Back to Britain, Part 1
London
Revisited After 17-Year Absence
June
10-25, 2003 (Updated Dec. 2, 2003)
By
Lewis Nolan
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There has been a huge falloff in overseas
travel by Americans this year, mainly due to the fallout from the murders of
more than 3,000 people Sept. 11, 2001. The Bushwhacked economy has cut deeply
into a lot of discretionary spending. Continued terrorism by Muslim extremists
in many parts of the world has resulted in a lot of travelers staying closer to
home. The airlines have lost billions of dollars, laid off thousands of employees
and parked hundreds of planes in the desert. Some of our friends and relatives
are among the many Americans who have cancelled plans to visit Europe because
of widespread disgust with anti-American sentiment by the governments of some
of our NATO allies, notably France and Germany.
Lewis and Betty by London's Tower Bridge
Click Colored Type to Enlarge Photo
An important contributor to our decision to
revisit England this summer for the first time in 17 years was our renewed,
good feelings about our staunchest ally and our admiration for their brilliant
Prime Minister, Tony Blair. I think Blair is the most commanding figure on the
world political stage so far in the 21st Century. His eloquent
support for the United States in its campaign to combat international terrorism
was backed up by his unwavering commitments – despite much political opposition
and grandstanding at home - to provide British troops to support the U.S.-led
invasion of Iraq last March. U.S.
forces supplied 90 percent of the 150,000-plus troops that toppled the madman
Saddam Hussein’s government at the point of tank canon. Nonetheless, Britain’s
standup support and strong voice in the wishy-washy international community was
invaluable to the American initiative.
With tourism down, prices were good and
crowds were thinner than normal, all but eliminating wait times at popular
attractions.
We spent our first seven nights in London,
staying at the Dolphin Square apartment hotel near the Thames, in the Pimlico
section of Westminster. We then rented a car and drove across much of southern
England to the ancient town of Bath, where we spent a night at the Hilton and
visited the ruins of the Roman baths and a splendid, medieval abbey that is
still in operation as an Anglican Church. Then we drove southward into
Cornwall, where we stayed in the Trewinnard Hotel for five nights, overlooking
the beautiful harbor and town of St. Ives. Finally, we drove back to London and
spent our last night at a chain hotel at Gatwick Airport before flying back to
Memphis.
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| Betty overlooks St. Ives harbor at low tide |
| Click Colored Type to Enlarge Photo |
During our two weeks in England, the news was
largely dominated by three continuing stories. Number One was Blair and the
conduct of the war-regime change in Iraq. Number Two was the impending move by
British footballer David Beckham from Manchester United’s soccer team to Real
Madrid. And Number Three was the ever-present, full court press by the press on
the Royal Family.
June 20, 2003, Tuesday – Memphis to London
via Atlanta
Our friend and provider of airport shuttle
service for many years, Betty Hoffman, picked us up shortly before 4 p.m. on a
warm afternoon. There was not a hint of bad weather in Memphis or in Atlanta,
easing our anxiety about a tight connection for the overnight flight to London.
When the reservations were made nearly a year ago, the connection was
reasonable. But after Delta parked many planes in order to increase its load
yield, we had only 62 minutes to navigate Atlanta’s underground tram system and
make it to the international terminal to change planes. Worse, a switch to a
smaller airplane meant we lost our roomier, exit row seats. Going through
Atlanta makes for a very long trip to London (nine hours versus the five or six
hours it takes to fly from Boston to Ireland’s Shannon), but at least the price
is right. We are traveling on Frequent Flier miles.
Our scheduled departure from Memphis was 6:25
p.m., giving us two hours to go through the extra check-in procedures required
by security for international flights. We checked four bags. I’m not taking
golf clubs on this trip. I had thought that it would be more trouble than it
was worth to get from our hotel in central London to a course open to
non-member play. Betty and I both wore jeans and blue blazers, which seem to
wrinkle less in overhead storage compartments than in suitcases. Our carefully
packed bags included mostly casual clothes, guidebooks and GoreTex rain
slickers. My reading book was “The Open” by golf writer John Feinstone.
