Saturday, May 4, 2024. Heading home.

 I don't think I needed the alarm. I was pretty much packed from the night before - just needed to throw my pajamas in the suitcase and I was done.

We had tickets on the Heathrow Express back to the airport. They don't have a set time. A train leaves Paddington Station every 15 minutes. Our hotel was about ½ mile away from that station, but with heavy, full suitcases and carry-on bags, I wasn't going to complain about the Uber Cynthia summoned for us.

 The Uber dropped us off at the taxi area on the back of the station. Until now, we'd only gone through the pedestrian entrance on a different street. We had to take an elevator down one level from the street. The station on this side was unusually quiet. Luckily, there were signs on the floor leading you to either the Heathrow Express or the regular Tube trains, so we didn't struggle for more than a couple of minutes before figuring out where to go.

 We passed through the automatic gates that scanned our tickets and were between two trains. A man ran past us and hopped on the train to the left. We had first-class tickets, so I didn't want to just hop on a train without orienting myself, so we walked down the platform toward some workers. The train the man jumped on left while we were walking.

 I approached a worker, showing him my ticket and he said, "Why are you showing me your ticket? Just get on a train." Well, on the other end, at the start of the journey, I needed to show my ticket before getting on to the train in a first-class car. This guy didn't care what we did and was angry to be approached by someone. Ah, London. Thank you for bookending my vacation with angry workers who are resentful they have to do jobs.

 We got on the remaining train, in one of the first-class cars, and sat down. We started out alone in the car, but one man did hop on before the train departed. He sat a good distance away from us, which was good because he was coughing.

 After a quick train journey, we found ourselves back at the airport. I tried once again to check-in at one of the automatic kiosks, but was given a card to report to an agent instead of a boarding pass. Cynthia got her boarding passes. I was ushered through to the back-checking agents and they were able to print my boarding passes after informing me that I would have to go through customs and security in Dallas before continuing to Burbank. I don't know why I needed extra waring while my sister didn't, but whatever.

 The security line was a little bit different than in the US. There were tables where you could search through your carry-on bag before going through the scanners, to make sure you didn't forget any liquids or electronics. We didn’t stop here, since I think we both knew where our extra scan required items were in our bags and we could easily find and remove them.

 Even though in Burbank I didn't have to take my phone or iPad out of my bag, I had to in London. But I didn't have to take my shoes off. You only had to take your shoes off if you were asked to do so. I made it through the security scan with no problems. Cynthia was no so lucky. Her bag was flagged in the x-ray machine and she had to stand with an agent while he searched through her bag for whatever had looked suspicious. I sat and waited. It was a rattail comb in her bag that had looked like a knife. And she had too many liquids so they threw a couple of them away. 

We sat at our gate, and only had about 30 minutes left until the airplane would start to board. Good thing we did give ourselves the full 3 hours they suggested to get through the airport because apparently that wasn't an exaggeration. I got a tea at Starbucks and a Coke for Cynthia at a newsstand. We were in the second-to-last boarding group, so had to wait while watching almost everyone else get on the plane. Airlines - window seats should go first! I don't understand the stupid way that people are loaded onto planes.

 This time the flight was full. There were no empty middle seats. And this wasn't a redeye flight. We left London at 1:10 PM and I was scheduled to arrive in Burbank at around 9 PM.

 My vegetarian lunch this time was a little better - not vegan. It was also the same as the vegetarian option all of the passengers had, but I was given my tray early to make sure they didn't run out of that selection. It was paneer in curry with rice, a chocolate brownie, a bread roll and quinoa coleslaw. The snack later in the day was less appetizing - a toasted pastry filled with zucchini and marinara sauce. I only took a couple of bites of that one. Yuck. 

 

I watched three movies on this leg. The Beekeeper: terrible writing and acting, but not bad enough to turn off. Bullet Train: by the same guy who directed The Fall Guy. I liked it overall. Aaron Taylor-Johnson was very good and I would have preferred that his character not die, even though he was a bad guy. Brian Tyree Henry was also excellent. It was pretty good. I took a break and wrote up a lot of this travel memoir, even though my keyboard had died and I had to enter it on the little keyboard on the iPad screen. With just over 1 ½ hours remaining, I watched Relax, I'm From the Future because it fit the time constraints. It was ok, but had some confusing logic in it. Best not to think too much about it. It was short and not didn't require a lot of thought to watch.

