Day 1 – Long Flights and naked women

So I flew to London, England today. Here is how I went:

Shuttle to airport

Take a car ride to the airport shuttle (10 minutes). Take the shuttle to the airport in Phoenix (2 hours). Kill 2+ hours at the airport and then board the British Airways flight which goes direct to London Heathrow.

It is a huge Boeing 747 and despite the economic woes, the flight was full. Despite an initial dreaded middle seat, I was able to get an aisle, even it was in the very last row. seat 53G. Extra nice is that there were 2 unused seats of which one was next to me.

The flight was around 11 hours and actually works out a lot better than from the east coast as it gives a realistic amount of time to get some sleep done. It also gets in early afternoon which, after border crossing and luggage etc means you get to your final destination in the late afternoon. Not too bad to deal with jetlag.

The flight was uneventful, if a tad bumpy at times. The seatback entertainment is now pretty much standard in most international flights, even if they are still very rare for USA-only flights.

Heathrow Terminal 5 was as confusing as they say. No signs for customs or immigration, just a sign for “Arrivals”, I eventually found my way there and hit “UK Border Control”. After that fun, I grabbed my bag and met my family outside. How many hours have I been travelling by now? 15? I think I lost count. Also add in the 8 hour time difference, just for fun.

Deer at Richmond Park in London

It was great to see the familiar faces and before I knew it we were driving through the outskirts of London in a VW Scirocco (very nice, but not available in the US for some reason). As we made our way home, my brother Stephen pointed out the houses of celebrities, including Michael Buble, Mick Jagger and Rick Astley.

Saw 2 Aston Martins on the way as well. Of course, we went through Richmond which is a very nice area. Also went through the park in Richmond and saw some of the deer.

The Red Cow pub in Richmond, London

After some hinting, we stopped off at a nice pub in Richmond for  a beer. I had a local ale named “Naked Lady” – it was fairly good and a little hoppy. There were several local brews on tap, but I knew I had to pace myself. The pub was the “Red Cow”. Mmmmm beer. Ah, now I’m home.

Beer done, we stopped off very briefly at a local supermarket where I picked up some scotch eggs, twiglets and some more beer (Speckled Hen). A Scotch Eggs is basically a boiled egg surrounded by sausage meat and then breadcrumbs. Typically about 4″ across. Delicious.

Oh, and I found a “special edition” Marmite named “Marmite XO“. It is 4x stronger and aged. Or something. I’m not sure how this is going to taste, but I could not resist it…

Marmite XO

Finally got home and it was good. By now it was 5pm or so and actually a pretty nice day. I would guess total travel time around 18.5 hours:

• 2 hours – ride to airport
• 2.5 hours – kill time at airport
• 11 hours – flight
• 1 hour – get off plane, border, customs
• 2 hours drive home
• (side-trips not included)

Scotch Eggs

My sister, Sarah joined us shortly after I arrived. There is nothing better than being home again. With a beer in one hand, and a scotch egg in the other.

Lovely.

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