Journal Entry - June 2, 2001scribe.gif (3200 bytes)

Arriving in London

 

   We arrived at Heathrow airport in London England around 1 PM (they are 8-hours ahead of us).

    Tim doubted the driver had received the flight information and feared we would have to make our own way into central London. That wouldn’t have been too bad; however, the driver (JJ) was to also provide us with the key to our flat at 75 York Street…getting another key would be a problem since it was Saturday.

    Going through Immigration, then Customs, and finally retrieving our luggage was rapid and uneventful. Walking through the throng of people waiting for passengers we saw many people holding signs with passenger names on them. One of the signs had our name on it; we were overjoyed that JJ had found us! A delightful man, possibly a little older than Tim and me, with a bright Irish smile and brogue, he was our greeter, guide, driver…an angel in our eyes after the flight from hell. He is short and stocky and has been playing rugby for over forty years. He was a wonderful end to this trip. (Apparently many of the drivers, including JJ, had called the airport to confirm the flight’s arrival time and were informed it was on schedule. JJ said they almost had an uprising when they discovered the flight had been delayed almost two hours.)
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Driving from the airport, the only difference I noticed at first was the steering wheel on what we consider to be the passenger side. All the traffic from the airport was going in the same direction out of the airport. Shortly, however, I was to be indoctrinated to some of the differences we would have faced if we had decided to ship our car over and drive around London…we’re certain we made the right decision not to bring the car!