United 924 Heavy
Thirty-six hours after getting off the Seattle red eye I was back at Dulles standing in line for United flight 924 to London, only this time there was 6 inches of snow on the ground. My flight to London was WONDERFUL! It was a big new airplane and I had the whole row to myself. It was a 777 so I got to watch the map of our progress and ground speed (we averaged 700 miles per hour in part because we had a 150 mph tail wind). I also got to listen to the cockpit, which I have never done on an international flight before. East Coast traffic is different from West Coast traffic. The East Coast has intersections, so we proceeded from Dulles to the Swan Intersection (over the Eastern Shore) and then went to the Jake Intersection (over Wilmington Delaware), etc. Interestingly, most of the other airplanes using our frequency when we got into UK airspace were also American carriers. Nice American pilots talking to nice British controllers. I think they must have someone in charge of incoming transatlantic flights at the London Center, because it obviously cannot be the case that most planes landing in London are coming from America. At least once I could see another airplane out the window (during our descent) and could figure out which person it was on the radio frequency. I could figure this out because London would say "American #42 heavy turn right 5 degrees and descend to 15,000" and I knew that our airplane was already at 15,000 feet and I could see an American plane coming into view and flying with us. Very exciting.
Other advenuturous departure info was watching our big airplane get de-iced. It's just a guy with a big hose shooting stuff at the front of the wings in what looks like a not very scientific way. Also, one airplane at another gate (gate A2) got stuck in the snow and couldn't push back and a fire engine had to come push it out. These are the reasons to listen to the cockpit at all times.
The flight took only 6 hours. Consider that my flight to Portland, Oregon on Monday night took 5.5 hours... I enjoyed my flight so much (yummy dinner with brie, grapes and poached salmon, no noisy neighbors, no bumps, pleasant American pilot, etc.) that I didn't want to get off it. "Why do I have to get off the airplane?" I thought to myself...
I arrived and my first move was to take the Express train from Heathrow to Paddington Station. Paddington Station is like something out of a Merchant & Ivory movie, or maybe Harry Potter.
It consists mainly of a huge soaring iron trussed roof over the platforms, which are all open to each other so you can stand on Platform 1 and see all the way across the station to Platform 10. You expect to see steam engines pull in. At the head end of the platforms is an open space and some restuarants and ticket counters, and that's basically it. I got a taxi at Paddington to go into Covent Garden to my hotel. I was shocked at how big the taxis are -- they are not just cars like elswhere in the world. They have a very large area in front of the seats in the back where you can either pile up all your luggage or pull down two hatchback seats to squeeze passengers in. My cabbie told me that each car is specially made and costs 33,000 pounds. Some of them carry advertisements to help defray the cost. Someone else told me that they are built that way to that they can make U turns more easily, but I didn't believe that.My hotel is very nice and is on a circle in Covent Garden called Seven Dials. From my window I can see the big Ferris Wheel across the Thames, and also some of the big buildings in the City of London. It is cloudy and rainy -- otherwise I think I could see St. Pauls.
After I checked in I went on an investigative urban hike. I hiked around for 5 hours -- starting with Leicester Square, and proceeding through Trafalgar Sqaure, Admiralty Arch, the Horse Guards, around Westminster Abbey (which was closed) and Big Ben etc. I checked out the statute of Queen Boadicea by the Westminster bridge. I went over the bridge and walked down the other side of the river until I got to the new Tate. I went inside the new Tate and went to the cafe and had a glass of mulled red wine. Then I crossed the pedestrian only bridge (which I think is called the Millenium Bridge). By this time the sun had set and it was very windy and it seemed to me that the river was VERY WIDE. The Millenium Bridge drops you off right in front of St. Paul's Cathedral. I went in there to find a choir singing. It was beautiful. The Cathedral is right in the middle of a traffic circle and looks small from outside, but you get inside and it is massive with a really beautiful roof (that is not in any picture that I have ever seen) and somehow you can't hear the traffic. By now it was not only dark but rainy. I walked west from St. Paul's through some of hte Inns of Court (which are very beautiful) and found our new office. Inside I found very few people because last night was their Christmas party and most of them were under the weather. I said howdy to Kurt and found Sarah, Keith, and Chris, all of whom complimented me on my choice of hotel.
Now I'm going to bed. Tomorrow I am going back to Westminster Abbey to see it properly, and then I have theatre tickets to something here in the Covent Garden neighborhood.
I did learn three funny things today:
1. The national plant of Wales is the leek. I learned this because there is a one pound coin for each member of the United Kingdom -- Northern Ireland's is a celtic symbol, Scotland is the thistle, England is a field of lions rampant, and Wales is the leek. Doesn't that seem feeble?
2. There is a place here in the theatre district called St. Andrews-of-the-Wardrobe.
3. One cannot purchase topical antibiotics here without a prescription. This means no neosporine. I learned this because Sarah tripped over her shoelaces while jogging the other day and has a supurating would which needs neosporine, but alas...I suggested she make a leek compote.
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