Layover in London

  London, England, United Kingdom
Sunday, February 8, 2009

Our first flight to London is 8 hours, overnight.  We were very fortunate that this first flight wasn't very full, so after takeoff Pam moved from my row into the middle.  We each had three whole seats to ourselves to stretch out and attempt to sleep.  We would be arriving in London at 7:00 am UK time on Sunday morning (which is 2:00 am Atlanta time, and 12:30 pm India time...confusing).  Since we had a 7-hour layover and had to switch airports from Gatwick to Heathrow anyway, the group decided to do a quick tour of the city and see a few sights on the way.

We landed in London and got our bags too quickly, we were an hour early to meet our tour guide.  But Jeff was there anyway with the bus, and loaded us up--no easy task considering there were 7 of us, each carrying at least two checked bags (one personal and one of either medical supplies or books for the school), plus at least one carry on per person.  In total, I'd say we had about 25 bags.

It was cold in London, obviously, but at the airport there was no snow on the ground.  We had been so worried the week before leaving after hearing about the massive snowstorms that had practically shut London down for a few days.  Someone asked tour guide Jeff about the snow, and he replied, "You want snow?  Just you wait!" as if here were really saying, "silly American, coming all the way to London and hoping only to see snow, you ain't seen nothing yet!"  Sure enough, we drove a little further, and there were some beautiful rolling pastures just blanketed in the cold white stuff.  We, like good little tourists, tried to take pictures of everything, but being in a moving vehicle it was hard to get a proper photo that really captured the image of what we were seeing.  This would become a theme for most of our trip.

Jeff babbled on about London trivia, explaining how their airports are the busiest in the world (to be debated by us Atlantans), how they drive on the "right" side of the road (which of course is the left--having to do with ye olde days when you had to be ready to draw your sword from the correct side and fight at a moment's notice), and other chatter in his lovely British accent.  It reminded me a lot of my first visit to England my sophomore year at LaGrange, studying the history of the English Bible.  It had been my first trip out of the country and was neat to return 8 years later and recognize a lot of the facts and landmarks. 

I think about all of the places I have seen over the years: England, Canada, Cancun, Fiji, Honduras, Bahamas, and how much joy each trip has brought me and how my understanding of God and the world has expanded with each new experience.  I want to see as much of the world as I can and continue to open my horizons.  I was talking to my friend Jeb a few years ago as he was preparing to spend a month touring Paris, Cambodia, and China.  We agreed on how amazing traveling was and he felt it was ok to go into debt now and then if it meant he got to see the world. 

Slumdog in London

Over the course of about 5 hours we drove around seeing everything--and I mean everything there is to see in London.  I kept hoping to catch a glimpse of Fleet St. (which is ironic, since I was watching Sweeney Todd on the plane while writing this), until I remembered that Sweeney was filmed entirely on dressed sets and not actually in London.  We did see Notting Hill and a church graveyard that was used in filming The Omen--not sure if Jeff meant the old or new. 

We got a chance to hop out and take pictures at Parliament, Big Ben

Big Ben

, Westminster Abbey, The London Eye, some protestors on strike for Gaza, etc.  I also saw the Methodist Central Hall.  Traveling as the solo Methodist on this trip with a bunch of Disciples of Christ made me very proud of my UM knowledge, and soon I would be quoting Wesley to them during devotionals: "the world is my parish!".  We also pulled over for photo ops at St. Paul's Cathedral--wishing, since it was Sunday, that we could join them inside for services

St. Paul's Cathedral

.  We went to Buckingham palace and watched the Beefeaters march around, drove over the London Bridge, saw the "wibbly wobbly" footbridge, and over the Tower Bridge.  We saw a griffin monument that was said to have inspired J.K. Rowling's naming of Griffindor House.

As we made our way to the next airport I could barely stay awake on the bus.  Everyone else was following my lead with bobbing heads and drowning out Jeff's commentary.  We made it through security, grabbed a meal at the Giraffe cafe, and waited for our flight to Delhi.