Thinking Positive...: 2007

Day 1 (Sacramento/San Francisco) If you’ve traveled internationally, you know in advance to give yourself extra time to get to the airport to get checked in, to give yourself time to go through the security check points, and to be prepared for…well, be prepared. Cynthia and I got up at Oh-dark-thirty to be sure we would have plenty of time to get to San Francisco International airport from Sacramento. It was Friday. As we embarked on Eastbound I-80, we observed something eerie: No traffic. Not just light traffic, I mean NO traffic. I mean no traffic as in “Dawn of the Dead” no traffic where everyone has turned into zombies, and thus, no one left knows how to drive. Deserted road. No one…in Sacramento…at 7am??? We cautiously drove alone on the road through Sacramento…across the causeway to Davis, and through Dixon, Vacaville, Fairfield, Suisun…still empty highway. Was there a holiday that no one told us about? Were we missing the March 9 parade-for-an-event-we-had-never-heard-of? We continued to cruise at a good clip—legal speeds, of course—but frantically continued to check the radio to see if a nuclear event had occurred while we were sleeping the night before! There was music and people talking on the radio. A good sign we would not be living out the story line behind “Andromeda Strain”…

As we drove through Vallejo, we finally saw a light sprinkling of vehicles. Sigh of relief...confirmation Armageddon had not occurred. We enjoyed the remainder of our trip to San Francisco International confident that there would not be zombies to check in our bags. After checking in, checking the luggage, setting up T-Mobile wireless for the laptops—SFO still charges for this service…Shame on them!—and getting our boarding passes, we settled in to first class accommodations on board U.S. Airways flight 914. Our itinerary called for us to fly to Philadelphia International, and then to London’s Gatwick airport. Having had such an easy commute in to San Francisco was a good omen of things to come. Or was it?

Still in the aircraft flying at 30,000 feet approximately thirty minutes outside of Philadelphia, the captain of our aircraft began to speak over the intercom loudspeaker, “We’re sorry to announce that we will not be landing in Philadelphia…”
[Say what?]
“We have detected that the aircraft has a fuel leak, and while we could have made it to Philadelphia on the remaining, as a precaution, we will instead be landing in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania within the next fifteen minutes…Flight attendants, please take your seats (blah, blah, blah).”
[Translation: You will not be making your connecting flight to London or any other connection for that matter. Sucks to be you. Damn.] I suppose having more information is always a good thing, but I almost wish the flight captain hadn’t told me that he had enough fuel to get to Philly. The flight officer went on to apologize for the inconvenience. Meanwhile, the plane’s passengers began to grumble en mass about various lost connections.
“This is your captain. As we land you will notice emergency vehicles with flashing lights following the aircraft as we roll down the taxi-way. Do not be alarmed by this, as this is standard procedure. Once we get to the jet-way, technicians will examine the aircraft and we will inform you as we learn more about whether we will continue in this aircraft or not.”
[So let me get this straight: I’m on a plane with leaking fuel and you’re going to pull it up to the jet way? Brilliant.]
“Uh…we will be stopping momentarily on the tarmac before proceeding.”
[Duh! The only thing I want to hear right about now is what you’re going to do to get me off of this plane.]
“This is your captain. It turns out that the fuel was not leaking from the wing as originally suspected, but the leak emanated from the engine.”
[Great detail if you’re working on my car, but the fact is I don’t particularly care. Get me off of this plane, please.]
“We have shut this engine down and we will be towed to the jet-way. Please remain in your seats until the aircraft has come to a full and complete stop. Once there we will de-plane and await further instruction in the terminal.”

Note: Had we actually made it to Philadelphia on schedule, we would have had an hour layover before boarding our plane to London. In Pittsburgh, two hours transpire before we get notified that we would change planes and finally continue on to Philadelphia. [Translation: You will not be making your connecting flight to London or any other connection for that matter. Sucks to be you. Damn.]

Day 1 ¾ (Pittsburgh, PA) Boarding the aircraft in Pittsburgh, conversations overlapped about missed flight connections and unscheduled hotel stays. We were in the air just twenty minutes before beginning our descent to Philadelphia International. It’s just after 10PM Eastern Standard Time. “This is your captain. If you have missed a connecting flight, please go to gate B15 for further information.” We were in terminal A, gate A13. Philadelphia International airport is among the largest on the Eastern seaboard. The terminals are approximately a half-mile in length with another quarter mile in-between each terminal. [Translation: we have a long walk ahead of us.] We gather our carry-on bags and get off the plane, somber in the notion that we have lost a day in London. People clamored to get off the plane to be first in line at the designated “information” gate. Twenty-five minutes of brisk walking go by when we come upon a large crowd of people at gate B15.

