I live 25 min from stansead.
Dr John kindly offered a lift to myself and sally but as we had plenty of time he suggested we stop for one beer which we did. turned out to be a bloody expensive beer.
dropped of at airport at 1.00pm for 2.40 flight - this was tuesday.
can`t see flight on departures board.
AAAARRRGGH. look at ticket and see terminal 2 Heathrow. even though i had checked ticket for flight time only two days earlier and several times since booking up two months ago i never spotted this my only excuse being for the sparta match we had flown with same airline to and from stanstead.
call Dr. John who on taking my call is immediately stopped by police for being on phone while driving!
he picks us up and sets off to heathrow. road is unbelievably clear - poor Dr John is a steady driver by no means a speed merchant and it was obvious by his constant sharp braking he was driving faster than he was used to but we arrived 20 before flight due to leave
miracle- departure board shows check in counter still open but as sally feared based on past experience with them no way, despite having no luggage to check in , were they going to let us on.
if czech airlines telling the truth this was the first flight in more than 40 years of flying that my plane was taxiing down runway 10 min ahead of schedule.
a gooner member of staff persuaded airline to check us in for next morning`s 7am flight at no extra charge and we were given boarding tickets.
but this is heathrow in middle of afternoon - i had already told dr john-fearing he may have heart attack after for him a stressful journey - that we were ok and not to wait.
so we asked at various airlines for prices to prague- nothing less than £450.
our mate nice man Phil was going by British Airways early evening but that was now over £500.00
another mate peter was going by easy jet from gatwick . phil checked price £80.00 one way and available.
so choice is stay night at heathrow airport hotel getting up at 5am paying fortune for room food or booze or go for it.
not being sure whether we could make it, while looking for taxi stumbled across bus station, where we were told we should be ok, and as buying bus ticket phil pressed the button and flights booked.
got to gatwick ok met up with surprised peter and arrived in prague hotel only about 3hours later than planned.
so in one day had been to all three london airports and three- quarters way round the m25
was it worth the effort? - i dont know anybody yet who saw game on tv and watched it all the way through - it was that bad. while i understand wenger`s reasons for the team selection, sometimes i wish people like hiim could and would travel like most of the rest of us and then he may appreciate our efforts and put out team at least partly interested in winning and entertaining (we are so lucky , i,know, in that unlike fans of many other teams it is rare we have to suffer such dross).
anyway was it worth it. at least we were lucky to be under cover and not drenched and before game, somewhat belatedly, on monastery grounds, only 10 min walk from ground found fantastic bar that brewed its own beer.
we had difficulty finding it thanks to nice man phil`s inept map reading but next day he sally and i re-visited it at a more leisurely pace and beer and food was excellent - its a pity it was not open after the game.
we`d all been to prague before so it was very much "a been there did not do that" trip. no charles ii bridge, no wenceslas square , no royal palace, but got out to more out of the way places and pubs.
best thing tourist wise we did was visit the miniature museum also on the monastery grounds. don`t know what motivates anyone to do it but russian artist has drawn camel train on one strand of hair in eye of a needle, beethoven `s face on a sesame seed, horseshoe,lock and key on a flea. you have to look through a microscope but quite incredible.
last stop was u fleku which most regular visitors to prague should know and then metro and bus strangely enough to correct airport.
a friend of ours derek did travel all the way to bernabeu only to realise all too late he`d left match ticket in hotel room safe in hotel whose name he did not even know and ended up not even watching match on tv. can`t make my mind up but given the choice of stupid acts i think mine was less painful.
given my relentless ribbing of him for weeks after, derek for one will no doubt look forward to meeting me soon. god knows what shit i will have to put up with down the village pub - a classic case of the biter being well and truly bitten.
anyone can beat my stupidity?
my trip to prague - beat this for stupidity
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EdgeOfTown
- Posts: 473
- Joined: Fri Aug 10, 2007 9:13 am
that was some day on tues 
Not nearly as bad as you story, but I lost my phone in a cab on the way to the match (which might not sound like that big a deal made was a massive problem for me). It was the end of a big long butterfly effect series of events that started with legends bar playing the whole of definitely maybe and keeping me in there for longer than planned.
To befair though, a Czech gooner, two sets of english gooners and even a gooner mag seller let me use their phones to try and see if the cab driver would answer and bring it back (well played).
Unfortunatly he didnt answer and after holding out hope until thurs morning I phoned 3 and told them to cancel it, but that wasn't before he'd made a load of calls (load of ballacks).
Seems my karma view that after finding 3 phones in the last year and calling the "home" number from the phone book and returning each one would mean that whenever I lost mine someone woulddo the same didn't work out. The timing of the phone loss just before the match, then the freezing/soaked row 8 seat and the match itself put a right downer on what up until then was an absolutly awesome trip.
To befair though, a Czech gooner, two sets of english gooners and even a gooner mag seller let me use their phones to try and see if the cab driver would answer and bring it back (well played).
Unfortunatly he didnt answer and after holding out hope until thurs morning I phoned 3 and told them to cancel it, but that wasn't before he'd made a load of calls (load of ballacks).
Seems my karma view that after finding 3 phones in the last year and calling the "home" number from the phone book and returning each one would mean that whenever I lost mine someone woulddo the same didn't work out. The timing of the phone loss just before the match, then the freezing/soaked row 8 seat and the match itself put a right downer on what up until then was an absolutly awesome trip.
(Only joking ed.)-
Basil is a Gooner
- Posts: 7025
- Joined: Fri Mar 16, 2007 10:04 am
- Location: Anywhere away from you lot.....
prague
Or maybe it WAS the ed (are you a gooner seller in disguise???) 
