On Vacation, in London
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Family travel is so much different than business travel on my own. Not necessarily better or worse, just different. Among other things, more luggage and logistics. My daughter’s passport renewal ran a bit late so we drove to the San Francisco passport office to pick it up in person, then left for the airport a few hours later.
The flight to London on United was totally full, but on time, and I was pleased to see that our luggage made it as well. It’s a bit sad that my expectations of air travel have gradually been reduced to the level where I’m now a little surprised to arrive uneventfully with luggage in hand.
We arrived in London just in time for a second round of bombings on the tube and bus system. We got on the Heathrow Express at 1:55pm and there were extra security people going through each compartment checking everyone out and matching luggage with passengers. At the time I thought this was just extra security following the bombings two weeks ago, but when we pulled into Paddington station, there was a sign indicating that the Underground was closed for the day. Apparently the entire system had been closed at 1:25pm after small explosions reported starting an hour earlier.
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Outside, the taxi queue was predictably long, but moved quickly. At the hotel we checked the TV news for updates and were happy to hear that there were no deaths or serious injuries. Strangely, the hotel cable has CNN and Sky News, but the BBC channel wasn’t working yesterday. We’re staying at the edge of Belgravia and Knightsbridge.
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Things around here look pretty normal, other than the tube entrance being roped off and the papers on the news stands reporting the bombings.
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This morning I had an excellent run all around Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. Ran past Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Palace, the Round Pond, Peter Pan, the Diana Memorial Fountain, lots of ducks, and various old flyers regarding Live 8. Only saw three other runners, It was early. I started out at 5am, having been up since 4. New pair of GT2100s, I think my latest aches and pains were from the last pair getting worn out. These really feel much better, plus there are great paved and dirt pathways in the park.
I also discovered it’s pretty hard to get coffee around here until at least 7 or 8am. Too many retail stores and designer boutiques, and not enough offices or something. Most of the cafes seem to open at 9am. A very nice shopkeeper down the street gave me a cup of coffee when I stuck my head in at 6:15am, she was preparing breakfast food, to open later at 7am. Apparently most of her customers are taxi drivers getting started for the day. Haven’t checked the state of public transport this morning, it may be a good day for mostly walking around.
Interesting to find myself thinking about checking for terror alerts in the same category as the weather forecast and traffic report.
