Stopover

London.

After a sleepless night in JFK I boarded my second flight of the journey bound for London. Though the entire journey will take nearly three days, in the middle of it, I feel much less jetlagged than normal after arriving in London. I blame it entirely on this:


Lovely, down-covered piece of heaven adjacent to the airport. The heathrow Hilton. I booked a screaming deal with them a few months back that included breakfast. It was the best decision ever, or nearly just. The desk attendants gave me a very late check out time of 3pm, and I didn't waste any of that time! I curled up in the perfect bed at 11:30pm and thanks to the down pillows, sound proof walls (the hotel is just off the airport. Never heard a single plane) and leather-lined blackout curtains I didn't come back to life until 11am. I did a double-take when I saw the clock! Heavenly sleep!

I did miss breakfast though.

So I grabbed a quick almond croissant (being so late they were out of chocolate) and then went to the gym for a great workout.

People should bathe after goin to the gym. Just saying, because the man on the treadmill next to me smelled as if he'd skipped his monthly bath last month. Yuck!

The English have astonishing baths. Bathtubs. I don't know what's wrong with Americans that they can't design a decent bath, but there it is. I want to transplant the bath from my hilton room back home. It's deep and long enough to stretch out and read a good book in. I loved it so much I took two baths (yes, one after the gym).

3pm came much to quickly and I zipped back to LHR terminal five, which is a universe of sensory overload! Aside from the simple shift of being outside of the US (driving on the wrong side of the road. Doors and toilets, spoons and the like all shaped slightly differently) terminal five is a corporate marketing dream come true. It's a bit diZzying really. Everywhere you look are stores and loud music, flat screen TVs advertising the latest perfumes and clothing.... I really wanted a pair of sound proof earphones to drown out the noise!
It's not like american airports at all. More like a hyped up shopping mall.



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