1983 - Snow and QE2 12 January 1984 – Heading Home

Thursday 12 January 1984 – Zurich

Well, they haven’t been too bad at all. We woke up at 05.40 and got cracking pretty quickly as I was not certain how long it would take to get to the airport.

We left at 06.40 as planned. It was still pitch dark and quite cold. There was very little traffic about until I stopped to fill up and then there suddenly seemed to be hordes. We missed our first access to the freeway but managed to find a second. Both were badly signposted and since I am not at my best driving on the incorrect side of the road in the dark, I was a little tense. The airport turnoff was not that clearly marked either, but we got there quite well, arriving at about 07.20.

The Skycap who took our bags was an ill-mannered blighter as was the security man but at least we got our bags checked right through to Harare.We would have been well above our allowable weight of 20kg per case if we had to check the luggage in Switzerland. But as it was we were allowed the TransAtlantic allowance of two suitcases per person, irrespective of weight. We had packed on the basis that we would just have our flight bags with us in Zurich, so all was according to plan.

We took off at 08.30 in a United DC 10 with a very pleasant crew. Rab and Matt had a snack in the airport so didn’t have the airline breakfast, but I did – pancakes and omelette – delicious! There were some spectacular views of snow covered mountains before clouds intervened. Since this coincided with the start of the film – an enjoyable Dudley Moore comedy – that suited me.

The plane was half empty so there was plenty of room for us to get comfortable. After the film finished we had a lunch of cold cuts, which wasn’t up to the standard of the breakfast. By then we were flying over Lake Eyre which was frozen over completely – a lovely sight. An interesting feature of this flight was that you could tune into a commentary given by the pilot, which added to the enjoyment.

There was some concern about the weather reports for New York. The night before we left about 5in of snow had been dumped on the city and we thought we might be delayed. It made a lovely sight as we came in to land on one of those cloudless winter’s days. We landed at Kennedy a little early at 10.20 Eastern time although of course it was 13.20 by our body clocks.

So far so good, but that is when the problems started. The runways were very icey so speed on the ground was kept right down. Although this gave us some fascinating views of the aircraft in line to come in to land stretching into the far distances, we were a little concerned as we had to change terminals and I had to pick up the two suitcases we had left in safe custody before checking in at 17.00.

We finally got off the plane at 15.00 and were lucky to catch a link bus right away. We retrieved the suitcases and although I had a slight problem checking in because I didn’t have Rab’s passport or the San Francisco baggage checks we were aboard by 17.30. We had very nice pre-booked seats over the wing but there were two yelling brats in the centre aisle seats alongside of us and we didn’t fancy listening to them all the way to Geneva. Using the fact that the carpeting under my seat was soaking wet, we escaped to the back of the plane where there was an empty four seater as the plane was far from full. Although it was in the smoking section and we bounced around a fair deal, at least it was peaceful.

We had a very good dinner – Duckling A La Orange – and then watched the movie – John Travolta leaping around. Once this was finished there seemed little point in trying to sleep since it was only two and a quarter hours to Geneva but we did doze a bit until the cabin lights came on an hour later for breakfast. Just a continental breakfast but very good.

We landed on time in Geneva despite having taken off an hour late from Kennedy, having made up the time during the night. Soon after we touched down it started snowing heavily which caused some delays as our wings were de-iced and the runway cleared. Once we were in the air it was a short 30 minute hop to Zurich, where it was raining.

The du Theatre felt like coming home and since it was 00.40 by our body clocks – 10.40 local time – we had a good old snooze for three hours before going down town to get some money and various other bits and pieces. Had a snack meal here at the hotel and were abed by 20.30 after a long day!.

Back in the snow!