. . . to a new year of adventures. No boring repeats of Dingle and Depoe Bay coming this year. Yesterday we flew (non-stop) from Phoenix to London Heathrow on American Airlines #194. Business class was very nice. Good seats convertible to lay-flat sleepers. We both got some sleep. Dinner was mediocre at best (we both had chicken). Breakfast kind of sucked, but, oh, well. We left on time and arrived just moments late. Immigration at Heathrow used to be a disaster with long lines and waits up to two hours. Today it was a breeze – scan your passport and you’re done. No line. It took two minutes tops. After a short wait for the luggage, we were off to the Heathrow Marriott.

So, hotels are not allowed to offer pick up services at Heathrow. Heathrow runs a series of “Hotel Hoppa” bus routes that run on schedule to take people to the hotels around the airport. It costs about £7 per person. The hotel also pays Heathrow for the service. Well, Marriott has opted out, so we planned on taking the Hotel Hoppa to the Sheraton Skyline next door to the Marriott. We just missed a scheduled departure on that route and there wasn’t another one for an hour. A driver on a different route told us they now no longer stop at the Sheraton Skyline. Sheraton is owned by Marriott. It seems Marriott is instead offering a different (more expensive to guests) private car service (a la Uber). Boo to Marriott. Anyway, the driver on this other route said “Hop aboard and I’ll drop you outside the Marriott”). Kudos to him. He earned a nice tip. And voila, we were at the Marriott at 1:00. And the room was ready that early.

Photos on Board the Aircraft

We have Marriott Club access. Yay! Happy hour at 5:30. Free food and drinks. Nice layout. You could just pig out here and skip dinner. We didn’t.

So then it was dinner at Carluccio’s, the restaurant at the Marriott. It’s a chain that is quite popular in the UK. We didn’t eat much. Elaine had some arancini while I had a prosciutto pizza.

Then it was off to bed. Long travel day. Jet lag. And more travel tomorrow (Thursday) with a flight to Oslo.

Later!