My Terminal 5 Experience

Jimi Hendrix said it best: "Have you ever been experienced?" Well, I have.
I have been Experienced in Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport.

We left Boston on British Airways AHEAD of schedule. The passengers boarded, the catering arrived, the doors were closed, the paperwork was done, and we pushed back from the gate at 9:05 am, about ten minutes ahead of schedule.

Once in the air, our flight was to take about six hours. The video screen showed a tail wind of 129 mph, so we were making very good time as the coasts of Maine, Nova Scotia, and Labrador went scudding by below us.

I spent the time happily knitting away on a brown alpaca scarf, the perfect plane project, per the Head Kitten. She was right. I played Peek-a-boo with an infant while I waited for my turn in the queue for the toilet. I chatted with my seatmate, an American who was returning to her home in Marrakesh, Morrocco. I took a little snooze to escape the incessant wailing of a crying toddler, and before I knew it, we were over land again. Cornwall, Devon, and the Isle of Wight were all clearly visible as we made a slow descent. The Captain came over the PA to inform us that Air Traffic Control had asked him to slow down. There was too much traffic heading into Heathrow, and we would have to circle, which we did.

We finally landed, having lost all the time we'd made by leaving early and having a brisk tail-wind. Once on the ground, our Terminal 5 Experience began. There was no gate available for our incoming flight, so we waited near the terminal. Please bear in mind that the line for the toilet facilities had been quite long near the end of the flight, and all such activities had been curtailed by the arrival of turbulence and the subsequent lighting of the seat belt sign. I knew that I'd be able to make it until we landed, but once we were on the ground I was quite eager to deplane. We could almost reach out and touch Terminal 5, we were so close. Only 25 minutes later, and a plane pulled out and we finally approached a gate. Of course the disembarking process takes at least 20 minutes to get all the way back to row 31, so it was almost an additional hour before we were on the jetway.

I made a bee-line for the immigration area, (or was it a pee-line?) and proudly showed off my new visa. After answering a few perfunctory questions (did I have a job lined up yet? No, but Hubster does...) I was on my way out of that level via escalator. That escalator led to another one. And that one led to another one. We were clearly hamsters trapped in a Habitrail cage. Big glass windows, tubes from one level to the next to the next, it was all quite dizzying. And finally, we reached the Wheel. Well, it was a wheel for the luggage anyway, which came spinning out in due course. I decided that this was my chance for a quickie visit to the Ladies. There were several cleaners inside the facilities, but Four stalls in a row had no paper. Perhaps the hamsters had shredded it all. I was grateful to have the Fung Wah! ticket still in my bag.

After man-handling my heavy bags off the luggage wheel and strapping them together on the folding cart thingy I had purchased in New York's Chinatown, I was ready to board the Heathrow Express via a lift. A nice airline employee lady helped me figure out that you did not have to push any buttons in the elevator; it just went up, then down, all by itself.

At the down level, there was another escalator to the Heathrow/Paddington express train. Keep in mind that I have Four bags with me; a large rolling duffel bag, a computer bag and a large tote bag filled with things I picked up in Belmont (walking shoes, beads, yarn, peanut butter, corn meal for corn bread)--both of these bags are strapped to the rolling cart thingy with bungy cords, and a handbag that is so full that the magnetic clasps won't close.

I got onto the escalator just in time to hear this announcement over the PA: "Travelers with a large amount of luggage should use the lift". Too late! I dismounted the escalator relatively gracefully and came up against an obstacle: metal poles a small distance apart so one cannot abscond with the airport luggage cart. My 2-bags-on-the-folding-cart-thingy did not fit through the barrier. I had to stop and unstrap everything. Meanwhile, the Voice continued: "This train will leave in Three minutes". As I struggled to get everything through the barrier without leaving my handbag behind, the same nice airline employee lady came to my aid, and lifted the biggest bag onto the train and into the luggage area for me. Many blessings to her!!

A nice man saw me struggling to put my bungy-cord contraption back together and vacated his seat so that I could park the monstrosity next to me in the aisle.

Thus endeth my Terminal 5 Experience, as we pulled off into the tunnel to Terminal 4 and headed into central London. I wasn't quite sure which side of Paddington Station held the taxi queue, but finally noticed a black line on the floor with the words "Taxi" and an arrow pointing in the relevant direction. If only there was a clue!! There was only one party ahead of me in the taxi queue, so I was back at A Flat on Abbey Road in under five minutes. It felt good to be "home".