The natives are restless at gate B15. Some were grumbling about missing connecting flights because the “God forsaken plane” was late getting in. That plane would be the one we just came in on, flight 914. Others were equally miffed about missing their connecting flights. The crowd easily numbered two hundred or so. “Attention passengers from flights 914 (inbound and outbound), this gate will be closed as we are unable to accommodate the number of passengers from this location. Please proceed to the ticketing counter.” What ensued was akin to the Running of the Bulls as passengers scrambled to gather bags and again be first in line. Fortunately, we had a running start as we walked in on the crowd just as the announcement had been made. We abruptly made an about face. Along the way a man in cart was experiencing chest pains, but no one seemed to notice in their zeal to get to the ticket counter. Seeing someone call for emergency assistance, we continued on our quest.

At the ticket counter, the attendant shook her head in disbelief at the line of people awaiting assistance. By the time we arrived at the counter, we had already heard the bad news in advance, “We’re sorry, but we no longer have any vouchers for the Marriott (airport) hotel.” [Translation: We would have to go into the city of Philadelphia in the middle of the night to try to find a hotel - @#*!] Thinking fast, we went to the Marriott anyway—Note to all: Just because an airline is out of vouchers does not mean there aren’t any rooms left! Thanks to having a Marriott premiere account, we were able to get in on the Concierge level—whoo hoo! Now for the luggage...

With ticketing, lodging, and dinner complete, we figured we’d re-cross the overpass, grab our bags, and crash for the night. Not so fast, Batman! Riddle me this: What do get when you stop unexpectedly in Philadelphia when your final destination is London? We were about to find out. The carousel that should have had the bags was empty, but that was expected. That the baggage office did not have our bags was not expected.

Day 1 23/24 (Philadelphia) Welcome to Philadelphia. If you’ve flown U.S. Airways, and it’s almost midnight, and you don’t know where your bags are, you will have the distinct pleasure of meeting one of the smoothest BS’ers I’ve ever met. Allow me to introduce you to U.S. Airways’ Jerome. Jerome is an older, African-American gentleman, about 50, well-spoken, and knows the U.S. Airways party line when people are grumbling about lost luggage. Jerome has a very calm, soothing tone to his voice—kind of cross between James Earl Jones and Ryan Seacrest…not imposing, but just official enough to deal with most anything and command closure. After explaining to Jerome what had occurred over the course of the day, Jerome looked at me with sorrow and concern and proceeded to explain that we would not be able to retrieve our bags because once the final destination had been identified, the bags were put in a secure holding place for placement on the next plane to London that we were to be on. So if we happened to stuck in Philly for multiple days, we wouldn’t be able to get our bags? Doing otherwise, as Jerome put it, “would jeopardize national security.” I didn’t realize the re-checking my bags was of such importance, but I was intrigued. Please tell me more. Jerome went on to say (and I am not making this up), “the only thing I know for sure is that there are two things for certain in life, T-Bills and government bonds” [Say what???] I wanted to tell this gentleman how insane he sounded, and that if he even thought he knew something about finance, they why the hell was he in the basement of an airport dealing with lost luggage issues, but instead, I took a deep breath, regained my composure and continued to listen. Jerome proceeded to hand me two blue vinyl envelopes. “Please take these, compliments of U.S. Airways. These are for you to use to get refreshed…” [Oh no he didn’t!]

Day 2 (Philadelphia – Saturday)
After having a good laugh reflecting upon the events of the previous day, we made the best of it by spending the day in downtown Philadelphia around the Gallery and Old Philadelphia. We got back to the airport three hours before our flight time to make sure we didn’t have any more issues, only to spend forty minutes at the ticket counter while the attendant and two managers tried to interpret the arcane codes of system U.S. Airways uses to book tickets. We finally boarded and got on our way. The gate attendant ribbed me on the way as she took the stub from my boarding pass, “ Hey weren’t you supposed to be on this flight yesterday? We were paging you.” I quickly retorted, “Don’t e-v-e-n get me started on U.S. Airways service!” We proceeded on board and settled in to Envoy class seats.

