Days 32 & 33 May 21st & 22nd Seattle to Penzance

I have merged these days as they were spent continuously travelling with the loss of 8 hours due to time zones. Unfortunately no photos with this post. We awoke aboard the Zaandam at 0700 and did our sorting out and final packing before going to breakfast. Our turn to leave the boat was at 0840 in the finely organised system that Holland America have developed over the years. It was a fine, warm day which made life easier. Our main luggage had been collected overnight and so we carried our portables with paperwork and made our way off the boat and saying goodbye to the crew.

We found the luggage, grabbed a trolley, went through American immigration customs/passport and made our way to the queue for the coach which we had booked to transfer us to Seattle airport. It was quite a drive across this large city before we arrived at the drop off point. We retrieved the luggage, grabbed another trolley and found our way through the confusing maze of the airport until we arrived at our check-in desk. This was now about 1030 and the flight was 1330 and so we had plenty of time to relax now. We had checked in on-line the previous day. The hold luggage was deposited, we went through border control/security successfully and went to the departure lounge to settle down and wait. I posted yesterday’s blog, Christine had a wander and found some coffee/pastries. The time soon passed and we then boarded for the long flight.

The flight was largely uneventful. We ate, dozed watched catch-up TV – I watched Premier League action and Christine the Royal wedding. I eventually watched the film “Dunkirk” and amongst all this we lost 8 hours and arrived at Heathrow at 0700. We did the usual paper inspections, collected the luggage, went through customs and made our way to the Heathrow Express. We were soon on our way to Paddington station where we spent a lot of time in a lounge before joining the 1203 train to Penzance. It did give us an opportunity to freshen up. The train journey was smooth and we arrived soon after 1700. We then walked the short journey to Heather and Alan’s flat, settled in, went for fish & chips and had an early night as we had been up for 33 hours!