R&R in not-so-sunny London

Okay, so a not-so-auspicious start to 'spring break' was getting an email from the airline on my first leg of my trip that the flight was delayed from 10:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. the following day (same night.)  This was at around 5 p.m. on the day I was to travel (boo hiss to NAS.)  The upshot was that I'd miss my next leg which took off from RUH at 12:45 a.m. and would have had plenty of time to connect.  Sooooo, I had to book another flight from RUH - to the tune of $1135 or I'd miss the week entirely - the next flight from Jizan that had an open seat was for Monday, five days later.  Now, I had booked a round trip to/from LHR/RUH and as it turns out, if you miss the first flight of a round trip the airline cancels the entire trip for you.  I still had to get back from London.  Val and I had some communications back and forth and with expedia.  It turns out that with all our travels this past year, my expedia account has been upgraded to ElitePlus which salvaged some/most of the lost original ticket price.  The total cost as a result of that delayed first flight ended up being about $1400 out of pocket (and NAS didn't even provide lube.)

So, I did end up flying on Ethiopia Airlines - about the only connection that I could find 'to' London.  I've never been to Africa before.  At RUH it was the typical 'push and shove' boarding system but I did manage to 'block' a couple Saudis who were trying to get ahead of me and the two women in front of me.  Small victories.  On the plane was interesting, I ended up sitting next to one of the women in front of me.  I had just called Val to let her know that I was finally on my way out of KSA and the woman asked if she could make a call using my phone.  She was apparently headed back to Ethiopia from work in KSA.  I don't know who she spoke with but it only cost a little more than 10 SAR, pretty cheap international call.

Towards the end of the flight there were a couple obnoxious Saudis who had apparently been drinking most of the flight (the hypocrites) and they started acting up.  They had each purchased some 'duty free' booze on the plane and one of them opened up a bottle of Johnny Walker and started swigging from the bottle.  They had to get told to sit back down so we could land.  I guess Islam only gets 'lip service' from their ilk.

Some mothballed 787, due to the battery
problems, sure would be nice to ride on one.

Addis Ababa Airport is quite high up, about 7500 feet.  There's kind of a plain with mountains in the distance.  The area is really quite green.  I'm thinking I'd like to visit the area some time.  I could tell right off that the airport was MUCH cleaner than any I've been to in KSA which was a pleasant surprise (I don't know why I should be surprised, I just noticed.)  Another telling thing I noticed was that at the gate before we were getting ready to board, two men came over and straightened up the 'posts and tape' that are used to control lines.  I mean they made sharp corners, evenly spaced the posts and really made it look neat.  I love me some attention to detail, makes me a whole lot more comfortable that they do other things with equal effort.

In checking with the gate desk, they put a colored sticker on my boarding pass.  When boarding starts they call a color & hold up the same colored circle - must help with the multiple languages.  The best part was when those people who hadn't gotten a color sticker were turned back to the end of the line, and they did enforce the 'loading line' thing as well.  Another plus IMHO.  One thing I've noticed with some airlines (this one included) in this region of the world is how young and mostly attractive the stewardesses are.  Reminds me of the early days of commercial flight in the U.S. (not that anyone would want to go back to a time when all the stewardesses were young and pretty.)  But still, the things you see when women's rights aren't quite as stringently adhered to as is usually the case in the Western World.  As we were taking off, taxiing to the end of the runway, I could see something in the grass median that look kind of like a runway light but it seemed too tall, it was over nearer the runway than where we were.  As the plane swung around, these 'things' were on my side of the plane and I could tell what they were.  Let me back up a bit, due to the high altitude of the airport and it being about the highest thing around, I saw some rather large birds, probably large hawks or eagles.  Anyway, these 'things' were men with bright colored jackets whose job, I presume, was to keep the large birds off the runway while planes are taking off or landing.  The guys were stationed every few hundred feet.  Interesting solution to a potentially hazardous problem; if one of those birds ended up in a jet engine it would not be a happy day.

Ah, along with meals on the plane I was blessed with some red wine.  My heart and body NEEDS those antioxidants.  I had three over the course of the flight from Addis Ababa, stopped in Rome to refuel, to London.  Of course I got in about 10 hours later than planned but it was alright since Val didn't get in until the next day.  Sure glad I had my GPS.  When I got off the tube stop it was very dark out and I wouldn't have found the hotel otherwise.  Having been up for over 36 hours I wandered out for some fish and chips and a beer then went right to bed and sleep.

I got up early the next morning, had breakfast and headed off to LHR to meet my sweetie.  Note to self: check the terminal where someone you are to meet is.  I presumed that it was the same terminal that I landed at, there being 5 terminals at Heathrow.  I'm waiting around, it's time Val's flight should have landed but I didn't see any from Detroit on the arrival screen.  Found out from a security guy that I had to go to terminal 5 (I had landed at 2.)  Fortunately, there is free train service between all the terminals and I got to the 'greeting' area before she made it through immigration and baggage claim.  

