St. Peters from the deck of our hotel room at sunset last night.

MD in conversation with a satyr.

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Once again MD and I fell victim to an airline delay.  We were scheduled to leave London at 4:45 PM on Alitalia.  We got there in plenty of time, went through all the check in hassle that I described earlier.  We got to the Alitalia lounge, got the call that the plane was ready to board, and headed to the gate.

As we reached the gate, there came a torrential downpour complete with lightning, thunder, howling wind, the works.  After the weather settled down a little – not completely, but a little – we boarded the plane, a huge Airbus.  MD and I had were in the first row, so we got in and got our stuff stowed and our reading material out.

The plane finally loaded the zillion and one people on the flight, then closed the doors, pulled away from the gate and headed to the tarmac.

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MD and I are now cooling our heels in the Alitalia lounge waiting for our Alitalia flight to Rome.  We endured the heightened security that surrounds all the airports in London right now, and so I figured I would pass along the fruits of our learning to anyone else who might be headed this was.  It could have been a disaster, but ended up working out okay for us.

The rule is one and I mean ONE carry on through the security checkpoint.  We usually travel with one roll-aboard type bag that we check, one small carry on ( a briefcase for me; a little roll-aboard demi-lune bag for MD) and a purse (for her) and a little message bag filled with medical papers and a book or two (for me).  We’ve never had trouble with this setup until the security gate at Heathrow.  We were turned away and told ONE and only ONE carry on was permitted.
We had to stuff the message bag and MD’s purse into the larger than normal briefcase-like carry on that I had.  If I were traveling with my regular briefcase, we would have been screwed.  As it was, it took both of us to hold the side of the briefcase together, push and lock it.  I was afraid it was going to pop open at every turn until we got through security.  Had we not been able to get all our stuff in, we would have had to throw away MD’s purse (highly unlikely) or my message bag.
So, don’t plan on doing something normal like taking a carry on AND a purse or a briefcase when you fly out of one of London’s airports.  We fly back to the states out of the airport in Edinburgh.  I’ll report on the security issues there once I’ve experienced them.

We got up this morning and headed down to the hotel lobby for breakfast only to find that a Continental breakfast cost a whopping £18.50, which is about $40. We decided that $80 for the two of us for a couple of sweet rolls and some toast that we wouldn’t eat anyway along with some coffee was a little steep. We set out walking and within a few blocks had stumbled onto a real jewel.

The Clarence – a small workingman’s pub located just off Piccadilly on Dover St. – was serving what they call their All Day Breakfast for a mere £4.95, which is about 9 bucks. The breakfast included two eggs, a couple of huge sausages, two slices of ham, a large cooked mushroom (that was so large when I saw it I thought it was a potato), a cooked tomato, toast and, of all things, a pile of beans that looked to have come from a can of pork & beans. We, of course, eschewed the bread and beans, but ate everything else. With coffee and sparkling water for both, the tab came to £16.25, substantially less than the price for one Continental breakfast at the hotel.

As you can see from the above picture, the accommodations on Virgin Upper Class are pretty nice. But the little individual compartments are not as comfortable as they probably look. Don’t get me wrong, I would much rather be there than crammed into a coach seat, especially a coach seat in the large middle aisle section. I’ve put in my time there already, thank you.

The Virgin Upper Class compartments are just about 2 inches too narrow to be completely comfortable. Even MD, who is considerably smaller than I, thought they were a little claustrophobic. But they have the virtue of being made into a flat bed, which is vastly superior for sleeping purposes to the most reclining of the reclining first class seats I’ve taken on other long-haul flights. I wouldn’t hesitate to fly Virgin again. The staff was friendly, courteous, helpful, and, all in all, superb.

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