 Back in the US, we had to go through customs at Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW). Luckily, the line for citizens was shorter than the line for people visiting the country, so we got through the customs line pretty fast. Nothing to declare!

 Then we had to go collect our suitcases and drop them off in a different location. It seemed stupid, but I guess it was just to make sure that there weren't unclaimed bags getting on plane transfers. I got an email that a lot of suitcases didn't make the flight, so to not freak out if our suitcases were there. Luckily, they both made it. I would have been surprised if they didn't considering how early we got to Heathrow.

 From dropping off our suitcases, we had to go back through a security line. This line was long. It was estimated to take 20 minutes from a place in the line that was still 15 minutes away from us. That's how they counted it as far as I could tell. They didn't just say, "From here, it is 35 minutes." Nope. Fifteen minutes from here to where it will be another 20 minutes. This is where it started to look like we might not make our connections. I was still optimistic, but things could go south.

 We finally got to the scanning area and this time, I was the one who got pulled aside for a bag search. I had packed a lot of tea in my carry-on, because it was heavy, and the tins looked suspicious. A TSA worker pulled all the tea out of my bag and swabbed the containers. He put the swab in a scanner and it set off an alarm! He had to call a supervisor over. My sister, worried she'd miss her connection, left me at security. I wasn't bothered. The supervisor and original TSA worker opened all of my unopened teas and said, as they looked into each one, "That's tea." They swabbed them one at a time and this time the alarm didn't go off. They offered to pack my bag for me, but I said I would do it.

 I packed my bag and found my gate. I then went into the toilet and removed my compression socks. I hate them! I only left them on this long because I knew I'd be taking my shoes off at DFW for the security line and didn't want to walk barefoot on the airport floor.

 I was getting email updates for both my flight and my sister's flight. Both flights were delayed and kept changing gates. My flight left at least an hour late, so worrying about the long security line was a waste of time. The delays were weather related. There were big storms all across the country. As a result, the flight to Burbank was bumpy to an uncomfortable degree. I was relieved when we landed safely. My friend who had been watching my cats picked me up and drove me home. All of my cats, except for Shio, came out to see me as soon as I got home. My house was just even messier than I left it. The cats knocked a couple of chairs over, but everything was fine.

 I had been up for close to 24 hours by then, and fell asleep pretty quickly. Glad to be home. My vacation this time was short enough, though, that I'm not swearing off traveling again like I did in 2014. The flights were brutal, but I could see doing it again under the right circumstances. The right circumstances might have to be saving up to fly business class, though.

 The end.

(The cookies from M&S that were delicious and beautiful.)

(Diva happy to have me home.)

 

(Flight path home.)

Thursday, May 2, 2024. Amsterdam.

 Originally, I had thought about visiting three cities on this trip to Europe - London, Paris, Amsterdam. Looking at dates, time available to be off work, costs and travel options, Paris got cut from the lineup. But I had one bucket list item to take care of and that was the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. I researched hotels in Amsterdam and flights in to either Amsterdam or London and out of the other, but that doubled the cost of the flight. I also didn't love the idea of schlepping suitcases to multiple cities during the trip, and adding travel days, so Amsterdam became a day trip.

 There are several trains to Amsterdam from London in the morning and there are return trains at night. I booked us on the earliest train out, at 6:15 AM. That meant being at the train station at 5:15 and waking up at about 4 AM to get dressed and to get to the train station. Cynthia was already sick of walking (and in pain from her broken toe), and there had been thunderstorms overnight, so she ordered us an Uber to St Pancras Station early in the morning. It probably took about as long as the walk/Tube combo would have taken, but we didn’t have to walk at all.