Val getting wheeled out
of immigration and
customs

We picked up a couple Oyster cards for the Underground and buses throughout London.  I've said it before that those are great savers even if you are only there for a few days.  So, we got back to the hotel and Val got a chance to recover from her travels.  I guess it's not too much fun to fly with a sore foot if you are used to propping it up much of the day.  

Val out front of our hotel, we were just headed
out for the day's adventures.

View out our window

The hotel was not bad but it wasn't great.  Lots of mixed feelings, but it was mostly clean and the internet (once I got it working) worked OK.  Had a little problem with sewer odor in the bathroom, seems like there was a vent stack that was blocked, and we did end up moving rooms for that last couple nights after they tried, and failed, to fix the problem.  I can't believe that no one else has ever smelled that, I had some sinus problems after the long flights and I could smell it so it must have been bad.  The hotel did have a little breakfast, cold cereal, coffee, toast, sliced ham and cheese.  It was located fairly conveniently near bus stops.  It was a little noisy but that is what all travelers should bring ear pugs for - then it's no problem at all.

Some stained glass on the
door that is a dragon, may-
be even the one that Sir
George fought.

Little tiny sink in our bathroom

The temperature of the place was around 31 degrees F.  It was raining a little, and snowing a little, all in all it was messy and dreary, didn't see the sun.  The price of gas in London is about equal to $7.90 per gallon.  And it's still $0.54 per gallon in KSA.  But the beer is reasonably priced.  We went out to the Twelve Pin Pub just down the road for dinner.  There were some preliminary 'football' (soccer) games being projected and the place was fairly well packed.  Eating and drinking a beer (or two) while some of the patrons were yelling "Come on lads!" to the television.  That's local color you don't see in the U.S.


The next day we hopped on the bus and headed to the British Museum to see all the stuff that is missing from Athens - where they still have the blank spaces awaiting their return.  The Rosetta Stone is there of course, if you recall from my last report of this place.  We did get to see a little of this but since I didn't have a wheelchair for Val.  We'll have to go back someday.

This was on the end of the
Parthenon way back when

Closer view of one side

Val trying to figure out why the men and
Centaurs were drunk and fighting

The Egyptians had one before Detroit

Another day we went to the National Gallery at Trafalgar Square (where the column with Lord Nelson is standing.)  At this place we did find the handicap entrance and they did have one last wheelchair which we 'commandeered'.  It's not easy pushing one of those all over the place.  I'd have to leave Val at a distance from the paintings so she could see them and I'd go read what the picture was about and who painted it.  I tried to give her a one-word synopsis along with the artist (I had fun.)  Art is not my strong suit and Val didn't think it was all that funny.  There's a lot of great art in that place but I'm not a big one for the appreciation of all of it. However, I know some people who know a lot about that stuff and really like it.  My tastes are more pedestrian I suppose.  

Last year this was the ship
in a bottle

The gate to Buckingham
Palace from the square

a 'polite' sign

We took the obligatory pilgrimage to Herod's   Val was feeling a mite peckish so we stopped into the National Geographic store food shop inside the place.  Scones & tea & coffee for us.  It's a really neat shop

Scones and a cuppa

with lots of 'explorer' stuff.  However, we did find a really nice restaurant off the beaten path.  There was beer involved, two pints as I recollect.  I think Val had a salad of some sort, I had meat.  It was called the Clipper or some such.  It was apparently run by a couple of guys that I might classify more in like with liking guys than gals.  But the food was very good and the drinks were of a temperature required,

In Herod's we wandered around, that place sure has lots of stuff, much of which is pretty (and quite pricey).  We didn't end up very lost but did exit at the 'wrong' end of the building.  We managed to get clear without to much damage to our wallets.  Val got a nice purple scarf to go with her two tone green jacket.  I picked up a 'union jack' hat and some gloves at one of the local tourist trinket places nearby.  No Indiana Jones hat from Nat Geo for this cowboy.  If I had a lot of money I would certainly buy some stuff from there just to say I did.  And much of it was really high-end quality.  I hear some of the stuff can survive a car crash.

Neat glass sculpture near the
Nat Geo store

Central stairs at Herrod's

One place we went to that I did like (Val scoped it out and 'insisted' on visiting) was the Victoria and Albert Museum.  There were some really interesting and diverse things in that place.  Among which, on display, was one of Leonardo da Vinci's Codex books.  I've always imagined these to be about the size of a sheet of normal office paper.  This one was only about four inches tall - hand sized.  He wrote REALLY tiny (and backwards).  They also had some really neat stools for the room monitors to sit on, one was empty so I tried it out, it's really comfy, I'd like to have some like it. 

da Vinci's Codex

stool sample
(really comfortable)

Chihuly sculpture in the V&A

We booked tickets for the London Eye Ferris Wheel.  It was pretty neat and I think I got some fairly passable photos.  The ride is a little pricey bit It is worth it if you are with your sweetie or someone else you loved dearly.  There's a lot of neat engineering parts to that thing, that was cool at least.  From there we walked along one of the bridges which are covered in chain locks - shucks - I forgot to brig one for Val and me.  Next time.

