goods, to which apparently bikes do not classify and they charge $79 per kg over. Fml. So panic struck as I literally couldn’t afford to pay the fee and it appeared that my only option was to fly to Sydney and see if I could persuade Cathay Pacific to help me out. I had rung my flight agent who go back to me just before my flight to Sydney and proceeded to tell me that she had contacted Cathay and apparently the quoted $79 per kg over was for domestic flights....and it costs $113 per kg over for international flights... my excess baggage was going to cost me $2599!!!!! Yeah, I could pay that...if i didn’t eat for the rest of the year... or maybe I could sell my kidney??? People pay big bucks for those things right??
So to cut a long story short, it turns out that it was actually cheaper for me to change my ticket and fly with Virgin Atlantic where my bike travels free, and it left only 10min after my original flight which seemed too good to be true... and it was. It got delayed 3hrs... so I spent about 6hrs sitting around Sydney airport... hmmm...fun.
We finally boarded the plane and the flight itself was horrible but hey, can’t complain.. at least I got here!!! I’m finally in EUROPE BABY!!!!
I was relieved to see my parents – I haven’t seen my Dad for nearly 1yr and my Mum for 6mnths...Needless to say I’ve missed them.
The first thing I noticed about London was that everything seemed to be a shade of grey. It was overcast, which I quickly learnt was a trend for the weather here, so much so that my mum like many others have resorted to describing the different types of overcasts...such as mizzle: cloudly with a bit of misty drizzle, or cloudy with sunny patches. My personal favourite was seeing the weather forecast on the news say that tomorrow will be ‘cloudier’... but i've been told it gets better????
The riding here has surprised me. I half expected to have to ride laps of Richmond Park the whole time I was here but today Dad and I went out towards Kingston and ran into a group of riders, we decided to tag along and went for a lovely ride through Surrey Hills. It was great to meet up with more like minded people, they were super friendly and very welcoming!
I have one more day left here in Richmond before I head to my home for the next few months in Holland :) My first race will be RaboSter Zeeland, a UCI 2.1 :S... jumping straight into the deep end! I’m looking forward to the challenge :)
So from Richmond, take care and until next time!
xx
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