Tuesday, June 25, 2019 London

After a nine hour flight we finally landed at London Heathrow. When they say it is The Queen’s Terminal do they mean the rock band Queen or do they mean the Queen of England? Is there a King’s terminal? In England you don’t claim your luggage, you reclaim your luggage. That puts your luggage in the same category as a reclaimed environmentally compromised former factory site. If my luggage is that suspect I don’t want to claim or reclaim it.

The Flight ✈️

My good buddy Tom Bissell convinced me to spend a few extra bucks and upgrade to economy plus for my flight from Denver to London. My back has been stiff and painful for the last couple of weeks due to my violent and orthopedically unsound golf swing. So I thought the extra legroom in the economy plus section of the plane would be a good idea.

I got on the plane and situated myself in my economy plus aisle seat 💺. So far so good. A skinny guy sat next to me in the middle seat, which is always good news. Then a rather large gentleman sat in the seat in front of me. Better to have him sit in front of me than next to me, I thought. About an hour after takeoff I had a nice dinner, chicken and pasta in a light cream sauce, and a beer 🍺. After the flight attendants cleared the dinner plates I started to watch a movie on the seat back screen. The big guy in front of me turned in his seat and asked if I would mind if he reclined his seat and took a nap. I smiled and with just a hint of sarcasm said that of course I didn’t mind if he fully reclined his seat and spent the rest of the remaining eight hours of the flight sleeping in my lap. He thanked me for acquiescing to his request and proceeded to recline his seat as far from the full upright position as it would go. This brought the seat back screen so close to my face that I could adjust the volume and change channels with my nose, like a seal in a circus act. Then the skinny guy in the seat next to me fell asleep and toppled over sideways so that his head was on my shoulder. And then he started to snore and drool. I woke him up and asked him to rearrange himself. This worked until he fell asleep again. His head started to slowly roll towards me and then it flopped onto my shoulder and the snoring and drooling resumed. What a nightmare. I didn’t get even one wink of sleep during the whole flight. I would have been more comfortable in a dog kennel in the cargo hold of the airplane.

My Hotel

I am spending the night at the Avonmore Hotel. I picked this place because it is a couple of blocks from the St. Pancras tube station 🚉. This allowed me to take the Tube 🚇 from Heathrow into the City. I have always wanted to ride on the London subway and now I can check that off my bucket list. I am sure there is an elevator at the St. Pancras Station, but I couldn’t find it. I had to lug my 50 pound suitcase up four flights of stairs while everyone else in London was scrambling down the stairs in a mad dash to catch a train and avoid being late for work.

I wandered around for an hour trying to find the Avonmore, when Google Maps kept saying it was only 5 minutes away. I finally asked a Bobby – that’s what they call police officers over here – for directions. He politely pointed across the park and there was the Avonmore Hotel. In hindsight I think I walked by this Hotel more than once on my one hour Where’s Waldo ramble.

I checked into my spartan room and got carry out chorizo paella and had a picnic lunch in Cartwright Gardens, a park across the street from the Hotel.

While I was in the park, a group of college students set up a cricket pitch and proceeded to play a spirited game of cricket 🏏.

After lunch I returned to my no frills room and took a nap. This is my room. It is clean but far from palatial.

After I woke up from my nap I decided to walk to Euston Station and print out my tickets for tomorrow’s train 🚂 and ferry ⛴ to Dublin. On the way to Euston Station I got lost – no surprise – and wound up at the British Library.

This is the famous Newton statue at the entrance to the British Library.

I toured the rare books collection at the British Library. The crown jewel of this collection was one of the original signed and sealed versions of the Magna Carta. Sad to say that the Beatle memorabilia in this collection drew a larger crowd than the Magna Carta.

After I found Euston Station and printed out my tickets it was time for dinner. I found a Turkish cafe with sidewalk seating and enjoyed a tasty Donner kebab wrap.

I hope everyone had a wonderful day today. Good night from London