Leaving London

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Geo: 51.5002, -0.126236

Since it took such a long time to get to the hotel from the airport, we planned plenty of time to get back there this morning. We had a friendly driver who talked about some of the sights along the way, but mostly he talked about his family and what it is like to live in London—all very interesting to us. He is a "proper Cockney" and, although he was happy to pick us up in the West End this trip, he was really glad to hear that we had stayed in Hoxton on our last trip. That is very close to his childhood home.

The driver asked where we were going next, and then asked if we knew the languages in those places. He told us that when he was in school most of the students learned French, if they studied any language at all. But now his children all learned Spanish because everyone in the United States speaks Spanish. Interesting!

We made it to the airport early enough to have lunch at a pub in the airport and do some shopping. The airport looks much like a shopping mall. I hadn't planned on buying anything on the trip, but I found a Clarks shoe store with prices that were less than half of what they would be at home. I bought only two pair. I'll probably be able to wear one of them during the trip.

The flights from London to Vienna and from Vienna to Budapest were uneventful, which is what I always like. Good service and pretty much on time. The gate at the Vienna airport was fairly isolated, so we stayed in the main section of the terminal until just before time to board. In fact, the gate wasn't announced until about 45 minutes before boarding, so we had to go through security and go to the gate pretty quickly. We did not use a jetway to get to the plane. Both deplaning and boarding were on the kind of stairway that rolls up to the door, with a smallish, standing-room-only bus to take everyone from the plane to the terminal.

I had prearranged with the Hilton for one of their drivers to pick us up at the airport. He was right where we expected to find him and took good care of us on the 30-minute drive from the airport to the hotel.

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