Heathrow Airport

St. Patrick’s Day at Heathrow and Dublin Airports

Holidays, ,

St Patricks Day Heathrow 1

London’s Heathrow Airport is celebrating St. Patrick’s Day with some jigs, courtesy of the O’Sullivan School of Irish Dancing. The children, aged 6 – 16, welcomed passengers arriving into Terminal 5 before taking off to the World Championships in Dublin.

Passengers traveling through Heathrow’s terminals today will also be treated to live performances from Irish Folk bands the Long Notes and Beckett Duo.

At Dublin Airport, the whole dang place is green and will be continue to be bathed in green light every evening through Tuesday to celebrate St Patrick’s Day and The Gathering 2013, a year-long celebration of Irish culture.

Dublin Airport green

Dublin Airport will also have choirs, traditional Irish groups and local schools on hand to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day weekend and both airport terminals are decked out with 11,000 balloons and bunting.

Santa arrives – early – at Heathrow Airport

Holidays, ,

Airports are gearing up for the holiday season and many are planning to offer entertainment, special events and even some contests and give-aways to passengers.

With Santa’s arrival this past weekend, it seems that Heathrow Airport is already in the swing of things.

Santa handed out iPads to some arriving passengers and will be surprising some other passengers with other gifts – including some fancy watches and Hamley’s teddy bears, over the next three weeks.

The airport is posting clues to the daily surprises on its Facebook page

Heathrow has lots of other surprises in store for travelers throughout December. Free chocolates will be handed out by the airport ‘Journey Team’ from the 10th through the 24th, carolers will be singing and Santa will be listening to Christmas wishes from the 14th through the 23rd. And on Friday, December 21st, when the airport expects the heaviest traffic, elves will be on hand to distribute mince pies – and 100 bottles of perfume.

Not heading to Heathrow this holiday season? There’s an on-line “load the sleigh” game you can play and possibly win some prizes as well.

Snack Saturday: Gordon Ramsay Plane Food picnics at Heathrow

Food, , ,

As part of a day-long tour of Heathrow Airport on Friday that included visits to the VIP lounge and the Air Traffic Control Tower (details next week, I promise), I had a chance to have lunch in Terminal 5 at Gordon Ramsay’s Plane Food.

In addition to “Plane Fast” menus that come in 25 minute (2 course) and 35 minute (3-course) versions, there is an option to order picnics to go:

The 3 course meals (here’s the menu) come packed inside this insulated carrier and for £12.95 (about US $20) seem like a fair deal, considering you get to keep the sturdy carrier.

My meal was still fresh and intact (no spills, no oozing) after being carried through the airport for several hours and then for the ride back to town on the Heathrow Express and the Tube, so I assume they work out well for travelers who pick them up just prior to boarding a flight.

The restaurant’s general manager, Elton Keka, told me about one regular traveler who takes a few meals home with her each week. She’s ended up with quite a few of those handy carriers and recently returned more than two-dozen of them to the restaurant for future use.

I’m keeping mine.

Heathrow Airport readies for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee

Events, ,

London’s Heathrow Airport is getting ready to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jublilee and expects more than 780,000 passengers to fly into town for the festivities between now and June 6th.

To set the scene, the airport painted a runway with a giant Union Jack flag and the image of the queen:

As passengers arrive, they’ll be greeted with red carpets, live bands, free Union Jack flags and invited to write congratulations messages to the Queen in books that will be sent to Buckingham Palace.

 

 

 

Heathrow Airport gets ready for the 2012 London Olympics

Events,

With the London 2012 Summer Games less than three months away, Heathrow, the event’s host airport, is already under fire for the Olympic-sized lines that have been greeting arriving passengers in the immigration halls.

Customs checks for illegally smuggled drugs and arms have been reduced at UK airports in an effort to combat long lines and wait times, according to a weekend report in The Guardian, citing “senior immigration officers and border force unions.”

Last week, UK Immigration Minister Damian Green told the BBC that while “there is a problem,” improvements were being made. “For the Olympic period, we are guaranteeing that there will be, at peak times, full manning” of border control desks.

BAA owns Heathrow and five other airports that serve the UK, but is not responsible for immigration wait times.

Heathrow claims it is the world’s busiest airport in terms of international traffic. It
served nearly 70 million passengers in 2011 and is currently operating at capacity. It will be the entry point for at least 80 percent of Olympics-bound passengers, and an estimated 59,000 athletes, family members and spectators.

For my story on msnbc.com, I spoke with Colin Matthews and John Holland-Kaye, BAA’s chief executive and commercial director, respectively.

Q: When did Heathrow begin planning for Olympic Games traffic and how did you go about it?
A: Colin Matthews: Heathrow’s planning for the London 2012 Games began during the bid process for London about five years ago. Since then the Heathrow team has been in Beijing in 2008 and Vancouver in 2010 to observe the operational challenges created by both Summer and Winter Games. Heathrow also met with the airport operators who successfully delivered Games transport in Athens and Sydney.