We’ve flown first class before, but Envoy is a different experience on the Airbus A330. The Airbus A330 is the biggest member of the Airbus twinjet family, and its accommodations are excellent. Envoy class seats recline to full horizontal for sleeping and have every adjustment permutation you can think of this side of a drivers’ seat in 7-Series BMW. It also has a fold out entertainment system with 9” LCD where you can watch on-demand movies and listen to CDs from artists of every genre. Okay, my eldest son would have me point out that it’s missing video games, but there’s really no longer a need to drag portable DVD players while traveling with this bad boy on tap. Six hours of flying and four courses of food was looking better…

Day 3 (London – Sunday)
We arrived in London (finally) after 6 ½ hours flying time—give or take a day. After walking through a maze of pathways in Gatwick airport and spending almost two hours getting through customs, we’d truly arrived. A gentleman was waiting to pick us up with one of those sign cards that read, “M/M Jones.” “Cheerio. Almost thought you blokes wouldn’t get here.” The British have such dignified accents. Albert, our driver, had a late model Jaguar XJ. Jaguars aren’t known to have big trunks, and this one was no exception. The sedan only capable of swallowing three of our bags, so the remaining three would need to go on the front seat with the driver. Albert looked at me funny as I made my way to the front passenger door—Stupid American, I thought to myself as I looked through the “passenger” door on the right and found the driver’s compartment. I played it off and walked around the front of the car and handed Albert the bag. He giggled as he loaded the last of our luggage.

Albert proceeded to (correctly) drive on the right side of the road out of the Gatwick airport parking facility. As expected, everyone else was driving on the right—both figuratively and literally. As is my nature, the first thing I noticed was the multitude of vehicle brands that don’t appear in the states—Peugeot, Renault, Seat, Fiat, Citroen. As in Germany, there were many vehicles from Asia and the U.S. that were also right-drive—Jeeps, Chrysler Minivans, RX-7s, and a host of Ford and Honda models that would probably turn a few more heads than some of the boring cars these manufacturers sell stateside now. The traffic markings and signals are different, too. Traffic signals cycle from red (stop), to red+yellow (lo, be unto pedestrians who attempt to cross because cars start rolling), to green (floor it), to yellow (slow down…and yes, they really do), and back again. Surprisingly, there are no yellow lines. The lines are all white, and pretty much have the same meaning, but for one difference. At intersections and select crosswalks, the lines take on a zigzag pattern. Really. It’s as if someone gave white paint brushes to pre-schoolers and said, “Go for it!” Albert drove with aplomb. Zigging around two-lane streets and zagging around round-abouts (British for circles) for another hour until we arrived in front of our residence for the next week: Sloan Gardens Club.

Built in the 18th century as private residences, the Sloan Gardens is a Victorian mansion among others in Sloan Square on the Southwest side of London. Not including the basement, the facility has six floors that used to comprise a single household for dignitaries and their servants. The facility was converted to time share years ago and is maintained by an eloquent caretaker by the name of Joseph. The room we stayed was nice and had furniture of the era, but was also supplied with completely modern accouterments in the kitchenette and the toilet (British for bathroom). The facility also has a lift (British for elevator) and access to The Tube (British for subway train) is literally direct across the street. Sloan Gardens sits among several mansions that surround Sloan Square and is also in close proximity to high end designer shops including Hugo Boss, Fendi, FCUK (no, that’s not a typo, but the logo for French Connection United Kingdom ), and others to name a few. There’s also a great many upscale shoppes (British for shop or café) for eating. And yes, there is Starbucks, too.

Walking along the designer store boulevard, I spent the entirety of the visit not quite getting used to the idea of doing double-takes before crossing the street to make sure I didn’t get blind-sided from a vehicle coming from the “wrong” direction, and because there have been so very few occasions outside of car shows where I have seen Ferraris, Porsches, Bentleys, Maseratis, Lamborghinis, and high-end Mercedes and Audis being driven about. The number of exoticars cruising the boulevard was—for this car aficionado—breathtaking. Car&Driver, eat your heart out.

