Last minute...
Trip Start
Apr 10, 2006
1
3
47
Trip End
Jul 24, 2006
London,
United Kingdom
Tuesday, April 4, 2006
When I first thought of the idea of a world trip, I checked out the British Airways 'one world' web pages - I had originally been under the romantic impression that one could buy a global ticket and simply book flights as and when one fancied. Want to get out of a place because you hate it; just catch the next plane. Want to stay longer than planned; book later. Want to go somewhere different than originally planned'; no problem just get on the next plane that connects Of course I knew there were rules, like; only travel in one direction, or you could only have so many flights per continent etc, but I really thought it was incredibly flexible and the web pages merely confimed my thoughts
London in the Spring
.So when I contacted BA and started to chat throgh my rough itinerary, imagine my surprise when I was told I would be better off booking independently via someone like Opodo! Now I know a lot of backpackers do just that; book flights and wander the World as the fancy takes them, but with needing to be back for the Summer holidays with my children and wishing to pack a huge amount in by the most economical means, I knew I needed to have a fair proportion pre-booked. So while in London I popped into the BA travel centre. With rough itinerary in hand, I was sat at a desk with a young lady and we started to check flights and availability and work up a schedule. Although I was the client and about to spend quite a bit of money, I really felt I was an inconvenience to teh assistant, and as each section was being added, she was getting less and less friendly. Don't get me wrong, she did her job and worked out an overall ticket price, but there were huge gaps in the schedule, gaps she didn't want to help me circumvent and given I was made to feel like a 'pain in the ass', I wasn't abolut to ask for help.
The next day I called into 'Trailfinders' in Picadilly. Wow! what a diference. Robin Westlake was the consulant who looked after me, and he was absolutely brilliant
Natural History Museum
. He made me feel totally at ease, nothing was too much trouble and better still he gave advice about connections and scheduling, Visas, and tours. Botom line Robin made me feel like this was my trip and that I was in control and I didn't need to compromise to make his job easier - the total opposite of BA. Four hours later and apart from a couple of minor gaps my schedule was complete and fully booked, including a really exciting 16 day tour in Peru! I was thrilled and releived, and although pretty last minute and without the carefree flexibility I had originally anticipated, the schedule had everything I wanted.I won't bore you with the Embassy details just to say I queued for 2.5 hours to apply, and a further 1.5 hours to receive, but the time actually flew by with chatting to fellow travellers, one of whom was hoping to catch an outbound Virgin flight that afternoon. Visa and flight in same day; possible - but in this case he didn't make it! Huge coincidence and a re-affirmation of actually how small the world is, he lived in Spain too and we had some mutual contacts!
Hotel front was interesting, the really snotty Queens Gate Hotel, Queensgate, completely messed up my confirmed booking, had no rooms available upon arrival, and whilst it was there fault entirely, tried to wriggle out of blame and did nothing to help or appease the situation
Natural History Museum (b)
. In contrast the Shaftsbury Hotel Kensington (actually near Earls Court) was fantastic, bent over backwards, upgraded our room to a suite and all staff were friendly, happy and helpful. The rooms were a good size, well furnished and fitted, and the restaurant was great. Big thumbs up for this hotel.One of the biggest thrills was spending some time with 3 of my children, Sophia, Elicia and Mica, who live with their respective Mothers (two failed marriages), in Oxfordshire. We stayed in London (big thumbs up to Trevel Lodge Kensington - great rooms and fabulous cooked buffet breakfast!), and on the Sunday went to the Natural History Museum. After just 2.5 hours we had all pretty much had enough, but it was time well spent and well worth the visit. HIghlights for me were the Dinosaur section, the replica Blue Whale (christ they're big), and a pair of elephant tusks - the interesting facts for me being that they were probabaly the largest in the World, and the museuam had acquired the individual tusks from different sources and years apart. We drove around London looking at all the tourist bits, (Tower of London, St. Pauls, London Bridge, 'the Wobbly Bridge' - affectionately named when it swayed violently on first opening, Leicester Square, Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace), but I think that day, for the first time in a long time, I actually appreciated the beauty and magnificance of London; it is not just the odd spectacular building, they are everywhere, and the new structures and renovations appearing in the city sector are fabulous. The other aspect that struck me immediately was how clean every where looked. Much of Spain and in particular it's cities struggles with the national past time of littering, and in recent years a huge upsurge in graffitti, so in comparison London looked like a dentists surgery! In spite of being totallly non-nationalistic and unpatriotic I have to say; well done London.
On the purchases front, I manged to grab waterproofs, shirts, trousers and other essentials in the sales, but the best buy has turned out to be some airtight sealed plastic bags which I found at 'Boots'. With clothing inside the air expelled and the bags sealed, they end up as flat as a pancake - ideal for packing 3 months worth of gear into a rucksack.
