To London

Stories from the Road
June 8, 2015
London, England

It is -63 degrees F outside as we cruise at 619 MPH over the Atlantic. The plane is full, but it is a quiet, uneventful flight thus far. Earlier we were served cheese omelets, yogurt, juice, and coffee. Since I had finished my Joe Nesbo book, I began a Kurt Wallander novel. These Scandinavian mystery novels are great fun.

Our trip to Logan was quick, as there was little traffic at 5:30 AM. On Friday we landed during rush hour, but the traffic wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Our driver was from Pakistan. After I told him we had hiked there years ago, we had an animated talk about the country and its people.

On our way to K-2 we had flown to a frontier town called Skardu. Vicki and I had wandered around and met a group of children, ranging in age from nine to twelve.  They were excited to meet us and showed us around the town. I have pictures of them standing in front of the mayor’s house. One of the boys became the lead guide, and he would sweep his hand in an arc toward what he was showing us. I was sorry to have left these enthusiastic guides.

Salim, our driver from Heathrow, brought a big comfortable van to drive us to the Nadler in SoHo.  Born in Turkey, raided in Sweden, and now a British National, he was a friendly man, whom hopefully we can hire down the line to drive us to Gatwick.

The Curse of the Solo Traveler

We have travelled with Dennis Humphrey a number of times. He has educated me by words and example about solo travel. He always gets a small room. In Cinque Terra a train ran next to his bed, In Cortina he slept in a “closet”, and though his room here isn’t bad, it is small. He tries not to eat in restaurants by himself, since he usually gets ignored. Dennis manages these discriminations with good humor.