“Mind the Gap!” - One of the more simple pleasures of traveling in London is riding the subway…er..The London Underground (or “The Tube”). Aptly named, most all of the pathways down and through the bowels of London are cylindrical. There are about eight main lines—each with its own British name and color code. There are maps everywhere within the tunnels, but it’s worth the £2 to get a pocket Tube map so you can plot your stops in advance. Riding the train a few stops and you will consistently hear the phrase, “Mind the Gap!” at every stop. The announcer is referring to the gap between the train and concrete path—which is considerable when compared to trains in the U.S. A few more stops and you will be hearing “Mind the Gap!” in your sleep…

The next few days zip by quickly as we travel by tube to some of London’s most prized tourist attractions…

Day 4 (London – Monday)
The British Airways London Eye – The London Eye, not to be confused with Ian Fleming’s Golden Eye, is a 138m tall Ferris Wheel. Let me state that again. 138 meters. Sorry, for those who don’t speak metric, that length is approximately 453 feet or 1 ½ football fields tall! The London Eye sits prominently along the ____ river overlooking the Clock Tower and the Palace of Westminster. There are a number of options when buying tickets to this most visited place in London. We opted for the “flight” on the Eye as well as the river cruise. A flight on the Eye can last from 15-20 minutes, and the mechanical marvel moves so smoothly you can hardly tell you’re off the ground. Of course, the view from the elliptical-shaped capsules indicates otherwise. Unless you opt for the £200-349—at the time of this writing that’s about $400-$700—you will be grouped with several others in the capsule for your viewing experience. Basic flight pricing for adults is £14.50 per person. The interior of the capsules carry on the elliptical theme with a wood bench in the shape of an ellipse and railings all around. The capsules have a gyroscope device that keeps it level at all times, regardless of position during the flight. Thankfully, no one attempted to see if the capsule would rock at 450 feet!

The Tower of London (TOL) is the royal fortress on the River Thames—pronounced “Tems.” We didn’t do the TOL tour, but there is a great view from the Tower Bridge, which we walked across and saw up close. The TOL is where some—but not all—of the crown jewels are kept and has an interesting history. I won’t bore you with the gory details, but there’s a nice timeline on the TOL web site—click on the “History” tab—that describes how original tower was completed in the 11th century and describes the many expansions through the 20th century. Most fascinating fact: The French were not the only folk who were chopping off heads back in the day!

The Tower Bridge (also incorrectly referred to as London Bridge). This was simply an amazing bit of engineering. When it was built, Tower Bridge was the largest and most sophisticated bascule bridge ever built ("bascule" comes from the French for "see-saw"). It was a hydraulically operated bridge, using steam to power the enormous pumping engines. Most fascinating fact: In 1952, a double-decker bus reportedly jumped the chasm—a la “Dukes of Hazzard”—from one bascule to the other when the Bridge began to rise with the bus still on it. I wonder how the driver would have said “Yee-Haw”? or “Oh, @#%!”?

The Clock Tower (also known as Big Ben) – This is arguably London’s most famous landmark. The Clock Tower is actually one of three towers that sits within The Palace of Westminster. Click here for live webcam of Big Ben
The Palace of Westminster (also known as The House of Commons) - The Palace lies on the north bank of the River Thames in the London borough of the City of Westminster

Day 5 (London – Tuesday)
Except for special exhibitions, museums in London are admission free—but donations are gratefully accepted. Be advised that the art museums do not permit photography—even without flash. If you want pictures of artwork, there’s plenty to choose from in the gift shops in each museums. The museums also provide complimentary floor maps of their respective facilities. And you will need those maps. The sprawling, unending, square footage of these facilities is incredible. The Natural History Museum, Science Museum, and Victory & Albert (V&A) Museum are all in close proximity to one another and easy walking distance from the Tube stop.

Natural History Museum – This museum does allow flash photography. The exhibition du jour at this museum at the time of our visit was “Dino Jaws.” The rooms were configured to take visitors on a path of platforms and ramps with stations that educated and informed on various topics on extinct reptiles. Most interesting was the life-size Tyrannosaurus with motion-sensitive animatronics—in English, “Rex-zilla” comes at you pretty realistically as you move around the displays perimeter ramp.

Science Museum

Victoria & Albert Museum – For a Porsche-lover, visiting Stuttgart is must see when in Germany. Likewise, if you’ve ever wanted to know where the inspiration for mega-dollar designer bags, china, and clothes come from, this is as good as a historical archive as I’ve seen. The V&A Museum is much more, of course. It has extensive displays of textiles, paintings, sculpture, photography, books, furniture, and ceramics to name a few. Most interesting exhibit: This would have to be the huge sculptures in Cast Courts, Room 46a and 46b. These sculptures provide an introduction to the history of European sculpture through plaster casts of the most celebrated examples of the sculptor's art. Largely formed in the nineteenth century, these two large rooms also provide a unique illustration of High Victorian taste. Some of the castes are over two stories high.
Piccadilly Circus is a famous traffic intersection and public space of London's West End in the City of Westminster. Built in 1819 to connect Regent Street with the major shopping street of Piccadilly (the "circus" refers to "circular open space at a street junction"), it now links directly to the theatres on Shaftesbury Avenue as well as the Haymarket, Coventry Street (onwards to Leicester Square) and Glasshouse Street. The Circus is close to major shopping and entertainment areas in a central location at the heart of the West End. Its status as a major traffic intersection has made Piccadilly Circus a busy meeting point and a tourist attraction in its own right.
The Circus is particularly known for its video display and neon signs mounted on the corner building on the northern side, as well as the Shaftesbury memorial fountain and statue known as 'Eros' (sometimes called 'The Angel of Christian Charity'). Those who have been to New York City’s Time Square would feel right at home here. Directly underneath the plaza is the London Underground station Piccadilly Circus.
Harrods is essentially the department store for the super-rich, but there are lots of things in there for us mere mortals as well.

