{"id":318,"date":"2010-06-10T19:41:39","date_gmt":"2010-06-10T23:41:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.Sarcastic-Travels.com\/?p=318"},"modified":"2010-06-10T19:41:39","modified_gmt":"2010-06-10T23:41:39","slug":"london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sarcastic-travels.com\/london\/","title":{"rendered":"London at Lightspeed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
London at Light Speed<\/strong><\/h1>\n
<\/strong><\/p>\n
Our trip to London will only make sense once everyone is clear about one fact: Tim is OBSESSED with Les Misérables (Les Mis). To be clear, he is not concerned at all with the actual book by Victor Hugo, in fact, I am not even sure that he knew the book existed for many, many years prior to the creation of the musical play. But Tim likes musical theatre in general and Les Mis in particular. Back in March when we saw Beach Blanket Babylon in San Francisco, he saw for the second time their modern political version of the Act One closing song “One More Day” and that sent him on a mission to find a theater version of Les Mis. Well, it is the show’s 25th<\/sup> anniversary and it is having a revival as a touring show in various British theaters as well as a limited showing in Paris, which makes sense given that the action of the play takes place in Paris. The show is in residence at the Queen’s Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue in London. This knowledge led to the discovery that tickets were available and that knowledge led to the quickest phone call ever witnessed to the Delta Diamond Medallion Desk to book two Business Elite flat bed seats to London Heathrow from Atlanta. Now you know the why and we can get on with the what. \n[set_id=72157624169810818]<\/p>\n
Getting Started In Atlanta<\/h1>\n
As we always do, we started our journey at the check-in counter in Atlanta. Granted that it is entirely possible to check-in on-line, or in the downstairs area just across from the parking lot, but for reasons strictly of ego, I check-in upstairs in the special people’s line that rarely has anyone in it so that other frustrated and harried travelers waiting in long lines to pay to check bags or to have ticket issues resolved can gnash their teeth at the site of me whisking into and out of a non-existent line due to my special status. The agent doesn’t DO anything different, but they do whatever they do a great deal faster. Oh, and while I realize that some people pay to check bags and for other stuff, I don’t ever pay a fee for anything other than the ticket. I hear they sell food and drinks in flight too but I wouldn’t know about that.<\/p>\n
The only minor thing to mar the experience of check-in was that the agent was unclear about the newest, and highest, level of Delta specialness. Some aspects of our ticket were already dealt with, which is apparently rare in ticket agent land, so she noted this and asked if we had talked through that part with the Platinum Medallion desk prior to arrival at the airport. Well, no, actually, I DIDN’T talk to the Platinum Medallion desk, dear, because I talked to the freakin’ DIAMOND Medallion desk which is better any day than the lowly Platinum Medallion desk. Granted, I realize that there isn’t actually a desk made of Diamond, or Platinum for that matter, anywhere in a call center in Salt Lake City, Cincinnati, or Fort Lauderdale, the places that Delta has domestic call centers, and you can bet that we don’t get transferred to India either. I also realize that all the special number does is ring us to the front of the call queue, not to some agent waiting in high anticipation for only Diamond members to call in. But I like my illusions.<\/p>\n
Delta’s New Flat Bed Service to Heathrow<\/h1>\n
One of the attractions of the Atlanta-Heathrow service is the new lay flat bed seats that Delta has installed. Most Business Elite seats recline almost flat, to something in the neighborhood of 170 degrees, but that last 10 degrees can be pesky especially if you are tall and don’t quite fit the fully extended seat without bending the knees a bit. Granted, even that is far superior to what the peons in Coach have, but still, why not always be in search of something just slightly better? We had lay flat seats on the Sydney-LAX run and while those certainly were flat, they were also a bit claustrophobic and tight. But, they are truly designed for the single business traveler who doesn’t know the person seated next to him and who doesn’t want to, so they serve that purpose quite well. These seats were different in that they were not angled relative to the aisle and you could talk to the person next to you if you sat in the center of the cabin instead of at a window. Every seat has direct aisle access, as was true from Sydney as well, which is nice in that you don’t have to crawl over someone, or have someone crawl over you, when you want to use the lavatory. Your legs slot into the space that is under the seat side table of the person in front of you, which can feel a bit restrictive, again, if you are particularly claustrophobic. I found that I could comfortably sleep in most any position I chose to assume, back, sides, or stomach, and without doubt the full size pillow and down comforter helped with that. In fact, I found myself almost annoyed when the cabin crew started to serve breakfast since I didn’t feel that I had completed my sleep time just yet! If you have the chance to fly this type of service, I would do it in a heartbeat. Currently, Delta only offers these seats on the London routes. The other flat bed seats are reserved for Sydney-LAX and Atlanta-Johannesburg. And by the way, how clever and brilliant of Delta to be offering the ONLY non-stop service to the FIFA World Cup aside from South African Airways! No other US-based carrier offers such service, condemning their football (soccer) loving fans to connections across airlines which usually means pesky terminal changes which are sometimes very time consuming. Bravo Delta!<\/p>\n
Granted, the in-flight crew service level was a bit off on this flight. As I was seated in the “B” seat I fared better than Tim whose “C” side service was as slow as could be. In fact, I had finished my entrée before his was even served! I tried to wait to eat with him, but the heat level on my steak was questionable to begin with. At least my steak was completely cooked, which could not be said of Tim’s. I did find it odd that the same meal on the same plane could vary so widely, but there it was. And again, let me verify that I DO realize that whatever the service was in seat 4B was FAR superior to what someone in 24B was getting, stuck as they were between two other passengers amongst other indignities. I was also annoyed by the location of the lavatories for Business Class which was directly adjacent to the Coach section, separated only by the blue mesh curtain which was frequently disrupted, against ALL the rules, by pushy coach passengers who didn’t want to walk back and wait for their own lav. They should have been lashed! Admittedly I survived the affront to my dignity, but still…<\/p>\n
