--Andrew McGarrell
Here is the beginning of my account of my trip from the U.S. to the home I have in Italy, with a stopover in England on the way, and a tour of Sardinia, and which included a meeting with Laurie in Rome. Part 1 here has a longish planning section, then covers my trip to London and Bath. Normally a frugal traveler, I got to fly Business Class; this journal will have more about transportation (and food, once in Italy!) than sights; keep that in mind in deciding whether to continue reading.
PLANNING
After a quick trip to Paris in March, at a very low airfare, I have enough USAir Frequent Traveler miles for a free Business Class flight to Europe. I haven't taken that many flights, and only one trip was work-related, but I've taken advantage of every bonus I could find for getting and using credit cards and changing long distance phone companies. My sister Flora, a college student 17 years younger than me, plans to spend the whole summer in Italy. Although it's soon after another trip to Europe, I'd like to go at the beginning of her trip and help her get settled. Once it's clear that I can go, I impatiently wait to find out when she's getting in, so I can coordinate my arrival with hers. She's hard to reach, and our parents who are arranging her trip are on the road. Somehow I don't get much sympathy when I tell people what an ordeal it is to figure out how to use a free trip to Europe :-), but it's hard to have this anticipation without knowing whether the airline will make seats available close to the dates I want. I've heard that Business Class seats are the easiest to get, however. I decide to ask if I can make a tentative reservation.
To get to Italy with this program, I can use Alitalia or British Airways (USAir will start flying to Rome on June 1). Alitalia will go directly to Italy, and should be comfortable and have good food if things go right, but their history from past years of delays and strikes makes the choice clear for British Airways (BA). I call and can indeed get tentative reservations for good dates, leaving Friday before Memorial Day Weekend. BA will allow a stopover in London, which doesn't interest me all that much, but I'll use it to get over jet lag before driving in Italy, as well as to tie up some loose ends from my previous trip a few years ago. I start extensively searching the World Wide Web for information on London, and I'm pleased to see that some cheap hotels have e-mail addresses. But I don't have much luck making reservations by e-mail: messages either bounce back much later, or I'm told they're full for these dates, which are a Bank Holiday weekend in Britain. With five BA flights a day from London to Rome, the only flight they can put me on within a day of my first choice is at 6.45 a.m., making me feel I should spend my last (Sunday) night at a hotel at Heathrow airport. I've gotten BA's brochure on hotel bookings in London and ask about booking Saturday in central London and Sunday at Heathrow; the agent convinces me to spend both nights at Heathrow and take the tube into London. This also makes sense because I plan to spend Sunday in Bath, for which Heathrow is in the right direction.
I choose my hotels carefully for the few nights I'll spend in them; most of this trip I'll stay in family's home in Umbertide, in the region of Umbria, Italy. A car in Italy is often more trouble than help, but it will be handy for this trip; I prepay one rental, then cancel it when I find I can get a better deal booking through BA. I start an e-mail correspondence with that most friendly Travel-l member, Laurie Federgreen in Rome, for some tips on where to stay, and we plan to meet during whatever short time I'll be in Rome. I'm planning a trip to Sardinia, and find out that she'll be going there shortly before me.
Flora's plans finally come through: she'll arrive in Milan on Thursday, May 30, three days after I arrive in Rome. I opt not to alter my plans and have Memorial Day weekend go to waste; Flora will be met by her friend Martina in Torino, and I will meet them there.
Friday, May 24
My cat sitter takes me from my home in St. Joseph, Missouri, to Kansas City International Airport. When we get there, I see a rare sight for this airport: a long line at the check-in counter. I get the first benefit of a trip in the higher class: a special counter position for First Class check-in (I'm going First Class between Kansas City and Philadelphia). I check in quickly, go on to the gate, and note that I'm enough of a frequent flyer to recognize a number of USAir's staff at Kansas City. (If I were a real frequent flyer, they would recognize me!) I'm wearing a jacket to fit in, and I have a tie in my backpack because I've come across a Usenet thread saying BA might require it. I board with the pre-boarders, I'm surprised by the offer to hang my jacket, and I settle in. We get a lunch with a tablecloth over the tray; they serve salad, then the main dish: they say it's chicken, but it's fish. Three of the eight First Class passengers are late upgrades who are not supposed to get lunch. The flight attendant serves one of them by mistake, leaving a real First Class passenger without lunch. They don't even have an extra Coach snack for her, and they will compensate her somehow, but she's not pleased.
We arrive in Philadelphia around 3. I know that this airport isn't that convenient to get around. I avoid an extra security check by taking the shuttle bus between concourses; to get to the bus, I go down steps and a hallway to the tarmac. A woman wearing a dress drives the bus, and confirms what I had hoped: as a Business Class passenger, I can wait in BA's Club lounge. It's at ground level, just down the hallway from the shuttle bus stop, but it opens at 3.30. I go upstairs and look over the main waiting area, glad I won't have to wait there. I go back to the lounge when it opens, three hours before flight time. One agent will need to hold my ticket and passport for another agent, and I go into the empty lounge. It is large, with a television that only gets broadcast channels (cartoons and talk shows at that time of day), newspapers and a few magazines, and a bar where we can serve ourselves. I decide to try out a Pimms, relieved that the bottle says how it is best mixed. The ticket agent delivers my things back based on my passport picture, and I settle down and read as the lounge gets more crowded, until a person comes out and announces boarding time.
