Gatwick to St. Lucia
Just 4 words. Sounds simple. Reality is a bit different but this time the trip was worth the effort.
Check-in at Gatwick
The Bloc capsule-hotel was actually quite nice although it was only a small cube. And the location cannot be beat, situated only a few meters from the baggage drop. I’d already gotten a boarding pass for the flight so the only thing I needed to do was drop off my bag. That was done completely electronically, and the queue was short. In addition to being close, the Bloc hotel gave out a VIP Security pass which let me use a shorter line. They told me that my notebook and camera could remain in my backpack. That didn’t work and I got into secondary inspection. But as I had a lot of time before the flight this posed no problem at all.
Flight to Hewanorra
True to past form, when I looked at the departures board and found my flight it had a big “delayed” flag and no gate number. I had a banana cake and a flat white at a coffee shop (skipping the long line at Starbuck’s) and read my book for a bit. Then my next check of the departures board showed that the delay was only in assigning a gate number and not for departure! So hustled to the gate and within 30 minutes they had begun boarding my flight. The aircraft was a Boeing 777 and it looked like it was going to be full. I had a seat towards the back but got to the front of my boarding group and was just early enough to find an overhead slot for my backpack. It seems that most of the passengers had 2 large carry-ons.
I had a window seat and the passenger next to me was a rather large St. Lucian lady who also wore a very large puffy winter jacket and I resigned to an uncomfortable 9-hour flight. But the row in front of us had only 1 person so when the “boarding complete” announcement came I suggested that the lady go forward. She did; everyone was happy.
I read my book, dozed a bit, watched the most recent Minions cartoon. Two games of chess and some Trivial Pursuit on the entertainment system and the flight went by very quickly.
Arrival and drive to Rodney Bay
Customs and immigration went well, despite quite a few people ahead of me in the queue. My rental car was ready and waiting and I cheerfully departed the airport much sooner than expected. And arrived at my hotel almost 3 hours later…
The normal trip time from the airport to distant Rodney Bay is about 90 minutes. The part going over the main mountain range is slow, as is traversal of Castries. This time it was a lot slower, with some overladen trucks barely making it up the hill slowing things down to a slow jogging pace. Then the traffic jam through Castries at the tail end of rush hour did the rest. I never made it faster than walking pace from the entrance into Castries all the way to the turn-off at my hotel.
Mystique Hotel
The hotel was a pleasant surprise indeed! I’ll have to get some pictures of the room to post, it is older but in nice condition and the location at the beach can’t be beat. I had a cold Piton beer as a welcome drink and even the buffet dinner had a good selection of fresh food.
