I made it to London! – Going Places

Yes, I made it to London. Not everything on the journey went as smoothly as it might have, but I’m here.

The journey from Mexico

I heard that traffic from Ajijic to the airport has been horrendous because of construction and flooding (there’s been a lot of rain recently). So I allowed plenty of time. And I made it to the airport in an hour, about 15 minutes longer than the best-case scenario, when there’s no traffic.

I got through security in record time and parked myself in the Aeromexico lounge at GDL. This is not one of the best airport lounges, but it was fine.

The flight to Mexico City departed exactly on time and arrived in Mexico City on time. In the course of that one-hour flight, the current resident of the White House bombed Iran.

First order of business on arrival at MEX: as a Permanent Resident of Mexico, I am required to get my passport stamped on departure. So I followed the signs to Migración. Only there was construction, and Migración wasn’t where it has always been and where the signs directed me. So I wandered around a bit, asked a few airport employees, and eventually found it. Why wouldn’t they put signs anywhere directing people to the temporary location of Migración?

I had to pee, but I figured I’d wait till I got to the lounge. So I headed to the Aeromexico lounge. But it was closed for renovation. No sign offering any alternative lounge access. Oh well. I am a premier client of HSBC, so I was able to access that lounge instead. Nevermind that it’s not even as nice as the Aeromexico lounge in Guadalajara.

But there was a sign at the entrance saying that the W.C. was out of order. So I went to find a men’s room first, and then back to the lounge. Hung out there for a while, a little to eat, a little to drink. I had to go pee again, so I decided to just head to my gate. The boards indicated an ontime departure, and we boarded on schedule. And we sat. And sat. The captain announced that there was a delay because of heavy traffic at Heathrow. So we sat some more. Then the captain announced that a shift in the wind meant that the ground crew had to redistribute the stowed baggage. So we sat some more.

We finally took off about an hour and a half late.

Arrival

We actually made up some time and arrived only a half hour late, about 4:30 this afternoon. I zipped right through passport control and headed to the Tube. By 6pm I was at my hotel.

Premier Inn is a mid-range change throughout the UK. I stayed in two when I went to Scotland in 2023. I am at the County Hall location, right next to the London Eye and across the river from the Houses of Parliament. It is pretty cookie-cutter, but a good price and a great location.

They have automated check-in. A few days ago they emailed me a QR code. I couldn’t get the machine to read my QR code. An employee came over to help. He couldn’t get it to work either. So he entered my booking code, and that worked. I provided all the required info, and hit next, and a popup stated that there was an error and it couldn’t complete check-in.

Another employee came to see what was the problem. She ended up checking me in with the non-automated system.

Last week I got an email indicating that they are doing some renovations, and one of the two elevators was out of service. So every time I’ve used the elevator, it’s been slow and crowded. But I got here.

As I said, great location.

Evening walk

Once I took a shower and got into some fresh clothes, I headed out for a walk. My destination was St. James’s Park. It was a beautiful evening, and a lot of people were out enjoying it. Crossing the Westminster Bridge was an obstacle course, but the Parliament buildings were glowing in the late afternoon sun. All the kinks in my journey to get here were easily forgotten.

St. James’s Park is absolutely lovely. Established by Henry VIII at the end of the 16th century as a hunting ground for deer, it owes its current design largely to Charles II, who had it redesigned based on the gardens he enjoyed while in exile in France. At one time it housed exotic animals such as camels, crocodiles, and even an elephant. Today it is the home of dozens of species of water foul, and it is a popular gathering place for Londoners and tourists alike. The abundance of both wildflowers and landscaped gardens makes it a visual splendor.