We got to the station in good time and got through customs. They stamped my passport here! Hooray! The London airport, like I said, didn't seem to care who was entering the country via the airport. No stamps, no people. We sat in the waiting area with people who were also waiting to head to Paris and who were very early for the next couple of trains to Paris and Amsterdam. I got a tea and chocolate croissant at Pret a Manger. There was another slight language barrier at Pret. I ordered a tea, and so didn’t recognize my order when the woman called out “tea with milk.” I was the only one standing there, so she asked me directly if I ordered a tea with milk. “I didn’t order milk.” “Did you order it black?” “I didn’t specify. I assumed it would be black.” “This is yours. Tea with milk.” I’m fine with tea with milk, so it wasn’t a problem. I took the tea but I'm still not convinced I didn't drink someone else's tea. My sister ordered a muffin, which was also undercooked. Is this some cultural thing? Undercooked pastries at Pret? I think she threw hers away after one or two bites. I ate the croissant. It was pretty good.

 Just like on the Heathrow Express, I booked us first-class train tickets to Amsterdam. What a good idea! The car we were in was half empty and we could change our seats after they were sure everyone had boarded. We moved to seats facing each other in the front carriage of the car and had no one near us. The first-class seats also included a meal and a snack, and seemingly unlimited drinks. The car attendant put out trays of drinks, including wine, so we could help ourselves. Such a better travel experience than British Air.

(Our private car.)

(View from the train.)

 

(Train breakfast.)

 We arrived in Amsterdam a little late because of some delays on the tracks, but our museum entry wasn’t until 2:30 PM/14:30, so it was fine. Amsterdam uses 24-hour time, though, which is confusing when you aren’t used to it. I changed the settings on my phone so it would display in 24-hour time, but my UK SIM card didn’t work. We only had my sister’s phone to rely on. And Apple Maps sucks!!! It felt like we were walking forever before we found the museum. 

 

 

(Amsterdam, various.)

By this time, I needed a toilet. We went to a nearby cafe and I walked down the scariest stairs in the world to use the men’s toilet because the woman’s toilet had no light! We ate caprese sandwiches in the café to pay them back for letting me use the toilet, and so we wouldn't have to wander around finding somewhere else to eat. We walked back over to the museum and Cynthia sat and listened to the buskers while I went souvenir shopping. I needed a few postcards and had seen some wooden tulips along the walk that I wanted to grab.

(Am I looking up or down this staircase? Up. I'm looking up.)

(Wooden tulips.)

I didn’t do any research about Amsterdam before traveling there, so I still don’t know what was up will all the rubber ducky shops. There were only a few tulips in the mostly cobblestone and pavement city. And bicycles. There were so many bicycles and pedestrians… I was ready to scream from all the people and bicycles. I hated the general vibe.

  

 

 

 

 

(Tulips in planters in Amsterdam near the Van Gogh Museum.)

Anyway, it was time for the museum. We had traveled with carry-on type bags, to hold shopping and, it turned out, our coats. Those larger bags had to be put in free lockers before we could go up to the exhibit. You typed in a code and picked a symbol on a keypad and a locker popped open. You needed to remember the same code and symbol to open the locker when you were leaving, so they suggested using your birthday. Our bags safely locked up, we went up into the exhibit area. 

 

 

 

Here are my observations. The paintings were dark. The museum lighting was terrible. It seemed like there wasn't a lot of actual electric light inside, just ambient light coming through the windows. The paintings were all covered in glass, too, probably a result of things like climate activists throwing paint and soup at the art. The result was that all of the paintings had glaring reflections of the windows in them. You couldn't really see the paint. Wow, it was disappointing.

 The internet age has also ruined lots of things. The number of people turning their backs to the more famous paintings to take selfies with them was crazy. Prove you’ve been there some other way! I also don’t understand taking pictures of the art when you can see it on your computer, in a book, on a poster or in many other ways in better circumstances.

 The museum was crowded and people are annoying. I did love the Giant Peacock Moth and Head of a Skeleton with a Burning Cigarette. I was able to eavesdrop on a few of the tours at different stations. I was more moved, though, seeing Irises at the Getty in Los Angeles. I’m glad I went to the Van Gogh Museum, but I didn’t react how I thought I would.

 I took the stairs up the several stories of the museum and my sister took the elevator, so we didn't go through the floors together. After going through the museum, we went to the giftshop and bought lots of things. They were cash only, so the Euros I had left over from lunch and souvenir shopping were still burning a hole in my pocket. After the giftshop, it was back to the basement to retrieve our bags from the lockers. My sister's bad luck continued and her locker wouldn't pop open when she entered her code. I found a museum worker and he was able to open the locker from a table he carried.

