Traveling to the Veidec Nitro Festival at Mantorp Park

Traveling to Linköping - What a nightmare!

Thursday 27th July 2006

I set off to Stanstead Airport at around lunch time and it was pretty muggy as I left home. By the time I parked up at the Airport, the pleasantly cool air conditioning in the car did not prepare me for the oven-like temperatures once I got out the car. It was stifling! Once I was at the terminal building, the check in process made me a little nervous. I was carrying a load of camera equipment in amongst my luggage and I clearly remembered being really stung for excess baggage, the last time I traveled to Mantorp using Ryan Air. In the end, I had nothing to fear as my stuff wasn’t even near being overweight.

After having a general smooch around, I checked the time and concluded I’d got time for a quick bite and, perhaps an opportunity to adjourn to the bar. The pint of Stella looked ever more delicious as it was being gently poured into the glass and it tasted just as good as it looked. I had drained the glass in moments. I had something to eat and later, ordered another one of those delicious Stella's and I was now really in the mood for Mantorp.

On the way to the gate, I bought some duty free/tax paid stuff and off I went. I was amazed just how far it was to the gate. I just seem to have to trudge for miles, literally. The Flight was called whilst I was just going past gate 20. I was after gate Fifty-something and therefore I hurried up, a lot. The final flight call was made when I was still, I guess, a couple of minutes away and by the time I got to the gate, I was all of a huff and a puff and headed smartly outside to walk to the plane. I was surprised to find that it was raining lightly. I boarded, got seated and the very minute that we we’re ready to push back from the gate, the heavens opened. Lightning, thunder, the whole back of tricks – but in biblical proportions. We simply could not safely take off as the lightning was so intense it was like there were a bunch of paparazzi photographers outside the Aircraft. It went on and on like this for hours. Three and a half hours, to be precise. Nevertheless we got away from Stanstead at long last and settled down for the flight.

I was very worried about car rental places still being open when we got there, so a little later in the flight, I had a rummage through my papers and couldn’t find my driving licence… It’s not as if I’m an inexperienced traveler – but a small distraction must have happened and now, through my own stupidity, I was snookered. As we approached Stockholm Skavsta Airport, I Looked carefully around the plane for a tell-tale racing baseball cap or a T shirt. Not a single one was to be seen, which was pretty alarming, seeing as there is normally a bunch of Mantorp-bound folks on this flight. After we landed and we were disembarking the plane, I spotted one shirt with an ordinary-looking Chevrolet Chevelle on the back of it. I approached: “Going to Mantorp, lads?” “Yes, we are” “Thank God. Any chance of buying a lift?” “Sure, we’re going to Linköping” (Pronounced: Lynne Sherping, by the way). That was precisely the town I was looking to get to, tonight. My new heroes of the day who saved my bacon were: Jimmy Day, Barry Grimes and yellow 55 Chevy Super-Mod racer, Rob Smallworth. We had an interesting, if swift, journey to Linköping (via several MacDonald's’ drive-ins, because Jimmy was starving. Despite having their lights on, they were all shut, of course) and the guys cheerfully delivered me to the Park Hotel (“Linköping’s Fawlty Towers”) at 2am, and I wasted no time in turning in.

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