Q: The news has been full of stories lately about arriving passengers having to wait for more than two hours in the immigration halls. Is that what visitors will encounter when they arrive for the Olympics?

A: CM: Immigration is controlled by the Home Office [the UK government agency that oversees immigration and passports]. Immigration waiting times during peak periods at Heathrow recently have been unacceptable, but the good news is that the government recently announced it is going to devote more resources in that area.

Q: The airport is really the front door to the city. It’s the first — and last — place visitors will see. What are you doing to insure Heathrow will make a good impression?

A: John Holland-Kaye: Our strategy involves best practices and recommendations from prior host airports, construction of the temporary terminal for Olympic athletes departing from the Games and investment in additional facilities for Paralympians in the existing terminals. We’ve also been working in collaboration with other airport stakeholders and rehearsing and testing our facilities at their capacity.

Q: How much is Heathrow spending to make the airport games ready? Where do the funds come from?
A: JHK: Heathrow has invested over £20 million [about $32.4 million] in providing a great experience for athletes and regular passengers during the Games period. These funds are entirely Heathrow’s contribution.

Q: What special amenities, exhibits or temporary services will be in place?
A: JHK: We’ll be dressing up the airport. There will be Olympic-themed art exhibits and each passenger terminal will feature theatre and celebrations to surprise and delight passengers. For example, one walkway is going to look like a swimming pool and you’ll feel as if you’re walking on water. There will places where passengers can take photos standing on podiums, next to images of athletes. And we’ll do things like set up a 100 meter track so kids can race against each other.

Q: Everyone loves Olympics-related souvenirs. Will passengers be able to shop for those at the airport?
A: JHK: Yes, there are special souvenir shops set up for Olympics souvenirs. It’s also the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee [marking 60 years of the Queen’s reign], so we’re selling a lot of souvenirs for that. And, royal wedding souvenirs are still very popular.

Q: What are some insider tips about Heathrow you can offer to travelers, Olympics-bound or not?
A: JHK: A few quick ones: There’s an Olympic-themed art exhibit land-side in Terminal 5; there are two family security lanes in each terminal [look for the rainbows] and kids get a sticker when they go through; and at the duty free cosmetic shops in each terminal, you can get a facial or a hand massage for free.

Royal Wedding: alt activities

Airports, Museums, , , , , ,

Not invited to the Royal Wedding?


Don’t worry –Heathrow Airport is rolling out the red carpet for everyone and there are a jolly lot of attractions, museums and special sights that are very inexpensive and many where admission doesn’t cost a penny.

National Gallery

A must-see for most every London visitor, the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square has more than 2,300 Western European paintings from the Middle Ages to the early 20th century, including work by Leonardo da Vinci, Vincent Van Gogh, Georges Seurat and many others.  Admission is free, although there is a charge for some special exhibits.

Museum of London

The Museum of London delivers a punch with galleries exploring the archeological history of London, Roman London, Medieval London and the ever-popular display of fire-fighting equipment, paintings, films and objects relating to the September 1666 fire, the Great Fire, that is London’s most famous disaster.  Admission is free.

 

Wellcome Collection Napoleon Bonaparte's Toothbruch

Napoleon Bonaparte's Toothbrush

Courtesy: Wellcome Library, London

Sir Henry Wellcome, of the successful pharmaceutical company Burroughs Wellcome & Co, was a world-class philanthropist and a voracious collector who collected more than million items relating to health and medicine. The Wellcome Collection, opened in 2007, has intriguing changing exhibitions, unusual artwork inspired by modern-day health and medicine, and more than 1500 objects from Wellcome’s collection, including a shrunken head, a guillotine blade, a brass corset, Florence Nightingale’s moccasins, a lock of hair said to be from the head of King George III, and Napoleon Bonaparte’s toothbrush. Admission is free.

Brass automated clock in the form of a galleon. Trustees of the British Museum.

It’s possible to spend an entire week at the British Museum, which houses more than 7 million items from cultures around the world. So pick a few exhibits and rooms you want to see before you walk through the door.  The Egyptian mummies are among the most popular exhibits, so put them on your list, but consider visiting some of the smaller and less-visited rooms, such as the Clocks and Watches gallery, which holds hidden treasures such as this automated brass clock in the shape of a galleon. Admission free; there is a charge for some special exhibits.

All about Alain de Botton’s book: A Week at the Airport

Air Travel, Airplanes, Airport guides, Airport shops, , ,

Aaron Britt, the senior editor over at Dwell Magazine has been reading Alain de Botton’s book, A Week at the Airport: A Heathrow Diary, and was pretty sure fans of Stuck at the Airport would be interested in his two-part review.

Heathrow

He’s right. de Botton’s book is all about the time he spent as writer-in-residence at the British Airways terminal in London’s Heathrow Airport.

If you haven’t got your own copy of the book yet, you can read an excerpt in the New York Times and then wing your way over to Britt’s review.

