DAY 1
TOWNSVILLE (Queensland, AUS) to EDINBURGH (Lothian, SCO)
Friday August 29th, 2008
TODAYS MILEAGE – 11625 miles or 18709 kilometres
TRIP MILEAGE – 11625 miles or 18709 kilometres
Greeting and Salutations Culture Vultures,
It's just on 13 months since I've had any "real" time off, other than weekends and some public holidays, so it doesn't take an Einstein to work out that I've looking forward to this trip, since I booked and paid for it two years ago. The long and the short of it, is that I have a week of playing rugby in Edinburgh, Scotland with a bunch of mates from the Alice Springs Dingoes.
The following week, a bunch of us a flying to Ireland and driving around the Emerald Isle for a week. I continue on for another a week with a great mate of mine, Jungle (from Canada), driving the highlands of Scotland before jetting back to Australia
If everything went to schedule, which it did, I was in an aircraft for 23 hours, 35 minutes. While another 9 hours and 45 minutes (plus the delay in London) was spent wandering around the airports of Brisbane's glass brick, Singapore’s huge Changi, and the chaos of Heathrow in London.
One thing I was looking forward to on this trip, was that the Singapore to London portion was on the new Airbus A380. I decided to utilize the last of my United Airlines Mileage Plus awards to go Business Class, but in what I call "Un–tied Airlines true form", they managed to get all my flights from Brisbane to Edinburgh and return, but due to a ticketing malfunction, I ended up going cattle class. This is even after I rang 24 hours earlier to confirm my seating. I asked if the issue would be rectified for the return leg, "can't promise anything, but they'll try to do their best."
How were the flights, you ask? From the outset, can I just say that Singapore Airlines have kept up their incredibly high standards of service, that they are deservedly world renown for. I have flown across the pond on multiple occasions with the likes of Qantas, United, Northwest, Ansett, Air New Zealand and have found Singapore Airlines to be by far the best I've flown with.
In addition to that, I might just add that Singapore's cattle class exceeds the service levels I have received with "Un–tied Airlines" efforts when flying Business or First Class.
As for this Airbus A380, not a lot of substance to the advertised "Wow" factor. The interior is the normal "airline interior beige" with these light pastel brown, grey and aqua seat covers. The carpet clashes big time with everything as it is predominately emerald, blue and white strips in colour. It looks a lot like Mexican pauncho that no self respecting Beaner would be caught dead in.
The in-flight entertainment consists of 9 inch by 4 inch LCD screen the a myriad of choices for programming on an individual basis. No more have to watch what everyone else has to. Stop and start wherever you want. The big thing for me is that every seat now comes with its own 110 volt power source. There is also a powered USB connection with the LCD, great for charging PDA's, phones, iPods and all the toys you tend to cart around with you when you travel.
To put it all in laymen’s terms I left Townsville, Australia at 9:30AM Friday and arrived in Edinburgh, Scotland around 9:00PM Saturday evening (Townsville time), for a total of 35½ hours of sleep deprivation. The things that I put myself through, so that some of you can live vicariously through me.
Not that it's a bad thing, my good mate Jungle and his mate Derek were at the airport to meet me, all be it a bit seedy from self inflicted head injuries from the previous nights adventures.
Just in case you are interested, I've broken down the flight times and distances in getting over there:
∗ TOWNSVILLE (Queensland, AUS) to BRISBANE(Queensland, AUS)
691 miles or 1114 kilometres
• Flight Time: 1 hour 45 minutes plus 3 hour 25 minute layover
∗ BRISBANE (Queensland, AUS) to SINGAPORE ~ Changi Airport (SGP)
3821 miles or 6149 kilometres
• Flight Time: 8 hours 5 minutes plus 2 hour 45 minute layover
∗ SINGAPORE ~ Changi Airport (SGP) to LONDON ~ Heathrow (ENG)
6771 miles or 10897 kilometres
• Flight Time: 13 hours 25 minutes plus 3 hour 35 minute layover
• Flight Delay: 1 hours 30 minutes
∗ LONDON ~ Heathrow (ENG) to EDINBURGH (SCO)
332 miles or 534 kilometres
• Flight Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
∗ EDINBURGH ~ Airport (SCO) to EDINBURGH ~ Holiday Inn City West (SCO)
7 miles or 11 kilometres
• Drive Time: 15 minutes