Show we saw this evening: Stomp If you’re a fan of percussion instruments, this is a must see…

Day 6 (Outside of London – Wednesday)
One of the great things about Europe in general is that everything is in such relative close proximity to other things you want to see. As a result, there’s a booming tourism industry where you can take luxury bus tours of most any tourist site you can imagine. On this day, we opted to get out of the city by taking a bus tour to see Stonehenge, Roman Bath, and Windsor Castle. If you’re lucky—and we were—the tour bus driver will provide some interesting anecdotes and history about various sites along the way.

Stonehenge – Many of the tourist attraction have audio tours to accompany your visit. The devices look like a cross between an old brick-style cell phone and a remote control. Thankfully, they’re not near as heavy as the former used to be. By entering in numbers that are posted along the way, a narrator reads excerpts that you listen to in the ear piece to get educated on the site that you are visiting. This was particularly handy at Stonehenge. There you are in the middle of a British countryside walking among mammoth 10-20 ton rocks that were arranged some time around 3000 B.C. What were they for? What was the significance of the arrangement? Was it really an ancient worship center? Or a place where astronomers gathered? Was it aliens? And how did they manage to drag those huge stones for miles to place them just so? No one knows for sure, but the narrator providing the color commentary as you walk the perimeter of Stonehenge has some interesting theories…

Roman Bath – The Romans new how to live back in the day—think of what a Beverly Hills 24 Hour fitness Spa might look like and then subtract two centuries. The Romans built several pool chambers with elegant stone and marble and the water was supplied by an underground natural spring. While the condition of the Roman Bath site doesn’t look like a place anyone would want to go to actually bathe today, what makes the Roman Bath site interesting is the architecture of the various rooms and the fact that the water that was engineered to flow through the various rooms is still functional almost 2000 years later! Like Stonehenge, this is one of the many sites that have the guided audio tours. The surrounding buildings in Bath include a church and many shops where you can buy food, clothes, or even stereo equipment. The English are particularly fond of all different varieties of sandwiches. I’m not sure if this is a nod to the Earl of Sandwich or if it’s just the convenience factor, but the sandwiches here are very tasty, indeed…

Windsor Castle – The weekend home to the current Queen, Elizabeth, Windsor Castle is surrounded by tower walls that have been expanded to its current state over the past few centuries. As this is this the place that the Queen considers home, it’s tightly guarded by armed police. Once inside the guarded walls, it’s easy to see why the Queen—and trusted servants. One of the fringe benefits of working for the Queen is that you get to live inside one of the many residences on the compound—gratis, of course.

Day 7 (London – Thursday)
Covent Garden – Covent Garden is an open air plaza of shops. You can hear live opera in the restaurant that is sunken under the street level as visitors sip tea and dine. In addition to the restaurants and pubs, you can see fresh fudge being made, drop into a night club, or visit a Picasso exhibit all within 10 minutes’ walking distance. The Apple Market is a flea market within Covent Garden. There are imported goods from all over the world and bargains a plenty—as long as you don’t take the first stated price as gospel. The Apple Market sits within the main area of Covent Garden; however, there is a second flea market just to the West of the Apple Market that has a sizably greater number of vendors and products.

Kensington Palace – The former residence of Princess Diana is definitely a must see. The palace is sparsely populated with furniture—unlike Windsor Palace. But the draw here is the pictorial exhibit of Princess Diana and the glass enclosed display of the famous dresses she wore. Interestingly, the dresses are neither grossly extravagant nor gaudy…this, I have learned, is among the things that gave Diana her charm. The dresses themselves were mostly one-off designs and bring to mind fashions of the time, but each could just as easily be envisioned running down a fashion runway today. The princess had great taste… If you’re in this area, you’ll also want to visit Kensington Gardens. The area surrounding the palace is enclosed by wrought iron fences with huge gates about the front. The gardens that surround are intricately manicured and also have fountains and animals scurrying about.

