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London Day One and Two
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I'm finally in London. We've had an eventful trip so far.
Day One
Our flight from Portland to Newark was fairly easy and didn't feel too long despite the nearly 6 hour duration. I was in the middle between Todd and another man. It was not a pleasant experience. The weather in Newark was bad (heavy rain and fog) and our plane was forced to circle in a holding pattern for about 40 minutes. We finally landed and had to leave the security area, transfer to another terminal via train, and check in all over again at the British Airways terminal. We asked for seating in an emergency row (for the extra leg room), but there was none available. However, the agent must've liked us because he upgraded our seats to "World Traveler Plus". We had no idea what that meant, but the guy said it was a $700 upgrade. We made it to the British Airways terminal just in time. It was not until we were about to board the plane that I realized I left my iPod on the previous plane. I advised the folks at the gate who put a "message in the system". Kiss that iPod goodbye.
Our seats on the BA fight were awesome! They reclined quite farther than the normal coach seats, had leg and feet rests, remote controls for the personal television, and double the normal leg room. The flight attendant wasn't strong enough to lift her own bag into the overhead bin, so she I helped her out. This scored Todd and I two extra beers every time she came by, which was three times. Do the math on that. Yum. Our flight was about 45 minutes early because of strong tail winds across the Atlantic ocean. We had to circle Heathrow airport for about 40 minutes because the airport doesn't allow flights to land until 6am for some reason (probably a noise ordinance).
 We then proceeded to baggage claim where Todd and I found one of our bags each and waiting for the others... which never came. After about 30 minutes, we became very concerned so I went to the customer service desk about 14 miles away. They informed me that all of the baggage from our flight had arrived, so if it wasn't on the carosel then it was just plain missing and I would need to fill out a claim form. I left and gave Todd the bad news and then we both hoofed it back to the service desk. We filled out a claim for, put our hotel address on it and hoped for the best. Todd would have to live without extra clothes and I would have to live without the tools and other misc items we packed for our job. Just as we were headed to the customs gate, I realized that I left my sun glasses (prescription Ray
Ban's no less) on the back of the seat in front of me. I went back to the customer service desk and they told me that I would need to go to the "Lost Baggage" department which was on the other side of customs.
 We made it through customs uneventfully and then we proceeded out. The office manager in our London office was kind enough to arrange for a car service to pick us up, but because we were already in the airport for about 90 minutes, he was long one. We took the lowest fare cab we could fine which was £30 ($55). We took it and expected a long ride, but in fact the trip was only 10 minutes and 4 miles away! Apparently there are heavy feeds incurred when taking a cab from the airport. Crazy.
We checked in, showered, and headed to the hotel restaurant to have some breakfast. English food was... interesting. I had their "hot breakfast" which consisted of the following:
- Scrambled eggs. This was good - just plain ol' eggs
- Bacon. Pretty good - this is really just fried ham... they don't have actual smoked bacon strips like we do)
- Black Pudding. This was horrible and will be avoiding this at all costs in the future. This is some sort of black cake looking thing. It looks very much like a Odwalla Super Food bar, only it is made with blood and some other unknown ingredients. It was absolutely awful.
- Baked Tomato. Yes, I said TOMATO. It was fine, just an odd item with breakfast. It wasn't as juicy as I would have expected, but was otherwise ok.
- Toast. Not toasted enough even though the crusts were burnt to a deep black crispy consistency.
- Mushroom. It was large, dark grey, and pretty decent.
- Rice Crispies cereal. It wasn't actually labeled, so I can't be sure that it was rice crispies, but it was exactly the same taste. The milk options were skim or semi-skimmed. I chose semi-skimmed and I still looked like 1%. I imagine the other was equivalent to non-fat. I am a whole milk man (2% is ok), so the milk was a little sub-par.
- Apple Juice. I couldn't get enough of this stuff. Much better than the stuff they sell in the US... not sure why though. Yum.
 Not wanting to go to sleep, we immediately headed out to the nearest train station to head to Waterloo. The train station was much more formal than public transit is in the states. There's actually a guy that sells you tickets and provides information about the various options and trains you can take. The cool thing is that you actually take a train from that station (in Staines) to several different destinations. We purchased an all-day travel pass that let us get on any train, bus, or subway (tube). The train ride was pretty standard although it went way faster than the MAX. We arrived in Waterloo in about 30 minutes. The waterloo station is absolutely ginormous. At least a dozen different train tracks head there, not to mention the buses and two tube lines that pass through there. We exited the station and started out tour of London.
 First up was the London eye. This is the largest ferris wheel I've ever seen. I think it's the largest in the world, but I can't be sure. It certainly was awe-inspiring and looked like a giant bicycle wheel. It moves very slowly and had a long line, so we didn't actually get on it. You really can't take the wheel in at once, it's so large it requires you to crank your heard around to see it all. Each of the pods holds 15-20 people. Hopefully we can go it before we go home. We then walked along the Thames river and saw several street performers, some more interesting than others. We crossed the millenium bridge and headed down the other side of the river towards Big Ben and the Westminster Abbey.
