Europe Day 1 – Los Angeles to London

2:30 a.m. – London Time
I’m over Utah right now going 540 mph at 33787.46 feet. Although United provides a TV that shows this information, I have my GPS receiver suction-cupped to the window and I am following along on my laptop. I am watching the movie Elf on the TV. So far, so good. Vanessa and I met a woman while we were waiting in the airport. I made the mistake of asking if she was going home for the holidays. She started crying as soon as I asked her. I have that effect on people sometimes. It turns out she flew to Southern California to visit her mom and daughters for Christmas. Her boyfriend stayed behind in Portland. Well… he died on Wednesday of some massive blood clot in his brain. At least that’s what the medical examiner thinks at this point. I guess he felt a flu coming on earlier in the week, but nothing else was wrong with him. Sad.

I was able to get our seats changed to the exit row so we have about 8 feet of legroom. I was hoping they would let us go in the business or even first class since they are less than half full. No one was in the Christmas spirit or I didn’t know the secret password.

The stewardess told me I will have a challenge trying to find places to eat after we land (Noon on Christmas day). I’m sure something will be open. Doesn’t anyone go out for Christmas dinner?

8:30 am – London Time
Were now rocketing over Greenland at 670 mph. According to the United information screen we have a tailwind of 140 mph. It’s also telling me that it is –90 degrees Fahrenheit outside at this altitude. If I have to open the emergency door, I think I’ll put on my jacket first. Vanessa and I took a couple of sleeping pills after dinner. I think I got about 3 hours of sleep, but it felt like I just dosed off for a couple of minutes. We have about 3 hours to go before landing. I am going to try and stay awake. The dinner was actually pretty good. Brie cheese w/ crackers, a roll w/ butter, salad w/ vinaigrette, grapes, water, a choice of lasagna or beef w/ mashed potatoes. Vanessa had the pasta and I ordered the beef. We were both surprised at how good it tasted, but our expectations were pretty low.

Later on…
After landing it turned out the train I was expecting to catch into town wasn’t running, event though everything I had read said it would be. Instead we jumped on a bus, which was fine. It took us to the same place as the train would have and we walked less than half mile to the hotel. The luggage was heavy, but it was tolerable. We each ended up taking a wheeled carry-on and a backpack. The hotel is nice, but our room is barely larger than the size of a cabin on a cruise. If you haven’t been on a cruise, our room is roughly 8’ x 15’ including the bathroom. We are only sleeping there, so it isn’t bad.

We were pretty hungry, so after setting down our stuff we headed back to the lobby to grab Christmas dinner at the restaurant in the hotel. They had a set menu for Christmas and the first thing I noticed was the price. We don’t mind paying extra money for a good meal, but $65 per person seemed a little steep especially when you consider the food and they service we received. For the first course, I had some thinly slice honeydew melon and some crap in a half fig. I’m not sure what was in the fig, but it wasn’t that good. Vanessa had some duck liver with some orange stuff on a cracker. Yummy!!!

For the main course we each had sliced turkey gravy, 2 tiny sausages wrapped in bacon, to small scoops of stuffing, some potato chunks, carrots, and brussel sprouts. That wasn’t bad. For dessert I had some tart raspberries in a crunchy shell. Vanessa had some raison cake with white sauce on it. We both had water. Trust me, it wasn’t worth the money. They wouldn’t give me change, so… no tip. Darn.

We went back to the room. It was only 4:00 pm (the sun had set), but we were tired. We took a nap until 7:00 pm and watched TV until 10:00 pm. Long day.