Here’s an excerpt from that:

My favorite bit comes when he gets to Richard Roger’s eye-goggling architecture itself. He lucidly declares that the building’s soaring supports “were endowed with a subcategory of beauty we might refer to as elegance, present whenever architecture has the mnodest not to draw attention to the difficulties it has surmounted. On top of their tapered necks, the columns balanced the 400-metre [sic] roof as if they were holding up a canopy made of linen, offering a metaphor for how we too might like to stand in relation to our burdens.” Nice stuff.

Britt plans to post the second part of his review on Thursday and says:

I think that the second half, dominated by an assessment of what’s beyond the security gate is far more fruitful for de Botton. His natural position of informed ruminator gets going as he takes us on more of a guided tour of the security zone, shopping area, and first class lounge. He’s best when making connection between physical spaces and desire then when focusing on individual people. The space itself, and more importantly, our rituals in it show through better in the second half, the throat-clearing of the early pages now nicely laid to rest.


Souvenir Sunday at London Heathrow Airport

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London Airport souvenirs

There’s never enough time to do everything I want to do in London, but on my most recent visit I managed to squeeze in quite a lot in just three days.

Activities were wedged in between a meal seasoned with performances by contortionists and flame-embellished dancers at a West End cabaret bar named Circus, Afternoon Tea at The Langham’s Palm Court and whiskey tasting (before and after dinner) with the whiskey sommelier at The Athenaeum Hotel.

Whiskey tasting at The Athenaeum in London

Forks-down highlights included a visit to the funky top floor apartment Jimi Hendrix lived in from 1968-1970 (more about honoring Hendrix here); a Fat Tire Bike Tour past iconic monuments, memorials and palaces (more about that here), and walking tours of upscale, low-key Primrose Hill and East London, which is brimming with hip art galleries and stores chock-full of clothing by up-and-coming designers.

Hendrix fan waiting for tour of Hendrix's flat

Hendrix fan waiting to tour Jimi Hendrix's London flat

I couldn’t afford to buy anything in any in-city shops, so that left souvenir shopping at Heathrow Airport.

London souvenirs

Souvenir Sunday was coming up – the day Stuck at the Airport looks at fun, inexpensive items for sale at airports – so I focused on items selling for under £10, which right now equals about $16.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Souvenir at Heathrow - Princess Di Postcard

Giant Princess Diana postcard

London Souvenir - post box banks

Heathrow Airport Souvenir - post box banks

And of course:

Beatles tote bag

Meet the (scary-looking) Beatles. That's not really Ringo is it?

If you find a great souvenir while Stuck at the Airport, please take a photo and send it along. Your souvenir may be featured on a future edition of Souvenir Sunday.

[Note, my trip to London was part of a research trip for several articles in progress unrelated to whiskey, cabarets and shopping and was hosted by Air New Zealand, Visit London and The Athanaeum.  Thank-you.]

World’s largest mistletoe at Heathrow Airport

Air Travel, Fun Stuff,

Happy Thanksgiving!

While you were fretting about getting a gut-busting meal on the table, the folks at Heathrow Airport were busy putting up the world’s largest sprig of mistletoe in Terminal 5.

HEATHROW MISTLETOE

The super-sprig is ten feet by eight-feet, is suspended less than 10 feet from the floor,  and “was created to enable the one million passengers expected to fly through Terminal 5 in December the chance to share a truly memorable moment with their loved ones.”

Sweet, right?

But what if you’re not traveling through Terminal 5?

Don’t fret: there’s going to be giant mistletoe in every terminal at Heathrow.

So kiss away!!!

kissing kids

Have a moment to muse over mistletoe?  The folks at BAA sent along this list of 10 things you may not know about mistletoe.

Note:  If you’re worried about eating too much on Thanksgiving, check out #7: a one-minute smooch burns off 26 calories.

1. The custom of kissing under mistletoe is said to have originated in Scandinavia, where the plant is seen as a symbol of peace and harmony.
2. There are over a thousand mistletoe species worldwide.
3. The Romans also believed mistletoe had peace-making powers. When enemies met beneath it, they apparently threw down their weapons.
4. Tradition dictates that girls who refuse to be kissed under the mistletoe will remain old maids.
5. Mistletoe lives on trees and has no roots of its own.
6. Although the mistletoe is considered to be the seed of love, the common name of the plant is derived from the ancient belief that mistletoe grew from bird droppings.
7. Kissing under the mistletoe could be a good way to compensate for eating too many mince pies – scientists have calculated the average person burns off 26 calories in a one-minute smooch.
8. Mistletoe appeared on the British 47p stamp in 2002.
9. It was also the subject of Cliff Richard’s 99th single, ‘Mistletoe and Wine’, which spent four weeks at number one and became the best-selling single of 1988 in the UK.
10. Mistletoe leaves and young twigs are used by herbalists for treating circulatory and respiratory system problems.