Unlikely! There was more snow in Copenhagen in the 6 days we were there, a foot's worth (30 cm), than for the entire month of December in London. It also never made it above freezing during the Christmas period, so the snow that fell stayed there. Bizzarely, even through all that snow the airport, the trains and the roads never closed down. Sure a few trains were delayed, and people took longer to drive places than normal, but all in all nothing stopped. Well a few flights were cancelled, but these were flights to other airports that were closed such as Brussels, Paris and London. Perhaps the folks at Heathrow should go and have a look at how Copenhagen manages to keep running even through twice as much snow as that which closed Heathrow for days and caused chaos for several more.
We were incredibly lucky to make it out of Heathrow on the Tuesday before Christmas. At that stage, more than 3 days after the 10 - 15 cm of snow had fallen in London, only a third of flights were leaving Heathrow. Crazy. We were on an evening SAS flight which is typically a business travellers flight so I can only assume that SAS cannot afford to lose business Customers so made damned well sure that the flight got off the ground. Out of 5 flights they had that day, 3 of them were cancelled. Oddly there were still empty seats on the flight we took. How on earth does that work? Don't know. I am just thankful that we got off the ground.
What I saw at Heathrow though was terrible. A full 3 days after the snow had fallen the place still looked like a refugee camp. there were people sleeping on mats all over the departures area. Also the refuge of even hundreds more than had spent the previous nights there. There were mats and sliver foil blankets left all over the place. Were these waiting for more people to come back and sleep the night we left?
At the front of the airport large tents were set up for people, who did not have flights, to congregate (and sleep in?) and the Salvos (god bless the Salvation Army) were handing out food and warm drinks.
I felt guilty getting through the airport when so many people were left in a state of anger, confusion, desperation and sheer shock. It was horrible. O.K. I can understand that if we had feet of snow that there are going to be issues getting planes on and off the ground, but 15cm of the stuff 3 days beforehand? Seriously is it that difficult. I remember on the Saturday the news reporting that someone at Heathrow saying not to worry as they had plenty of de-icing chemicals to sort the problem out. Well guess what de-icing chemicals should be used on the ice and not used for drinking. Surely this is what must have been happening?
I certainly hope that the review of the chaos that is being held finds out the root cause of the problem and that something can be done about it. The answer here is yes, and it will probably cost money. I suggest that it it probably money well spent. Either that or Heathrow remains the laughing stock of major international airport hubs.
Unfortunately the people that are affected by it (and I stress I actually wasn't) are not laughing along with the joke.
I truly hope that all the people who were affected by this utter shambles, and lets face it that's what it was, made it home safely and in time to celebrate Christmas with families.
Now wasn't this blog supposed to be about Gardening in winter in Copenhagen? Hmmm sorry a little side tracked by the Heathrow issue ;-). When it comes down to it though you have Buckley's and none chance of gardening in Copenhagen in winter!
Snow ...
... and more snow!
and more snow pictures (and Christmas pictures) on flickr
Have fun
M
