My flight back to London leaves at 11:25. I rise at about 8:00. H will go to work late this morning so that she can see me off to the airport, and I can give her back the key. We have a nice breakfast of boiled egg, and those waffles I bought a couple days ago. Then I get packed-up and it is time to head out. We walk across the street to the bus stop, get on bus 109 to Tegel, and within 10 minutes we are at the airport. It is about 9:40AM. I have plenty of time. We find the check-in counter for KLM, and by 10:00 I am checked-in and have my boarding pass. In then walk with H back out to the bus stop, where we say goodbye and she boards her bus to go to work. She was such a wonderful hostess, and I am very lucky that we met up back in 1999!
I wander around the airport. The design is interesting. The airport terminal building is a large circle, with about 30 departure gates along the outside edge of the circle. You enter from the street at what appears to be ground level, but that same level is elevated above the airfield, so that the boarding gates and jetways are also from that same level. The check-in counter is directly in front of the boarding gate. So you enter a doorway to the side of the check-in counter, go thru security, and enter the waiting area for your flight. There is a small duty free shop in the waiting area. You then board your plane directly from that waiting area. Thus there is no walking from check-in to boarding--it is all at the same place.
11:00AM arrives, and we are soon boarding the aircraft. It is a smaller plane, a Fokker, with 2 and 3 seating. It is almost full. This flight is going to Amsterdam, which is the main hub for KLM. I am sitting in 16F, but am lucky as 16E is empty. It is another cold and grey day, and so there is not much to see out the window. Take-off to landing is about 60 minutes, and we are given the usual small sandwich, juice, and coffee. We arrive at about 12:50 PM.
The Amsterdam airport is reported to be one of the largest in Europe, and I must agree. It is very spread out. The plane is near the far end of terminal D, so I walk all the way to the center, go thru passport control (but not immigration, this is the EU), and go back out near to where I started, except now I am one level lower. For each actual aircraft space and jetway there are two gates, one upper level and one lower level. When I arrived the jetway took us into the building and we then went up an escalator one level, so we were at gate D80. Directly underneath us is gate D50. As I recall I was at the upper level on Saturday when I boarded my flight to Berlin, but today I am at the lower level for my flight to London. Perhaps the EU flights are upper level, and the ones to outside EU are lower level, so that you must go thru passport control to get from one to the other? Anyway, when I get to my departure gate, D48, I can see that I am very near where my first flight arrived. All I have done is taken the very long scenic route with the effect of simply going down one flight of stairs!
The flight to London is swift and smooth. We are in a larger aircraft. I am in 15F, and again 15E is empty. Actual flying time is only about 40 minutes, but we again have the small sandwich, juice, and coffee. We arrive at Heathrow at about 3:00PM no problem. I walk quickly to immigration. When I arrive there is a small group of people ahead of me, maybe 25 or 30, but there is only one immigration officer working! My dismay soon alleviates, as slowly other officers arrive. Apparently they were all at afternoon tea! I get thru immigration, go down one level to baggage claim, get my bag that is already there, find a luggage cart, and head out into the main terminal.
When I flew last week from Singapore to London I had to gate check a small tool kit that was in my carry-on bag. Security would not allow me to keep it. So the gate staff put it into a small Cathay Pacific box and it was put on the plane as luggage. But, when I arrived in London 20 hours later I had forgotten all about it. I phoned Cathay Pacific the next day, last Monday, and yes they had it and would hold it for me. So today, since I am here at Heathrow, I want to pick it up. I take the Heathrow Express train to Terminal 3 (free ride, no ticket needed unless you stay on the train and go to Paddington). Where is Cathay Pacific baggage office? I go to the airport information counter. They phone CP, and soon a CP person has come to greet me. He takes me to their small booth/office in the baggage claim area. No, he cannot find my box. The person whom I had spoke with last week was on vacation this week, and so it might be next week before my box may be located. I was quite surprised that CP did not keep better track of checked luggage, but thankfully the tool kit was not very important. The CP clerk said that CP would mail it to me in the USA when they find it.
So I then walk back to the Heathrow Express train, and ride it to Paddington. Sitting next to me are two young ladies from Japan, on their first trip to Europe. They will be here in London for 3 days, and then to Paris for 2 days, and then back to Yokohama, Japan. They are students, one in engineering, and the other in agriculture. They have a map showing where their hotel is located. It is near Paddington station, and so when we arrive at Paddington I show them which way to walk to their hotel.
With the delays at CP, I do not arrive at my hotel until about 5:30. I phone G, and we agree to meet at Victoria Station at 6:45. We will get a bite to eat, and then go to see a musical, Bombay Dreams, at a nearby theatre. I check my email at the internet café, and then take the tube to Victoria. G is already there waiting for me. We go upstairs to the food court and restaurant area, where we eat pizza and salad at a pizza buffet. All you can eat for 6lbs. This is a bargain for London! The pizza is OK, not great, but OK.
Interestingly, while we are eating I get a phone call from Cathay Pacific. They have found my box. But, since I am leaving so soon, they will mail it to my office anyway.
We then walk across the street to the Apollo Victoria theatre. We are seated in the last row of the upper level, but actually the seats are just fine. The sight lines are good, and the sound system is very good so we can hear everything no problem. The performance is typical Bollywood, with lots of music and singing and dancing, colorful costuming, and a typical poor-boy-makes-good-loves-rich-girl-saves-day story line. It was great fun, and the music and singing was very very good!
After the performance I walk G to her bus and we say goodbye. We will not see each other tomorrow, so this is our last goodbye! She has been a wonderful friend here in London. I hope I can repay her kindness if and when she comes to America! I then take the tube home, read some, watch a little TV, and then go to sleep.
I sleep well. The bed here at the hotel is more comfortable than what I was sleeping on in Berlin! I finally get down to breakfast at about 9:20. Lots of new faces this week. I do not recognize anyone. As I am leaving I briefly meet a young Japanese woman, from Chiba. It seems that there are lots of Japanese tourists here in London now. But maybe it's that way all the time.
I then work on this journal and my photos. At about 1:00 I go next door for lunch. I have not had a real breakfast for a long time, so I have a veggie omelet. It was quite tasty, but not cheap. The check was 8.75lbs. If that was $ then no problem. But it computes to about $17 US. Not even breakfast is cheap! Actually, you can get a English breakfast of eggs and sausage for about 3 or 4 lbs, but that isn usually available only earlier in the morning, and I wanted something more interesting. After lunch I take the laptop and go to the internet café to upload some of this to my website. I will fly tomorrow to Barcelona. I am glad to be going to a warmer and more sunny place!
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