We left the boat pretty early this morning. Antonella had arranged a cab to take us to the airport in Montpellier. Still, even though many people were not up yet, the staff wished us a happy onward voyage.
We followed the usual recommendation to be there two hours early, but we should not have bothered. I waited endlessly for Easy Jet to open the counter for the flight to London Luton. And the flight was delayed about an hour as well because all the airlines were anticipating yet another one-day strike by French air traffic controllers, a job action that the union cancelled at the last minute. But by the time that decision had been announced, many flights had already been cancelled or rerouted.
As we waited to get on the airport, we saw a truly weird sight. There was a group of young men who all seemed to be helping a blindfolded friend.
We decided later that this must have been some kind of bachelor party thing and he was being taken to a surprise location. But where did they find that suit?
We had a pleasant enough flight to the United Kingdom, and Easy Jet proved to be a lot like Spirit or Jet Blue in the United States. We had to wait a while to get our luggage, but we made it quickly through immigration and customs. British immigration agents always appear to be very friendly, but I have observed that it is really an act designed to make you potentially reveal as much as possible about who you are and what your plans in the country are. It is an effective tactic, I think.
Luton Airport is clearly too small for the amount of traffic it handles, and there is construction going around everywhere. John and I found a bus that would take us to the train station. At the station, a helpful agent helped me get a ticket from there to Gunnersbury Station in Chiswick. We had to transfer in West Hampstead, but that seemed easy enough. However, by the time the train reached Hampstead, John was feeling a little weak and I knew he just had not had enough food for the day. We had to take a short walk on the high street to get from the British Rail to the Overground station, so we looked at what was available. John decided, oddly enough, that he wanted to go to a pub.
We ordered some of the usual “pub grub” and I had a lager, too. But shortly after our food arrived, the placed started to fill up. We figured it out quickly. We are in the middle of the World Cup playoffs, and this afternoon France played Argentina.
The crowd was definitely pro-French.
The young boy on the left kept calling out, “Allez bleu!” I somehow doubt that Hampstead was a center of Brexit fervor.
We took an Uber from Gunnersbury to Brentford. Vicki and Jerry met us at the gate. It was great to see both of them, and retirement certainly seems to agree with Jerry!
We had a wonderful barbecue dinner outside. I watched the ducks and the swans. It’s an early bed tonight, as we have a full day planned for tomorrow.
