Thursday, September 8, 2011
London, England
We began the day in the air over the North Atlantic.
It is a long journey, over eight hours, but with a good tailwind so we picked up about 45 minutes by the time we landed at London Heathrow. We were in row 60 so we were almost the last ones off the plane, and almost last to the Customs area. And it was FULL, there must have been several large planes landing back to back from foreign origins, it is London Heathrow after all, and we were at the end of the end of the line. So we waited, and waited and shuffled along, and waited and shuffled some more. But in the end we got there, got stamped into Merrie Olde England, and went to get our luggage. It was there, circling the baggage carousel all by itself, looking lonely. At last re-united with all our belongings, we exited the terminal to find the London Underground, or simply, 'the tube'. We found it, the familiar Pickadilly line, and we passed through the familiar Acton Town where the girls first lived on their arrival here three years ago. Then a little further down the line we ground to a halt. The driver came on the speakers to announce that there were some trespassers on the track near Hammersmith and we would have to wait. And we did wait, almost 45 minutes of wait, but in fact this is coming up on the tenth anniversary of '911' and nobody was taking any chances that something like a bomb had been planted by the intruders. The train driver kept us filled in on the details as we waited, nice of him, and in time we got going again to move through Hammersmith and eventually getting off at Earl's Court.
Then a transfer to the District Line, but it wasn't that easy. From the tube map it looked as though we wanted a south-bound train, but there weren't any of those. When faced with the choice of East or Westbound, I chose westbound (after listening to advice from another passenger) and it was wrong. Now Jan and I were in West Kensington, because the track forked and whereas the westbound track was correct we were on the train forking toward Richmond. We should have been on the Wimbledon fork. So ..... off the train in West Kensington and then hauling all our heavy bags up 26 stairs (oh yes, I counted them all!!!) across an overpass of the tracks, and then slid them carefully down another 26 stairs to the platform for the eastbound train. Then, back in the Earl's Court station, the westbound track again, this time picking up the correct Wimbledon-bound train which alternates with the Richmond train. We're very tired, and don't usually get confused like this. At last we arrived at the West Brompton station, actually the first stop after Earl's Court, and then lugged our bags UP ANOTHER 28 STAIRS before we could cross over to another platform and a lift down to the National Rail Service train to Imperial Wharf, our final destination for today. This one was easy, the first stop for the train and the platform well serviced by elevator. Finally, picking up the key from the concierge, up to Jonathan and Tara's flat, and we were 'home' at last. It was 2:45pm, or 6:45am body-clock time after a sleepless night. We were tired, and went to bed with the clock set to 5:45pm so that we would be up when Tara and Jonathan arrived home at the end of their work days.
Tara arrived first and after hugs we sat down to chat and it turned out that Jonathan had just mentioned to Tara that there was an event tonight that they should go to, a simple little 'black tie' party at the British Museum of Natural History, one of sixty other fund-raising parties like this, held as a related group spanning the globe. The glitterati of London was to be there, very posh, including Tara and Jonathan. Tara rose to the occaision and with aplomb and style and was soon in her little black dress and on Jonathan's tuxedo'd arm and out the door to a waiting taxi. Not before we got some pictures, however. How wonderful, these people really 'live' in London, they don't just exist here or sleep here. They live here and enjoy it.
For Jan and I, we're just exhausted now so we are finally off to bed.
