1) The outstanding feature of the Strand Palace rooms? Not just USB ports (a marvelous innovation to begin with), but outlets for American plugs! Having forgotten my adapter/converter thingy, I had to rely on whatever might be available wherever I was staying.
2) I took the Piccadilly Line all the way out to Heathrow Terminal 5, the end of the line. Only on leaving did I realize how very close my hotel was to Covent Garden.
2a) The journey went fairly quickly as I was reading The Secret Rooms.
3) Heathrow, once through security, was just as crowded as Leicester Square. Trudging about for some lunch, I saw a restaurant that might have been promising except that you had to download their app to access the menu, find a table on your own, and then order at a counter. How on earth can a solitary traveler manage that in an airport, when you can’t leave anything unattended?
3a) Good thing for me a found a Fortnum and Mason’s lunch counter! And I had the closest thing to a Brenda Frazier Special: a little glass of white wine and an elegant chicken and egg salad.
4) I did pass through the duty free shop. Almost the first thing I saw was a display of ye Tynkeray Flor de Sevilla gin — the same kind I ended up toting around the Barcelona airport for 36 hours last September! (I may never buy liquor at the duty free again.) As it happened, I had £30 in my wallet, and I ended up blowing it all at Fortnum and Mason’s shop.
4a) When I left home May 2 I found £3 plus a bit in change, which I remembered to bring with me. Returning, I discovered I still had . . . £3.10 in change!
5) After my gate was announced, I found out that a) the intra-terminal tram was not working, and that b) that meant I would be walking all the way to London to board my plane. Heathrow didn’t exactly cover itself in glory.
6) Also, thank goodness I got in line with the boarding group before mine was called. Because by the time my group was called, I was near the head of the line.
7) Six and a half hours across the Atlantic gave me plenty of time to finish The Secret Rooms, all 425 pages of it. I may never be able to read it again now.
8) We landed hard, but we landed safely. After an interminable wait for my suitcase, I finally got home on the T. Between Airport and Maverick on the Blue Line, someone was eager to ask me questions about airport transportation — I cannot imagine why.
9) Now snugly back in my home, I can hardly believe this long-contemplated trip has ended. So many beautiful moments, so many unexpected surprises. In the words of the late Stephen Sondheim, “I’m so glad I came.”
9a) But more importantly,
Then bravely cry with Dymoke bold,
“Long may the King triumphant reign!”
Or, if fair hands the sceptre hold,
Then braver still, “God save the Queen!”