Kensington Orangery – Just outside Kensington Palace is the Kensington Orangery. An Orangery was a feature of royal and aristocratic residences from the 17th to the 19th century. It now houses a restaurant for tourists. For afternoon tea, no place is better. The surrounding sweep you into an environment of pure elegance. The lawns are manicured and the trees are so smoothly cut they appear to have been trimmed with a barber’s clippers. The trim about the building is a Victorian white facility with ceilings are vaulted and the tables covered in white linens. The clean theme is carried on the marble floors and the proper attire of the servers and host—also dressed in black in white. The servers all appear to have jumped from the pages of vogue magazine and are quite personable. Walking through the main entryway there are tables of all types of delicious treats—pastries, cakes, pies, and tarts. The afternoon menu includes a variety of tea and dessert options that have so many viable options you find yourself ordering additional plates just to sample. If you’re feeling particularly ritzy, you can order caviar and mimosa. Being the down to earth types, we didn’t go there, but we did try a sampler platter that included crumpets, a crust-less sandwich of an olive concoction, a fruit tart, and of course, chocolate mousse.

Day 8 (London – Friday)
On what would be our final full-day in London, we plotted out places to go that included Brixton, Camden, Buckingham Palace, and the Princess Diana Memorial Walk. In Brixton, we found an interesting site just next to a Starbucks: a working, manual canal. Watching a gentleman work the levers to lock gates that filled and flushed a passageway that would lower a passing private boat to a lower level was captivating for its mechanical operation alone. By the time we arrived at Buckingham Palace it was late in the day, and unfortunately, there were no tours and no changing of the guard. Still, the sheer size of the palace is something to behold. The road leading up to the palace is grand as it is bordered by flags of all of the British-controlled countries and also leads to the Princess Diana Memorial Walk. The Walk has brass & bronze markers in the concrete to mark the path of various views of the palace and the city. A fitting end to memorable trip.

The Queens English—Catch Phrases in the world of the royals…
“Mind the Gap!” – Means “Watch your step” as you’re getting into (or out of) one of the London Underground (Subway) trains
“Don’t put away your ‘woolies’, yet!” – A “woolie” is a sweater, but it doesn’t necessarily refer to only wool sweaters…huh?
“Circus” – (e.g. Piccadilly Circus) No, this does not refer to Ringling Bros. or anything remotely similar, "circus" refers to “circular open space at a street junction.”
“Cheerio” – Don’t think breakfast cereal when you overhear someone close a conversation with this term. Think, “Have a good day.”
“The Tube” - The affectionate term for the London Underground, London’s subway.

Tips for travel plans to the United Kingdom…
Do...
- Get an Oyster Pass – The Oyster Pass not only gets you access to all of the trains and buses, but it also serves as a discount card for theatre tickets and various historical sites and exhibits throughout the city
- Bring extra lithium-ion batteries for that digital camera
- Contact your cellular carrier to verify whether your mobile phone will work
- Get currency from your local bank or AAA
- Bring comfortable shoes
- Tip the Tour Bus Driver
- Take a ride on a double-decker bus
- Get that supplemental travel insurance—sure, you’ll grumble for a few moments parting with that $20, but you’ll thank yourself when you have to pay $100 (or more) for an unexpected stay in a nearby airport hotel.

Don't...
- Bring more than one large bag if you can help it. I know that’s a challenge, but it makes life much easier getting in and out of the airport. Additionally, it will allow you to take the Tube instead of a taxi to your destination.
- Bring a film camera unless you’re a pro—the bulkiness of the extra gear simply isn’t worth the headache. Besides, digital cameras—5 Megapixel or better—will get most pictures you want with good clarity.
- Hail or ride in cabs that do not have official licenses on the back—Interesting Fact: Licensed cabbies in London must past a rigorous exam that literally takes them 2-3 years to prepare for. Essentially, they must memorize every street and road in London and be able to recite, turn-by-turn directions from random places to random destinations as part of the exam!
- Bring Work materials—Hey, It is a vacation, isn’t it?!

Peace,

+THINKER

Thinking Positive...

Sunday, November 04, 2007

Miscellaneous Ramblings...

Thursday, May 31, 2007

A Moment of Silence for Kobe...

Thursday, March 15, 2007

A funny thing happened on the way to London…

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