[Previous entry: "Itinerary"] [Next entry: "Where It's At"]

05/14/2004: "just to let you know we arrived safely in London"

at the same moment as several other 747's from various parts of the world identifiable by the airport shopping bags that their passengers carried (Johannesburg, Dubai ...). I like only this about Heathrow; it's among the few places in the world where you can hear as many languages being spoken as on an arbitrary street corner in Mountain View (the checkout counter at "The Milk Pail" for example) and it makes you feel at home that way. We stood in line for close to an hour and a half waiting for an improbably cheerful officer to give us the passport stamp (I want what she's taking); then another 4 hours here in town waiting for our hotel room to become available. I have been in hotels before that let you into a room you had reserved before the stroke of the clock on the hour that their check in time nominally is; but the Comfort Inn at Earls Court lacks the imagination, and it serves us right for going even so upscale as an American chain.

Nothing good has happened yet. We are still in the we forgot this/this broke/no sleep phase of the mission. United's tourist class food has gone retro. Some of you may remember back in the day comedians would joke about airline food because it was all kind of a new thing and bad, like "can you hear me now?" --- United's croissantwich breakfast is that sort of fare; the British breakfast industry has put them up to it so you'll be favorably impressed by English meals.