I board and find my big seat, with leg room that's really an aisle. They hand out toilet kits. We have individual video screens popping out of the armrest with a number of channels available. I look over the video guide. I won't give up any sleep time to see programs going in this direction; unfortunately, the more interesting movies will show in May, and not in June when I'll be returning. The airline magazine shows a lack of international sensitivity when it refers to a "coloured American." With my pre-dinner wine they serve spicy crackers. From my meal, I remember that of the appetizer and main course, I chose one that had the healthy symbol and one that did not. Each passenger gets a large assortment of chocolates for dessert, and a cheese plate with port wine. After dinner I'm ready to sleep; the seat reclines far back and cradles, including a leg support; there are four control buttons to manipulate, and there's an instruction card saying how to do it best, but I evidently do it wrong, since I will spend the next day in London with a bad back. However, I sleep pretty well for a few hours.
Saturday, May 25
I wake up as they start serving breakfast: muesli and an "energizing" fruit drink. Our scheduled arrival time is 6.30 a.m.; the pilot says we'd be ready to land before 6, but we'll need to hold because of local noise regulations. At 6 (midnight in Missouri) we're part of a string of 747s landing in rapid succession. At this hour I go straight through immigration without needing to use the Club Class "fast track." I've rarely been lucky before in having a hotel room ready when I arrive in the morning; I don't know if I'll have better luck at an airport hotel. As a Club passenger, I can use the Arrivals Lounge. That lounge includes a shower, which I opt not to use at this point; I read newspapers and have some coffee. I go to my preferred source of currency, the ATM. I have two cards from two accounts; the card I planned to use gives me the message "Not valid for international transactions." My other card works, but there isn't much money in that account. I'm at Terminal 4, and the bus to my hotel, the Ibis, only runs from the other three terminals, so I take the connecting bus to Terminal 1 and wait. The Ibis bus runs every 30 minutes; each time I go there, I will need to wait the whole 30 minutes. The Ibis is (I think) a French chain, and nearly all the staff seem to be French. My room is ready; I try to nap for a bit but I can't.
So I go off for a day in London. I follow the European practice of leaving the key at the desk when I go out, and I need to buy a ticket for the airport bus; each time, the staff think I'm checking out. I need to plan the next day's trip to Bath. I expect to take the bus to Reading and get on the fast train there. I want to find out about this from the British Rail information desk that I expect to be at the main Heathrow Tube station, but I don't see it there; instead I see the coach (intercity bus) station, where I find out that I can take the coach to Bath for a much lower price. I book that trip, even though I'll be spending more day-trip time on the road.
On to London. I had asked the Travel-l list about offbeat things to do in London for this day, and received many helpful suggestions. One of them was something I'd planned to do on my previous trip, ride on the Docklands Light Railway. I'd worried that it didn't run on weekends, but I've picked up a brochure that says that now it does. So I buy a London TravelCard for the day and take the Tube to the Tower, where I find the DLR. It's an interesting elevated train ride to the East; it goes past a complex of high-rises that are boarded up, I take it as the result of an IRA bombing. The train reaches the banks of the Thames across from Greenwich, an interesting neighborhood to walk, quiet at least on this Saturday. I make my way back to Central London, deciding to try to see a theatre matinee (I know I won't be able to make it through an evening show). I go to the Leicester Square half-price ticket booth and join a long queue, thinking that at this time they're only selling matinee tickets. Soon enough, I find that this queue is for the evening shows; matinee tickets are for sale on the other side with no wait. There aren't many shows posted; I opt for "Mack and Mabel," a new but old-themed musical about Mack Sennett. I walk around Covent Garden and see the show, a mild diversion. After the show, I walk through the crowded streets until I reach the Oxford Circus tube, and go to Notting Hill Gate and Geale's Fish and Chips restaurant: a good meal, with the curiosity that they charge for beer as they serve it. I take the tube back to Heathrow; the ride seems long, with rowdy young people taunting each other. I'm ready to sleep.
Sunday, May 26
I make my way to the coach station to go to Bath, where I haven't been before. It rains and I need to deal with intermittent showers in Bath. I visit the Roman baths and attached museum, interesting to see Roman things in Britain. I spend the day walking around town and enjoy the sights of many eras, the small streets and monumental areas. The Pulteney Bridge over the River Avon has shops along the side like the Ponte Vecchio in Florence. The town has learned to handle the hordes of tourists; during church services, the Abbey posts when it will re-open for visitors; I always go by at the wrong time. I return to Heathrow and my hotel.