 We left the museum and Cynthia summoned an Uber to take us back to the train station. There was a mall inside the train station, so we bought some Simon Levelt tea to use up some of my useless cash. I still left Europe with about €10, so I guess if I ever go back I've got more than enough cash for the trip. Then there was some confusion about how to find our train. I asked a man in a yellow vest, who I'm pretty sure worked at the station, where to go. We found our platform and went back through customs, getting another stamp in our passports, and waited for the train.

This time the first-class car was fully booked, although not everyone was starting out at the Amsterdam station. We had stopped at Brussels and Rotterdam on the way out, but just to let people off of the train. Now people were boarding at Rotterdam, Brussels and Lille, so even though it looked like there were empty seats, they were spoken for. Cynthia and I had to remain in our side-by-side seats this time.

(Train dinner.)

Dinner was served, which was a spinach frittata with couscous and a mango-passionfruit tart for dessert. Excellent! We got a snack a few hours later, a granola bar. There was a slight mystery on the ride back when a male passenger across the aisle got up and left his seat. He came back about ten minutes later, grabbed his laptop and charger, and left again. He didn't return to his seat for the duration of the ride. It was weird. On the plus side, I stole the mango-passionfruit tart from his abandoned food tray. Was that a good idea? I haven't died, so yes. Lola would be proud of me.

 Cynthia Ubered us back to the hotel from St Pancras in London and we fell asleep still feeling the gentle rocking of the train.

 

Wednesday, May 1, 2024. Meeting people.

 Exhausted from Tuesday, I ended up not needing the alarm in the morning. I got a good night's sleep, which is something I don't often get under the best of circumstances. I woke up, got dressed, and went scrounging again.

 I headed back to Queensway, since I knew I would have plenty of options for food and drink there. The Italian creperey I had seen on Monday, and thought I'd go to today, wasn't open yet. They didn't open for breakfast. I didn't want to be out walking for too long, so looked around on the first two blocks of the street near Bayswater. There is a chain fast-food place in England called Pret a Manger where you can buy ready-made sandwiches and coffee drinks. Like if the food section of Starbucks filled two walls instead of just one glass case near the register. Pret a Manger, or less formally "Pret," is a place you will have heard about if you watch a lot of panel shows or English stand-up comedy. I cannot think of the words "Pret a Manger" in anything other than Josh Widdicombe’s voice for this reason. I went to Pret to get breakfast to help add context to all the jokes.

(An emoji installation near the Tube station.)

 There were two lines in the shop, which was busy with commuters getting their morning coffee, using their club rewards. Just after I got in line, the computers went down and the shop suddenly became cash only. I was prepared, but the place cleared out! If you haven't been to London recently, it is nearly cashless. I had gotten quite a bit of cash from the bank before my trip, but still had, if not all of it still, then most of it. One woman who was in the middle of her transaction when the computers went down was still ahead of me in line, hoping to get her discounted coffee, but everyone else left. Her discount wouldn't go through, so her friend bought what looked like a cup of cottage cheese and they left, sans drinks. I got a chocolate croissant and a chocolate chunk cookie from the pastry case and ordered a berry lemonade drink for myself and an iced mocha for Cynthia. Or at least, I thought I did.

 I paid and stood aside while my drinks were prepared. My drink came out but then they stopped making drinks, as if they were completely done until the computers were working again. I asked about the mocha. They either didn’t hear me or forgot to charge me in the computer chaos. A woman threw her hands up and said, "Everything is free today!" She didn’t charge me, made the mocha, and I went back to the hotel.

This chocolate croissant was more to my taste than the pain or chocolate from before, but I only had a bite since that was for Cynthia. The cookie was for me and it was fine but undercooked. The raspberry lemonade was sweet, not very much like lemonade, and tiny! Like a 10 or 12 oz. cup for about $5! Worse than Starbucks for getting ripped off.

