Arriverderci Roma — G’Day London. September 10, 2013

Greetings from London

September 10, 2013 (winding our way to the USA)

Left Rome — by taxi from hotel to airport; was going to take the train but everyone said taxi would be better as we would have needed to take taxi to the train station anyway… Well, maybe not such a good idea. Soon after we got into the taxi, traffic was more than just the usual Rome nightmare… A water main had broken and the streets were flooded. Everyone appeared to be yelling at everyone else — as if anyone could actually do something about it.

Made our way to the airport and on to the Alitalia flight to London where we will meet up with our god-daughter; Mike leaves tomorrow. I will stay until Thursday. A few remarks about Rome — turns out the density is really not that high — probably because buildings are not very tall and also because there’s a lot of “unused land” — what with all those ruins! !  In the U.S. we’d be sure to bulldoze those ruins to get more development going.

So, got to Rome Airport — very complicated check in and boarding.. Decided to check one bag each (generally we never check bags.. But also bringing home some olive oil so decided once we bought that, we’d have to check… And it seemed like a good idea since European airports always require so much going up and down stairs and then stairs to plane after the bus.. Really their boarding system adds about 30 minutes to the flight time. When we checked in (we have no status on Alitalia) we were offered “comfort seats” — at a charge of course. Mike decided we should do this.. so we had “comfort” (what we would call exit row) seats for the three hour flight.

As it turns out Mike is leaving London tomorrow and I am staying on for one additional day. He’s totally upgraded (even though his United status is way below mine)… but apparently no one likes to fly on September 11 — superstitious. so they are all flying on the 12th with me.. No upgrades available on any flights all day on the 12th. Oh well.

Flight to London was uneventful. Landed, went through customs with my newly-added extra 24 pages in my passport (because I didn’t have room for any more stamps and they always complain in England that they like to stamp onto a clean page!) Then the fun began. Landed at 3; sent through customs quickly; and to baggage claim… waited and waited until only three people were left and the carousel stopped turning… Mike got his bag.. but mine was not there. So we spent the next 45 minutes at the Alitalia baggage office filling out claim forms. The guy was super optimistic (and also told me that his baggage hasn’t arrived on Alitalia many times but they always find it! –not so much of a consolation for me).. So I’m traveling very very light now.. Computer, gear, one camera, the pants I’m wearing, a tee shirt I’m wearing and the sweater I carried in case the weather in London would be cold upon arrival (which it was and is)… No clothes. No personal stuff, no jewelry…

Supposedly the bag could miraculously show up at the hotel tonight — if it wound up on the next flight to Rome which landed about two hours ago… Or it could show up tomorrow. After that, I don’t have a clue as to what they do. The guy kept explaining that Alitalia had an office in NY… Anyway, it was a bit of a shock.. and also sort of funny since Mike and I were laughingly saying at the counter after we checked the bags.. “Let’s make a bet as to whether or not the bags arrive in London!” Ha! Ha!

My day for tomorrow is now pretty much set — shopping!

Headed off to dinner now at the Modern Pantry.. where we’ve eaten many times before.. Very close to our hotel in East London.. on Clerkenwell Road.. Maybe more tonight before I go to bed.. and a late report on whether or not the bag arrived.

Fern