London Skyline
It's
Sunday night, a week before my scheduled departure, I called Delta Air Lines to
confirm my reservations and make sure that nothing had changed.
Everything was in order. However,
on Monday morning, Delta called me at the office.
It seems that they had grossly overbooked the Atlanta to London flight. Not only that, but now they had a smaller aircraft to make
the flight. They wanted me to
change to a flight leaving 3 hours earlier and going through Cincinnati instead
of Atlanta. My arrival in London
would be 8:00am instead of 11:15am. To
insure that I would take the bait and switch, they offered me $600 in a travel
vouchers for use on future flights. This
would cause a minor problem, as my room in London would not be available until
around noon. But, I took the switch
and the vouchers.
Having returned from
Danmark in April, I'm now back in the air for London and a 30-day holiday in
Europe. The Monday afternoon
flight was totally uneventful except for the Tuesday morning sunrise. Much to my surprise, the sun was well
clear of the horizon by 3:30am. Following
the Great Circle Route up and over Greenland and Iceland, the sun naturally
would rise earlier. Plus, you need
to place yourself in a jet at 35,000 feet above sea level to achieve the total
effect.
I arrived in London right on schedule Tuesday morning. Clearing customs was a no-brainer as all they wanted to see was my passport and departure ticket. I guess they didn't want me to stay forever, and neither did I.
I found the Thamslink underground and
bought a ticket for the Kings Cross station in northern London. This got me within a few blocks of the
Bed & Breakfast where I had reservations.
I took a London Black Taxi to the B&B since I didn't want to walk
uphill with my bags in tow.
I was greeted by the B&B owner and told that my room would not be ready until around noon. We had already discussed this via e-mail before I left, so my arrival was not a surprise to either of us. I left my bags with him, grabbed a camera and headed off to see London.
The London Blacks are everywhere. These roomy little taxi cabs are the staple mode of independent transport around London. That is, unless you have motor scooter or motorcycle. Each one can carry 5 passengers in the back with ample room for luggage in the rear. An additional passenger can sit on the LEFT side in front, next to the driver, who is on the RIGHT.
The London Underground
(Tube) is extensive and very easy to navigate and utilize. Does the phrase "Mind The Gap"
mean anything to you? You hear it
every time a Tube door opens when a voice reminds you to "Mind The
Gap" and not end up
under the carriage instead of the platform.
About the first thing I did was to take an open-top, double-deck, city bus tour. This gave me an overview of where everything was located and figure out the best way to get where I wanted to go later on. Many of the tour busses allow riders to exit and reboard as often as you like during a 24-hour period. This is the easiest way to get around the major tourist spots in London.
British Airways London Eye
I did all of the tourist
things in London that I could fit in during my 4-day stay there. Most impressive was the British Airways,
London Eye which is the world's largest observation wheel, situated on the South Bank of the Thames.
Reaching a height of 135m (450 ft), the British Airways London Eye is London's fourth tallest structure.
The wheel gives passengers a totally new perspective of some of the capital's most famous landmarks and provides a
bird's-eye view usually afforded only by helicopter or aircraft. I
must agree with the locals when they say that it really
does not "fit in" where it was constructed.
