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Published: October 2nd 2022
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1. All set.
It's time to leave. After much discussion and planning we're saying goodbye to our neighbours and friends here in Europe, the necessary agreements have been sought and approved, all the paperwork is in place, and we've stocked up on medications, supplies and snacks for the journey.
We are heading westwards, initially to the USA and then beyond, eventually crossing both the International Date Line and the Equator before returning home. Hopefully there won't be too many queues or delays at Heathrow when we fly out to Los Angeles prior to boarding the Star Princess
As the trip takes us halfway around the world, I thought it would be an idea to mark the distance officially by beginning the trip (and my narrative) from the Greenwich Meridian, at 0 degrees longitude. I know this all sounds a bit Michael Palin-ish but I'm getting in there first.
2. Pre departure day in London and the journey begins.
Thankfully all our travel arrangements to London went according to plan and we had plenty of time to do a few things around the city.
As I alluded to earlier, our journey is commencing at the Greenwich Meridian. The photo attached shows the line denoting 0 degrees longitude although it's not quite in agreement with GPS technology. The actual line goes through the bin store but according to the experts, it was a pretty good calculation for 19th century instrumentation.
We managed to squeeze in a bit of shopping and sightseeing...London didn't seem to be too busy, which is always a bonus.
With all the machinations in the corridors of power a quick wander down to Parliament Square was called for, just to see if there was anybody famous coming or going. A couple of camera crews were by the gates at Downing Street but all we saw was a non-descript woman in a nice red coat exiting Number 10. We pondered that she might have been the lady brought in to feed Larry the Cat, seeing as his Owner has rather a lot on her plate at the moment. This being so, Larry would now have a plateful too.
Moving onward we came to the flag waving Brexit rabble outside the Houses of Parliament and the broadcasting company gazebos overlooking said rabble. Having failed to see the PM at Downing Street, I concluded that the second best thing would be to see Laura Kuenssberg giving a piece to camera....but she was nowhere to be seen either. All rather disappointing really.
So now we are back at our hotel and looking forward to our flight tomorrow to Los Angeles.
3. Welcome to the USA?
Our flight to Los Angeles left London mid-afternoon which meant that the 10+ hour flight took place entirely during daylight hours. Our routing took us over Scotland, just south of Iceland, across the southern tip of Greenland, across Hudson Bay, Manitoba, Montana and into Los Angeles international airport. There were some cloudless areas where the frozen wastes and pack ice below looked stunning from 40,000 feet....all very well from the comfort of an aeroplane seat, but inhospitable at ground level. The snow-covered ground stretched well into the North American continent and it was not until we were overhead the rolling plains of southern Saskatchewan that earthy tones of green and brown became much more prominent and signs of human activity were visible. We also had great views of the city of Los Angeles as we approached the airport.
Upon arrival we discovered that the immigration process was now "electronic", so we went to one of the kiosks and followed the instructions. All very quick and easy and we thought it was a vast improvement over the old manual process. That was until we were then directed to the immigration inspection line which stretched for miles. An hour later we made it to the border control inspector who just stamped our passports and waved us on. Job done in 10 seconds. Why on earth make the process electronic if you still have to queue up for an hour? We were also concerned about the time as our onward transportation was not going to wait for us for more than an hour after arrival....thankfully we just found the driver as he was on the phone to the depot saying no that we were a no-show. Not what you want when your body clock is telling you it is 4am. Welcome to the USA indeed.
Anyway, we made it to the hotel but not before a stop at the local Hooters bar as our driver needed a bathroom stop. I'm sure that's the closest I'll ever get to one of those establishments. We both slept remarkably well and embarkation of Star Princess follows later this afternoon.
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