Thursday, July 7, 2016

Aimful Wanderings

The flight across the pond was uneventful and a little shorter than what I'm used when it comes to international flights.  By the time I finished dinner on the flight I only had about five hours.  I typically would have about seven or, in the case of Australia, fifteen hours more to go which meant plenty of time for another movie or just get some sleep.  I opted for the sleeps as I would be landing in England around 11AM so I would need to have some sort of rest.

Well, I didn't get a whole lot of rest, but I did get some on the plane.  After landing I started my epic 42-day hike from one terminal to where the Border Force checks everyone into their country.  United was awesome and gave me what I original thought to be trash, an invite to their lounge to refresh with a shower and breakfast.  However on the other side of it was an invite to go through passport control into their invite-only expedited service.  What the hell, I've done the electronic version and that's quick enough, let's see what this is all about.

As I said, it's quite the hike to get to passport control and once there, if you veer right, you can enter with the EU/UK folks, also there is the electronic passport control and it looked a bit crowded and filling up fast.  To the far left was my invite/expedited lane.  Choices... I went left and was rewarded with just two people in front of me after handing over my invite slip.  The control officer asked the basic questions and I engaged in some nice conversation after he heard I was interested in going to a cricket match.  More on that hopefully later.  Border Force was completely at ease with this normal bloke at that point so off I went, shoo shoo and into the UK.  Pick up the bag from baggage reclaim and off to meet my ride wherever he's supposed to be.

After a bit of confusion at the car park, I locate my driver from Addison Lee and we're off to Central London, which I am informed expertly by my driver can have shite traffic but we should be good this time of day.  He and I talk about the fun times switching between driving on the left and right sides of the road since he has to go into Europe frequently.  I imagine the head on collision frequency must be high near the exits to the ferries between the UK and Europe.

A pleasant enough journey from outside London into Central London finished, I check in around half noon (local way of saying 12:30) and am informed that my room will not be ready until 3:00 or 3:30.  Well, as they agree to accept my bag, I'm happy to leave it there instead of taking it for a a walk and head out to see some of the local sites.

First on the unexpected list, was the Victoria Tower Gardens and its Burghers of Calais Monument.  Quite a stunning piece of architecture to stumble upon.





After taking the obligatory photos, I spin to see something that I do recognize, although not immediately what it is.  Give me a break, I'm not a royal subject so I have some leeway here.  It turns out to be the House of
Lords.  Parliment, in other words.  That's why it seems so familiar, we've seen it in the news clips, and movies, etc.

I continue among the tourist, therefore blending in, and make my way down Millstreet towards Bridge Street where I'm sure to see more famous sites.  Within a few moments I am rewarded with a very good view of Big Ben near the Carriage Gate.  At no small risk did I get this photo, gentle reader.  There was a security gate with about two inches gap between each bar.  I expertly (nervously) threaded my phone through a gap to my waiting other hand and expertly (barely) managed to take the photo without dropping the phone to its untimely death some 20 feet to the bricks below.  As you can see, it was well worth it!  And if I had walked a mere 10 more yards towards Bridge Street instead of taking a risky (nah) shot with my phone (life link), I could have had the same shot, just with a different angle and no obstructions other than tourons and buses, which could have been timed.  Chalk that one up to experience...

On to the next attraction!  Westminster Abbey!  Oh look a massive queue!  Ugh... well, I don't need to really go into the Abbey.  I'll save that for when I come here with Kari.  I'm just going to hit some highlights for now.  That will probably be the theme of this trip: doing things I would like to do so when I do come back with the wife, I don't feel she's being drug along to Stamford Bridge while I'm all giddy about going to where Chelsea plays football and she's rolling her eyes.  I will save the bigger touristy type of things for when we can come back and do them together.  So without further ado, a picture of Westminster Abbey with the House of Lords photobombing!
I check the time and I have about an hour left.  I'm tired.  It's a good time to head back.  I take some photos of the statues around the park outside the Abbey before the Teachers strike gets under full swing and head back to the hotel to wait in their so-called "executive lounge" until my room is ready.

One fun little fact after getting into my room:
View from my room:  That's MI5 on the right...  Yeah, that's pretty damn awesome.
 

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