I had made arrangements to visit some of my unseen, email-only mysterious coworkers this day. The office was in Soho, so back on the Tube we found our connection and got off at Tottenham Court Road. We found the office, but the receptionist didn’t seem completely convinced we should have been there. But it was the right place! We were only in the waiting area for a few minutes before our guide for the office tour came downstairs and collected us.

 We got a quick tour of the office and then the coworkers suggested we come back at 1 to go to lunch. With a little over an hour to kill, we walked around and went to Primark again. Cynthia wanted to buy a few more things, but it was so crowded we left without getting anything. We would have been in line for too long to make it back for lunch.

 Back at the office a few minutes before one, the coworkers came downstairs and we walked to a nearby pub. For the life of me, I cannot remember the name of the pub. I'm not sure I even looked! My Google Map Timeline doesn’t show an accurate accounting of where I walked in that area, so it isn't helping. The pub served food upstairs, so we went upstairs and pulled a couple of tables together. I had a pineapple juice and nachos. Nachos! They were fine, a little salty, but not too exotic. Cynthia had a chicken Cesar salad, which had actual anchovies in it, which she didn't enjoy. After lunch, we parted ways with the coworkers and set off on foot for adventures in Soho. It was a treat to meet the coworkers in person!

 

 

(Around Soho.)

 I called Gail again just to check her and Charles availability for the afternoon. They were busy. They lead very active social lives! Gail suggested that while we were in SoHo we should go to Liberty, so that’s where we headed. Most of the shop was your standard Bloomingdale’s type store. High-end clothes divided by brand on several different sales floors. We headed up to the Haberdashery which turned out to be a great choice! They didn't sell hats there, they sold fabric and buttons and sewing supplies! I know you can buy Liberty fabrics at JoAnn's in the US, but this was the real place. My sister planned to buy me a birthday present on the trip, and Liberty had a sewing box I fell in love with. I also got some cute gifts/souvenirs for friends there. Perfect!

(Liberty.)

 

After Liberty we got back on the Tube and headed to Harrods. Diana sent me that gift card, so this was my chance to use it. We went into the food hall. Even though it was the middle of the day on a Wednesday, it was very crowded in the food hall. We walked around the pastry counter but then quickly diverted to the toilets. The elevator and stairs to the toilets led to an isolated area near the fine watches. You had to go back upstairs to go back downstairs to the giftshop area if that's where you wanted to go. Cynthia suggested we go to the giftshop before buying anything in the food hall, so we went back upstairs and got lost. Harrods is huge! It is also divided a lot like a Bloomingdale's, but with that food hall and a giftshop. We finally found an escalator down to the gift shop, but it appeared to be blocked, with a bollard in front of it. To us, that meant "do not use." We roamed around again and finally found another escalator that was also blocked. Culture shock! It was a barricade to prevent strollers, but you were allowed to walk around it, so we did.

(Harrods purchases.)

 The giftshop had everything we needed/wanted, so I spent my gift card and then some on tea and cookies. By now, the fancy shoes I’d worn to meet my coworkers were giving me blisters and my sister, as I mentioned, had a broken toe. She lost interest in getting any pastries, so we left. Since there is no direct Tube line from Harrods north to our hotel, we decided to walk through the park north. We walked a short distance away from Harrods toward Hyde Park and found a place to sit down to regroup. Another couple was already seated there, so it looked legit. After a couple of minutes, a man came out of the restaurant and told us sitting wasn’t allowed. We had to move on. So we continued toward the park. (Apparently there is no sitting in London.) 

(A chestnut tree in bloom in Hyde Park.)

We got to the park and I took my shoes off for a bit, walking through the grass. We had a fight/argument over which way the map said we should go, but did make it back to the hotel. We dropped off our purchases and went to the local pub, The Swan, for dinner. Two pubs in one day! I had Mature Cheddar Rarebit with chips, which is basically another variation of cheese on toast. I don’t remember what Cynthia ate. 

(Cute little weeds in the park.)

We had an unbelievable early morning the next day, so we went back to the room and tried to get to sleep early. I don’t either one of us got more than a couple hours of sleep, though. When you are under pressure to fall asleep, I know that I, at least, can't.

UPDATE: I forgot to mention that Cynthia's suitcase arrived! Hooray!