Day 3 – Leaving London

The thing about this trip is, while we were knew we were coming, we were both too slammed at the office to do much about it. Evidence of that fact – we did not have a guide book to Hong Kong in our possession. We actually had no plans other than flights and hotels. We knew where out hotel was, and had lots of recommendations from all of you, but not much of an overall plan. And we’re planners (well, Karen is). So our last stop in London was at Waterstone’s in Trafalgar Square to buy an Eyewitness Guide to Hong Kong (thanks Alice, for getting us hooked on the Eyewitness Guides). 

From there, it was back to the Underground by way of a cute little street where Ben Franklin once lived and the Club Quarters, with only the briefest of stops at the Marks & Spencer on Gracechurch and a flirtation with a pair of grey suede oxfords. To be clear, Karen flirted with the clothes; to the best of our knowledge Eric did no flirting.

A word here on the challenges of packing for this trip. London was a random stop-over on the way to HK. When we booked the flights British Airways asked if we wanted a stop-over (additional cost: $0). Not ones to look a gift horse in the mouth, we took the offer. This posed a bit of a conundrum. Temperature in London: 32. Temperature in HK: 65-80. Temperature in Singapore: 85. Temperature in Vietnam: 85-90. We didn’t want to freeze to death, but schlepping winter clothes through Asia seemed hardly appealing. Against that backdrop, we stopped back at the Club Quarters hotel to pack a couple of Post boxes filled with long winter coats, scarves and hats. From there it was in a cab to Paddington (Bear) Station and the Heathrow Train to Terminal 5.

Eric and Karen fly a lot. Between work and jaunts to Costa Rica, Hawaii and Italy (by way of airports in Frankfurt, Berlin, Naples and Florence), we’ve seen our fair share of airports – and that was this year alone. Which means we’ve seen a lot of airports. And generally they are all the same. Sure, SFO and ORD are above average. Dulles is a dump (don’t get us started). Terminal 5 at Heathrow blows them all out of the water; we mean CRAZY impressive. The checkin area alone is the size of some actual plane terminals. We checked in at H. There were areas A-J (10 of them) and each of the areas had 10-15 agent desks each. It was well staffed and they didn’t treat us like we were getting in their way or act like printing the baggage labels was beneath them or worthy of the Magi (National Gallery callback). At any rate, we checked our bags (which honestly didn’t seem any lighter without the long underwear and winter clothes) and headed through fast track security (thanks BA Business Class). Just like in the states, shoes and jackets come off and through the metal detector we went. Karen and Eric both set it off, with immediate frisking from the security officers. It is noteworthy because the frisk was exactly like ones causing an uproar in the states. Firm and comprehensive. They didn’t warn us first or apologise (British spelling), they just went in and did their thing and sent us on our way. Seriously USA, get over it. Besides, Eric said his security officer had very strong hands and parts of the search were like a massage. Next up: BA Club South. The food was average and the booze choices suffered from being out of Jack Daniels (OMG! OMG!). There was also a horse with a lampshade on its head that both intrigued and disturbed Karen. 

We killed some time there and then headed to the B Terminal to another BA Club (where thankfully they had Jack Daniels – I mean really, it is a 12 hour flight – brother got to get his drink on…and also chocolate chip shortbread cookies – it is a 12 hour flight – sister got to get her chocolate chip cookie on). Momentarily sated, we headed down to the 747 which was to take us to HK. Next up, a 12 hour flight and arrival in HK!