On our way at last!

 

As our normal practice is to take the first plane out in the morning, this time, we found ourselves not actually leaving the U.S. until 5:49 pm!  Quite a change!  No overnighting in Phoenix and getting up at 4 am – just a normal kind day until our departure to Phoenix about 11:30 am.  Fortunately, we had a nice and relatively easy drive to the airport, gassed up and returned the rental car, and were into the terminal by 2 pm.  Our plane, non-stop to London Heathrow, was already at the gate waiting for us, which is always nice; a nice plane, Boeing 700-200.  My seat – 17D - was on the aisle, just behind the bulkhead, with R in the row right behind me.  Interestingly, a beautiful bulkhead row – lots of space for legs, as well as plenty of room behind the Premium Economy seats for luggage to be stored on the floor.  Truthfully, though, these seats are really getting narrower all the time.  And, the worst part, this is the only plane where you can’t easily get from one side to the other to use the restrooms; there’s no crossover space.  So, for the entire Premium Economy and Main cabins, there were a total of only five bathrooms to use!  Whew!  Difficult, to say the least!  

 

R  thought the movie selection was pretty poor but I found one I really liked.  Advice to Brenda: If you haven’t seen Operation Fortune, it is well viewing!  Jason Statham at his finest!

 

The plane left more or less on time, and the flight was 9½ hours, arriving at 11:45 am.  It didn’t take too long to off-load everyone, and for the first time that I can remember, it didn’t seem like Heathrow was totally under construction.  And, getting through immigration was truly miraculous!  I remember once standing in line for almost 2½ hours for processing.  This time, the line was short and moved quickly and one scanned one’s passport, a photo was taken, and if all was well, the gate opened and voila, you were through!  All automatically – no passport agents!  If something didn’t register properly, a message “See a screener” popped up, the gate remained shut, and you were sent to a smaller line to see an officer.  Fortunately for us, we both popped through – even Robert, with his brand-new U.S. passport!  Certainly wish the U.S. would come up with a similar system, because this system included not only the Brits, but the entire E.U. as well as U.S. and Canadian travelers!  Let’s hear it for technology!!  Then, on to pick up our one checked suitcase, which came out in about five minutes, and we were on our way!  All in all, from the time we de-boarded until we walked out of the airport, it was about 30 minutes!  It really doesn’t get much quicker than that!

 

Out into the taxi queue and within another 10 minutes, we were at the Hilton Garden Inn, Eastern Perimeter.  Our room wasn’t ready, but in the state we were in I would have slept on the floor!  So, into a double room for a total collapse.  SO nice to be able to stretch out!  Picking up our rental car tonight, overnighting here and then out in the morning and heading north, to Scotland!  So, as I am prone to say, more later!

 

m

xxx

 

Without really sleeping soundly, but briefly for short periods (M), we were up and ready for dinner about 6 pm.  Downstairs to the hotel’s restaurant, Jack’s, which smelled wonderfully! And surprisingly, for the first time in something like 6 weeks, I actually felt like eating!  (Yes, that was how severely I was impacted about R’s passport issue!).  Lovely table by the window, from where we could watch huge airplanes take off.  Interesting menu of Asian fusion with English specialities.  A gentleman near us received a lovely chicken dish, so that’s what I ordered.  R ordered Hake – recommended, supposedly, by James Bond and the Beatles (?). Truly lovely dinner!  My chicken breast came served on a mound of lovely mashed potatoes, with perfectly cooked asparagus, black garlic and mushrooms.  R’s Hake was actually the size Moby Dick, and came with chips (French fries in the U.S.) as well as the famous British “mushy” peas!  Very enjoyable!


First wine photo of the blog!

My chicken with mashed potatoes

R's hake & chips; note mushy peas upper right

R's cheese

Lemon surprise

 

For dessert, R had the cheese plate, which was absolutely exceptional, and I had the Lemon Surprise – shortcake with lemon curd and strawberry coulis, washed down by Sauvignon Blanc for me and a French Shiraz for R.  Lovely, lovely meal, and wonderful service!  Thank you, Jack!

As our car pickup wasn’t until 10:30 pm (don’t even ask…) we went upstairs for a couple of hours.  I napped a bit; not sure what R was up to. 

 

Around 9 pm we went downstairs and requested a taxi to take us to the Budget rental car office.  Fortunately for us, it was only about 10 minutes away – and at Heathrow, that’s truly miraculous as the airport itself truly occupies miles of real estate!  The cab took about half an hour to get to us, but was a Mercedes limo with lots of sky lights with funky lighting – changed periodically, and looked great – although I wanted to see where we were going, so that wasn’t so great – especially as it was getting dark now (it gets dark really late in the UK this time of year!) and it was raining!  Got us right to the door, and – wow! - nobody else there!  Completed our reservation in minutes, and out the door to our lovely vehicle for the next month!  It’s a lovely MG SUV (which I didn’t know existed!) Took a bit to get out of the parking lot – the guy at the exit wasn’t there, so R had to roust him out – but soon we were out and headed back to the hotel.  Again, as our hotel was so close, it was easy, in spite of the dark and the rain, to get back and safely ensconced in the parking lot.  So … back in our room, will get this posted (hopefully!) and off to begin our adventure tomorrow!

 

Up in the morning, shower, repack everything, have breakfast and get on the road to Glasgow, Scotland! So – until then, lots and lots of love to all!

 

m

xxx

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