London Feb. 1: London, England

04FEB 08 London, England

I got up a little later than I had planned at 8:30a maybe as I fell asleep and was not able to set an alarm last night. The god thing is that I’m well rested having gotten seven hours worth of sleep.

I got my stuff together and headed out, catching a train to Victoria station and arriving at 9:42a. The next Gatwick Express train to Gatwick was at 9:45a. I also noticed that the next Southern train was at 9:47a so I rushed over to my secret kiosk, quickly bought my ticket for 10.90 GBP after waiting for the persons who were there before me. I ran to platform 18 after putting my ticket in the machine (I actually put the receipt in first) and boarded the train via the First Class cabin. A minute later, the door closed behind me and we were on our way.

The train pulled out promptly at 9:47a and would make two stops before Gatwick Airport. I relaxed for a bit as I watched Air New Zealand’s Boeing 747-400 descending into Heathrow airport; it was arriving from Los Angeles, CA (LAX). This is the same airplane that came from Auckland, New Zealand (AKL) to Los Angeles, CA (LAX) and will do the return trip as well. I wonder how many passengers go to the U.K. via that route? I then got my computer out and started to work on a project that I needed to finish up.

On this train they kept announcing that the train would split at a particular station, so you should ensure that you are in the right car. They even had it on a LCD that is in each of the cards. The handrails in the cars are also color coded. I say this as the conductor came through the train and asked for tickets. The guy across from me that also got on in Victoria needed to be in cars 1-4 and did not move from our car, car 7 until the conductor told him to do so. I guess people don’t listen.