 Big Ben is actually the name of the bell. It resides within St. Christopher's tower which is part of another large structure that I don't know the name of. We stopped next to Big Ben to get a picture with a local policeman. Westminster Abbey was just a block down from Big Ben and was the most amazing structure I've ever seen. The stone work, hundreds of gargoyles, and beautiful stained glass windows. It was just so grand that it was hard to believe. It was right there in front of me and yet it seemed surreal. Unfortunately, it was closed to the public as they were conducting actual services. It was Sunday after all.
 We walked around some more and eventually caught another tube to Hyde Park. We crossed Hyde Park towards the Buckingham Palace. The palace was just as grand as you'd expect and was amazing to look at. Everywhere we went we saw structures dating back to the renaissance period or even before. Quite breathtaking. The palace guards were there, although not in the traditional red with the high fur hats like I've seen on TV. Instead they were dressed in gray uniforms, armed with rifles. They were still as attentive as ever, poised still, moving only every once in a while to patrol a 20 or 30 foot section near their post.
 We then went to St. James park (on the other side of the palace from Hyde park). We didn't stay long though... only long enough to check out a map and find the nearest tube station to Leceister Square, a place Todd wanted to see. We found a tube station and headed over to the square which was a shopping mecca filled with tourists. We also passed the Empire theatre which was hosting the world premiere of "Nanny McPhee", a new film with Emma Thompson. Apparently she was due to arrive for the permier as they were preparing a red carpet and had started setup blockages to hold the crown back. We walked around for a bit and then headed to the National Gallery.
 The National Gallery was amazing. It was absolutely huge, with dozens of rooms that could fit my entire house. Each room contained 10-15 paintings ranging from 300 - 800 years old. Most of them (90%) were of Christian based themes; Jesus, Mary, etc. What was so stunning was that every one of the paintings were bright and vivid. I expected faint and muted colors, but they were all extremely bright, like a crayola box exploded on them just yesterday. They were all beautiful, some more than others. My favorite artist was Raphael... he had some paintings that looked like photographs. Amazing.
My feet were really starting to hurt me by this point. The new insoles I purchased for my Doc Martins were doing the opposite of what I wanted. By the time I realized what was happening, I already had blisters.
After the National Gallery, we went to a pub and had a couple of pints and dinner. We then headed back to hotel as we were completely exhausted, having not slept in about 36 hours. Todd and I fell asleep on the train and almost missed our stop. I woke up as I heard the door chimes and quickly slapped Todd awake and rushed to hold the door open. I hit the pillow around 8:00pm and didn't wake up until 6am. It felt wonderful.
Day Two
We experienced no jet lag thanks to our discipline in staying awake on day one. We had a long day at work (8am until 9pm), but we still didn't accomplish everything we had hoped due to some unforseen issues with the rack and cabling. We sorted it out, but weren't able to get everything online as we'd hoped. Everyone at the office is very nice and much more polite than folks in the US in general. For example, if anyone goes to get coffee or tea, they ask everyone if they would also like some. I must have refused at least 5 offers for coffee and tea. This office has much more of a sense of humor and fellowship than our US offices although my team is very similar in culture.
By the end of the day, my feet were in major pain. We're talking full on limping pain. We hadn't eaten dinner yet so we went to "The Town Hall", a pub right next to the office. We ordered our food and sat down. About 5 minutes later, the bartender came over and explained that she was terribly sorry but the kitchen was closed. They refunded our money (for the food, not the refreshments) and I decided that I would just get room service in the hotel as my feet hurt so much. Todd went elsewhere. I thought the walk from the office to the hotel (about 200 yards) was a terribly long way.
When I got upstairs, it was 9:49 and room service was available until 10pm according to the menu in my room. They informed me that the kitchen was closed, but I could order a few different things (like it was a favor). I ordered a hamburger, fries, tiramisu and a coke. The coke was great, the hamburger was the worst I've ever had (bread was hard like a hockey puck), and the tiramisu was decent. I fell asleep watching some show called "Age Swap" where two people get professional make-up jobs and have to act older or younger. It was craptastic.
All in all, the first two days were just so-so.
Pictures for day one and two.
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Becka said...
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Murphy's Law #394: It is inevitable that while traveling, something will go wrong. The distance between your home and your destination is directly proportional to the level of severity.
Sounds like your trip hasn't been the best so far. And that really sucks.
The kids and I miss you. They ask about you every day. They're literally counting the days. :) They're precious.
Love you!
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said...
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Hey Jim, Its cool to read about your trip. See ya when you get back. Satoko has always wanted to go to Europe, and I'm thinking of maybe going to England or Scotland in a couple years.
Don't know about the food though. That Black Pudding sounds nasty! No wonder Gygax turned it into a monster!
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