We went to a play downtown.  I think it was called 'Peter and Alice'.  The two leading actors were in the James Bond movie 'Skyfall' (which I got to see on the flight back to KSA.)  I think the guy was the one who plays the newest 'Q' in the Bond series and the woman was Dame Judi Dench (who played 'M' in the Bond movies of late.)  She was wonderful to watch and I really enjoyed the play not to mention being tickled pink that it was really her and not an understudy!  Afterward we went to dinner at a very nice steak house and had a delicious filet mignon with a very nice red wine.  Ask Val about the woman we saw seated near one of the windows as we walked to the front door.

Val just liked this sign

On our way to the London Eye

Us & me w/ my new hat

We went up in the London Eye which is an expensive ride but worth it if you want to see over London.  I've got a bunch of other pictures if anyone is interested other than me boring relatives with showing all my 'slides'.

Got up early had breakfast and headed to the metro  Underground station.  Where I promptly discovered that I (we) had not 'checked' out of the tube station when we arrived.  There were no gates as was usual, and I simply missed the place to 'tag out'  That presented a problem when we went to tag in at one station and it wouldn't let me in,  Had to pay a 2 30p 'fine/fare' and the station attendant was nice enough to 'fix' them for us.  It's always something...  Oh and another time we were on a bus and there was a guy checking passes to see if everyone had a valid pass for the mode of transport.  It was odd because there are warning signs to look out for these 'checkers' and that they look just like you and me.  But I'm not black so I think we were tricked.

On our final 'full' day we headed to Buckingham Palace to (try to) watch the changing of the guards.  It was a 'band' day and the Coldstream Guards were playing.  We had seen them perform one time way back in Burlington VT and we even have a CD of them with the Royal Scots Dragoons.  If you ever want to see the CotG, go really early.  It was unbelievable how many people were crowded around to see this.  We didn't get very close in but did get to hear some of the playing.  As we were heading back Val couldn't find her Oyster card and I didn't have enough change to get her a ticket for the bus.  So, we walked all the way back to Trafalgar Square (about 3/4 mile) slowly (foot thing, remember?) to get to a shop where we could purchase tickets.

Crowds around the circle in front
of Buckingham Palace

Best picture I could get of any guards, changing

As I said, it was crowded

Val had searched her coat pockets, purse, everything except my pockets. When we got back to the square I was cold, hungry and cranky (big surprise there) so we went into Pret a Manger to get some coffee, soup, scone, etc.  As I was finishing my bean and bacon soup, yum, I asked Val if I could possibly try my luck looking into her purse.  Lo and behold! the second pocket I checked had her Oyster card - we were back in business and could ride back to the hotel!  w00t!  And, no, I didn't perform any prestidigitation.  It was there all along.  I hope it's not a sign she's losing it, I'd hate to have to start 'looking out' for my wife if she's starting to have diminished mental capacities at this young age.  So we stopped on the way back to the hotel at a Patisserie Valerie and Val got some goodies which she was kind enough to share with me even after I was grumpy with her for losing her bus pass.

'My' court near the palace

Oldest (?) school still standing
and some very twisted benches to the right

Val expressing gratitude for
my finding her bus pass

When we got back to the hotel, Val rested and I went out to seek a few geocaches nearby.  The first one was easy to find, couldn't find the second one even though I was in the exact place.  The third one was easy to find but not easy to get to.  Perhaps the doc showed a starting point but I ignored that bit of info.  My motto is HDWP!  The curious may look that up.  I even picked up a travel bug which I'll get to placing some where some time but at least this summer.

Last pint at the Twelve Pins

Val had to get some sweets from 'her' store

This was really a 'cozy' little pub

Got all packed up, checked in on the airlines and got in one last snuggle before going to bed.  

Last civilized drink in Frankfort airport before heading back to the dry, dry desert

When I got back to KSA it was also 31 degrees..... Celsius.  My hands loved that weather.  No beer, wine, booze nor pork for another 3 months.  Boo Hoo, sadness.  I'll have to make up for all that when I get back this summer.  I hope Val stocks up on beer, wine, port, sherry, gin, vodka, and various other types of alcohol drinks.  Also, I need pork products - bacon, pork chops, pork tenderloin, pork ribs, roast pork, pulled pork, etc.  I'd even eat the squeal if it was cooked right.

Ok so, back here baking in Allah's Brown Earth patch.  Things are moving along, albeit slowly.  We should find out soon who will be taking over the project but I'm sure that nothing will be settled before Ramadan and then nothing gets done.  Oh well, no one ever said this would be easy peasy.  

Ma Salama and keep your camels in line.