We are looking forward to being back in
London after an absence of 17 years (1986, when Casey was 10). But we know the
trip “across the pond” is going to be tiring. If we miss the connection in
Atlanta, we’ll have to spend the night there since ours is the last flight out
tonight. I had planned it that way, remembering the early morning arrival
flight to London of long ago and the hours we had to wait to check in to our
hotel room. We’ve found we do best with overnight flights when we can nap for
two or three hours upon arrival. Forget about the advice to stay up by taking
guided tours and the like; it’s no fun stumbling around museums like
sleep-starved zombies who can’t remember anything anyway.
With the preparation lessons learned over
many years of travel, Betty and I have the peace of mind that comes with
knowing that everything that should and could be done at home had been done.
Heavenly Pools will service and clean the pool twice during our absence. Arthur
Marion, our church’s custodian, will cut the grass and water the plants. We’ve
given keys to the gate to Kate Garretson, our new neighbor, and to Tim Parks,
an old friend, and encouraged them to use the pool to help make the place look
occupied. Newspapers and mail delivery have been suspended. Appropriate bills
have been paid in advance. The front and back yards look great, with the grass
freshly cut and groomed. Close friends and family have emergency contact
numbers.
We have several hundred dollars worth of
British Pounds, American Express Travelers checks and office locations where
we’ll be, valid passports and drivers licenses, credit cards (alerted to “out
of normal pattern” travel), a small sack of medications, spare glasses, copies
of documents stashed away and also hidden on an Internet site. We have tended
to the myriad of details so well that it is all but certain that we will soon
discover something really important has been overlooked.
We’re ready to go.
The Delta check-in at Memphis International
Airport went smoothly, as well it should with so much advance time. For the
first time, we noticed our bags were “sampled” by a wand-like gadget that
senses traces of chemicals used in explosives. Evidently certain glycerine
compounds used in cosmetics can set off false positives. That happened with one
of Betty’s bags.
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| Betty at Land's End on Cornish coast |
| Click Colored Type to Enlarge Photo |
Once at the gate, we once again encountered
another small world encounter. Who appeared but Kate, our neighbor. She was on
her way to Baltimore for one of her frequent business trips. It was fun having
some time to visit with the hard-working, young executive who is nearly always
on the run.
Our plane to Atlanta was 30 minutes late
taking off, adding some unwelcome stress because of the tight connection with
the Delta flight to London’s Gatwick Airport. But, all’s well that ends well.
Evidently our flight was one of many feeders running late. By stepping it out
on the airport’s moving sidewalks and subway system, we made it from Terminal
A’s Gate 33 to about the most distance point, Terminal E’s Gate 9, just as
boarding commenced. I was glad I had dropped more than 50 pounds over the last
9 months on the Atkins lo-carb diet. The weight loss plus my walking at least
10 miles a week made our rapid movement through the airport a lot easier.
At last, we settled into our aisle and window
seats on row 36 near rear of the Airbus. The
flight took 7 ½ hours. It was no
better or worse than other long flights to Europe we’ve experienced. The crew
was efficient and friendly and the food was surprisingly tasty – chicken for
Betty and sirloin steak for me. Sleep was fretful at best in the tight seats.
We had to pay for alcohol for the first time on an international flight - $4 a
pop for beer, gin or wine.
We arrived at Gatwick shortly before 11 a.m.
on Wednesday. We breezed through Passport Control and Customs without being
searched or questioned. Maybe my gray hair makes me look trustworthy, or at
least unthreatening. The Gatwick Express rail service to Victoria Station in
Central London cost £11 each (or $18.70 at the current exchange rate of $1.70
per pound) and was well worth it. A taxi for the long ride supposedly charges
nearly $100 for the trip through heavy traffic. The train was modern,
comfortable and took only 40 minutes.
We happened to sit near a former British
policeman who now has a security management job with BTA, a company that runs
Gatwick and other airports in the UK and U.S.
He was quite easy to talk to and gave us some good tips on places to
visit, chiefly the London Eye with its spectacular views of the central city.
From Victoria Station, we caught a traditional, black taxicab for a short ride
to our hotel. The fare was only £5 including tip. The honest and polite cabbie
could have easily charged me more since I gave him a £10 note and asked if that
was enough. Welcome to England.
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