Also on the plus side was the British gentleman in seat 4A who appeared to be a frequent passenger on the trans-Atlantic service. Shortly after takeoff he scurried back to the loo where he changed into pajamas for greater comfort while sleeping! What a brilliant idea that should have occurred to me long before. I vowed to do this on the return flight, and I did, and what a difference shorts and a t-shirt made over khakis and Oxford shirt to my sleepy time flight.<\/p>\n
Arriving at London Heathrow<\/h1>\n
One of the joys of arriving at London Heathrow is watching all the new and never before seen airline liveries. Well, OK, it is one of the great joys for me. For example, how many of you have seen an Air Mauritius plane before? How many of you know where and what Mauritius even is? I’ll wait while you consult an atlas, hmmm, hmmmm, hmmmmm. OK, got it? Great!<\/p>\n
I had a rather unique and memorable experience with immigration at Heathrow. When asked why I was coming to the United Kingdom I said that I had tickets to see Les Mis that very night in fact and wasn’t I grateful that the Icelandic volcano had cooperated in allowing my flight through. “Oh, seeing Les Mis are you,” said Immigration? Are you a big fan of Victor Hugo then? “No,” I replied, “I am not really much into French literature since I was an English Literature major in college.” “Really? So, who is your favorite English author?,” continued Immigration. Yeah, this was getting weird now. “Well,” said I, “without a doubt Chaucer.” This seemed a safe reply since I was the Chaucer student of the year in 1995 and since it was far more original than the tired answer of Shakespeare. At this point, I was queried about which of the Canterbury Tales was my favorite (I chose the Pardoner’s Tale as being uniquely different from the over used Wife of Bath) and then I had to explain why. Good grief! This was worse than a San Jose State English Department final examination! Then she recounted how she meant to get back to Chaucer since it would read so differently to an adult than it did to a 15 year old girl back in the day. Didn’t I agree that it would be different for an adult reader? Well, yes, of course it would. Thankfully, the final exam ended and I was cleared to enter.<\/p>\n
The other fantastic thing about Heathrow is how incredibly painless it is to get into downtown London. There are, of course, the iconic black London cabs, and if you have a spare $100 or so that is just the ticket for you. There is also the Heathrow Express train line with service to Paddington Station (yes, the same station that Elspeth McGillicuddy left from on the 4:50 service that caused her to be the only witness to a brutal strangling murder…see Agatha Christie for details) and there is also the London Underground, the Tube, a system that has served London since Victorian times. We boarded the Cockfosters service on the Piccadilly Line, made a simple change at Hammersmith to the District Line, and arrived at Temple Station to find ourselves literally across the street from our hotel, Swissotel, The Howard.<\/p>\n
Swissotel, The Howard<\/h1>\n
If you go to London, and if you can get a reasonable deal, something other than the rack rate of £450 (or $654) per night, stay here in a river view room. By London, San Francisco, or New York standards the rooms are very generously sized and the view of the River Thames is amazing along with the easy views of Parliament, Big Ben, and the London Eye from your room. Better yet, cross the street and climb up to the observation park on the Victoria Embankment along with the stretching joggers and lazy bench sitters. In terms of the location, how do you beat being across the street from the District and Circle lines and one block off the Strand? You are close enough and yet far enough away, from most of the major sights and attractions to reach them for your purpose but to not have to stay in the midst of the madness of Covent Garden or Piccadilly.<\/p>\n
Popping Into Starbucks<\/h1>\n
The one thing that Swissotel really didn’t do well was to make a room available at the specified check-in time of 3pm. Following a trans-Atlantic flight, one thing that most everyone wants to do is to have a chance to freshen up, perhaps take a brief nap, etc before heading out into the city. Fortunately, unlike most trans-Atlantic flights that are calculated to get you into Europe at the crack of dawn or before, Delta’s London service from Atlanta arrives at the civilized hour of noon (still 7am in Atlanta). Since we had only a carry-on bag apiece, we didn’t have long waits at Heathrow before transiting in to the City, arriving about 2pm. We didn’t mind waiting for an hour and went up to the Strand, a once fashionable residential and promenading street, but now pretty well given over to more commercial and academic developments, including our destination, Starbucks. Now before you trash us too loudly for choosing such a quintessentially American establishment, consider that we were in the land of tea drinkers and we desperately needed a coffee infusion to confront the late afternoon and yet to occur 3 hour theater production and dinner all before sweet slumber. Also consider that we would visit the home base of English tea making, Twinnings, in the same location for 300 years, in the coming days, and that we would never again patronize a global company while in London. Also consider that we are the same souls who braved dark Cairo streets to eat with the locals as the only non-Egyptians in the kebab restaurant. And if that isn’t good enough to atone for our drinking at Starbucks, the hell with you!<\/p>\n
The really cute, although at first off putting, thing about Starbucks was the community service crime prevention officer who was working there. The moment we walked in we must have simply screamed non-local because this uniformed man started talking to us in what was English but which was nonetheless unintelligible to either of us at first. We stared at him, we stared at each other, until finally he asked us very slowly, “DO YOU SPEAK ENGLISH?” Oh yes, we spoke English! Now we understood what he was about. He was warning us of a pick pocket method by which a seemingly drunk person outside a pub will seek to give you a drunken hug while actually robbing you blind. Thanks for the advice mate!<\/p>\n