A Very High Tea
“A Very High Tea”
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/columnist/getline/2005-02-07-ask-the-captain_x.htm
What a fun week this was as I flew my first trip
to London! The last time I was in London I was
just eighteen and only there for a few days. That
was over thirty years ago. I was broke and stayed
in the outskirts of London at a place called
Pister’s Palace in an area called Child’s Hill.
My “room” was actually a narrow bed which was the
upper bunk in what amounted to a hallway filled
with bunkbeds. These were all occupied by other
necessarily frugal students like me. I had arrived
from France via Hovercraft over the English
Channel to Dover, and from there I took the train
up to London.
This time I flew in as an airline captain and was
treated to a wonderful day of exploring in
Westminster, where much of the “good stuff” is:
Buckingham Palace, Victoria Station, Parliament
and Big Ben, etc. I got lots of pictures after
fearing it would rain and I would get none at all.
Speaking of pictures, this is a good time to bring
your attention to the fact that the Photo Gallery
at www.fromthecockpit.com has been completely
revamped and improved. It was getting too big and
something had to be done, so Al, my Other Half and
Web Guy, got us a new program so I can post as
many pictures as I want without getting into space
issues. You can also register to send email
postcards should you wish to do so.
When you get to the Photo Gallery, which I’ll take
you to directly by clicking on this link:
http://www.fromthecockpit.com/gallery/
you’ll see there are different albums, sorted by
location. After you click on any Album, say
Frankfurt/Austria, you can return to the home page
for all the albums by clicking on “Home” on the
dark blue bar just above photo, or to that
particular Album by clicking on the Album name
just to the right of the word “Home.” It’s really
easy if you just experiment a little. Note that
there may be more than one page in an Album. For
instance, in the lower right-hand corner of the
London Album you’ll see there are three pages.
Another feature is that you may send any photo as
a postcard, but you’ll need to register first. To
do this, click on the photo you wish to send.
Look for the envelope symbol in the dark blue bar,
right side. Click on that and then you’ll need to
register. It’s really easy. Just look around for
the register bar to click on and follow the
prompts. It took me just a few seconds to
register myself.
The title of this week’s Update refers to the fact
that although we had an American crew of flight
attendants flying over, for the return flight our
flight attendants were all British, based in
London. Our flight left in the afternoon and just
as we were approaching the shore of Newfoundland
our relief pilot, who had gone to the cabin to
grab some coffee, showed up with a tray of scones
and some other goodies along with tea — high tea
in both the literal and cultural sense at 38,000
over the Atlantic ocean! Since this was my first
London flight I had no idea that there was
actually a tea service offered onboard. The
delights of air travel!
By the way, is anyone by me awed by the fact that
a person can visit Buckingham Palace at 11:00 AM
and be at home in Denver by 11:00 PM? Yes, I know
there’s a time change, but it’s still remarkable
that this can all take place in a less-than-24
hour time frame.
This happened to be an exceptionally smooth flight
both ways and we could actually see the ground on
both sides of the ocean. So much of the time the
ground is completely obscured by clouds, but not
this trip. I included an aerial shot of the Irish
coast in the Photo Gallery – London Album.
We’ll be changing to a hotel in Kensington in a
few months, I understand, but for now we lay over
in Westminster right on the Thames. I was able to
walk to many of the major sights and the weather
actually cooperated, at least for awhile.
Although it was typically overcast and chilly –-
around 50 degrees or so -–the sun broke through in
the morning and I got a great shot of British
Parliament, Big Ben and the Westminster Bridge
under a partly blue English sky.
From there, I hoofed it over to Victoria Station
and Buckingham Palace, taking photos all the way.
My favorite shot of all, though, is the one on
Page 2 of the London Album, where I talked a
British cabbie into loaning me his taxi for a
picture. I can only surmise what he might have
told his wife. Crazy Americans!
Off to Tokyo tomorrow, so...
Until Next Time,
Maintain Airspeed!
Cap’n Meryl
<< Home