Thursday, March 11, 2010

Baggage, trains, the underground, and Lebanese food in London

My travelmate, Claudia, and I arrived safely in London. Claudia's baggage, however, did not. We were told by British Airways that we had to pick up our baggage in London as they would not keep our baggage during our forced overnight stay. Both of us checked our luggage to London Heathrow airport, not to India. My bag arrived. When we went to check on Claudia's missing bags, we were told that they checked her bags through to India. The British Airways personnel in London had no idea why we were told that we had to pick up our bags in London or why Claudia's bags were checked through to India without her knowledge. One of the mysteries of travel.

We cleared customs in record time and caught a cab to our bed and breakfast without incident. The bed and breakfast is located near Heathrow airport. The bed and breakfast is in an older brick house in a working class neighborhood. The owner of the B&B, Dean, is a younger man who has been very wonderful. He arranged for our cab to the airport tomorrow, gave us detailed directions to get to downtown London, and is letting me use his personal laptop in my room tonight.

After splashing cold water on our faces after our 10 hour flight, we walked down to the train platform to catch the train into London proper. From the Waterloo train station, we then took the underground subway, or underground, to Picadilly Circus. We enjoyed just walking around taking in the sights. A red carpet was rolled out in front of a theater; apparently TV crews and a large crowd were waiting for Jennifer Aniston to show up for a movie premiere. We weren't that interested, so after hanging around for awhile, we went to get hot food and a warm place to sit. (The temperature was in the mid-30s.)

A little hole-in-the-wale Lebanese restaurant looked interesting, so we went inside and sipped hot mint tea and ate a chicken and rice dish. The Lebanese staff was very friendly. I did have to have them hold Claudia hostage while I found an ATM to get money to pay for our meal as they didn't take credit cards and we didn't convert enough money in the LA airport. The staff laughed when I told them to take Claudia hostage until I found the money to release her, and when I returned she was completely unharmed. (In fact, I'm not sure she knew she was even a hostage as she was busy texting her daughter.)

Hopefully, we'll get a few hours sleep before we have to get up to catch our flight to India tomorrow morning. We're thinking it will be another 10 hour flight. Our arrival time in India will be approximatey 1am; we're already planning to arrive at the guesthouse and fall immediately into bed.

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