Saturday, June 30, 2018

June 28-29, 2018 - Travel Days

We rented a van using Costco Travel to drive to Oakland Airport. Renting a van gave us plenty of room for four large and 4 carry on suitcases.  We picked up Jon and Terri, our friends that will be traveling with us on this journey,  and headed to Oakland.  Thank goodness the drive was smooth sailing and we got to the airport after filling up the van with gas and dropping it off at the rental car drop off and taking the shuttle to the airport with about a half hour wait before we could check in with Norwegian Air.  You can not check in or drop off your bags more than four hours before your flight.

This is the first time that we have flown out of OAK & our first time flying with Norwegian Airlines. I have to say I really like the Oakland (OAK) airport to fly out of.  It was easy to navigate as it only had two terminals, Terminal 1 is for all airlines except Southwest and Terminal 2 is only Southwest.  We sailed through security very quickly as there was no one in line.  We found our gate quickly since the terminal is very small.

Roger and I booked premium seats with Norwegian, which gave us access to the Escape Lounge, which was right by our gate,  and we took advantage of the opportunity and went in for lunch. 
Jon  and Terri found something to eat at one of the other vendors. After lunch Terri and I walked both terminals of the airport and realized there was a much better selection of places to eat in the Southwest terminal and it was much cooler.

Before we new it it was time to board or flight to Gatwick.
We were in the first row of the premium class.  I booked these seats because the seats recline quite a bit and I didn't want want someone reclining into my space if I didn't have to. 
We had plenty of legroom 
Jon and Terri were in the first row of economy,  which they had just as much leg room as we did but they had an extra person in their row so shoulder space was less and their seats didn't recline as far. 
What they didn't care for as much with their seats is that they were right by the bathroom and there were people standing next to them most of the trip.  We were also by the restroom but really didn't have that problem. 

Norwegian Airlines is a discounted airline so if you book the cheapest ticket you pay for everything,  seat reservations,  luggage, drink, food etc. You can pay about $100 more and get a seat reservation, checked bag & your meals. You still have to pay for drinks or anything else that usually comes standard when flying internationally.  With the Premium seats it is all included.  You do get two checked bags each at 20 Kilos (44 lbs.). For either class you get one carry on bag that weighs 10 Kilos (22 lbs), I will say they did not weigh our carry on bags at the Oakland Airport, we shall see if they do coming home.   I think they may only weigh them if you are not checking a bag. We were very happy with our selection and would not hesitate to fly with Norwegian again in either class. 

We landed at Gatwick airport in London right on time and getting through customs was much quicker than Heathrow. To our suprise our bags were checked through to Copenhagen. Normally we have had to gather our bags after going through customs and then dropping them back off before going through security again.   They also have a different system when going through security from any airport I have been to which seemed to get most people through quickly unless they detected something in your carry on then the process of checking seemed to hold people for a longer period of time but at the same time allowed others to keep moving.  You can do a lot of shopping while you are waiting for your next flight since there is a mini Harrods along with some other shops and not many places to sit.  Just like Heathrow Airport they do not give you a gate to go to until a half hour before boarding and it could take you that long to get to your gate depending on how far away it is.  You show your boarding pass and passport as you enter the gate lounge and with this flight it was a free for all when they opened the doors to board the plane.  We were fortunate to have exit row seats on this leg of our journey.  I will say I wish I had booked the nonstop flight for Oakland to Copenhagen and had I realized I could do that on a different day I would have.  It is really hard to sit through another flight after getting off an almost 10 hour flight when you are so tired. 

When we landed in Copenhagen the pilot told us that the baggage handlers went on strike 10 minutes earlier. 

So needless to say it got pretty crazy at bandage claim.  Two hours later we had our bags and were on the metro headed to our home for the next week.  We asked this very nice couple which way to go for the street we were staying and they were kind enough to walk us there, which was very close to the metro station.  

The apartment is on the fourth floor with no elevator. I wish I had packed lighter as I was climbing the stairs.  We got settled in and then headed out at 10 at night to find dinner.  We end up at Neighborhood , which is an upscale pizza place.  Their Honolulu pizza is not like our Hawaiian pizza at home.  I do not think we will be going there to eat again, although Roger liked his garlic chicken pizza.  We walked back in