Arrived in Heathrow via Frankfort and thank HEAVENS we checked that bag. Arrived with just 30 minutes to gate time for connection to London, only to find that we’re several concourses away from the new gate. There are elevators, but few and no time to wait. Head for the stairs…to find it’s some six flights down, to an under-runway tunnel. The second people-mover was out of service. We get to the end only to (naturally) face running UP the same endless flights of stairs, then pacing down to the very end of the concourse. No plane. Turns out there’s no real GATE there … you pass security and go down to a bus. The bus waits for a few more people, then drives and drives and drives and finally winds up in a parking lot of airplanes, no permanent structure anywhere around. No jetway therefore, just clamber up the stairs with your remaining energy. Thankful again for first-class status, there was a guaranteed place for the bag we continued to carry and, of course, seats and refreshments.
Heathrow itself was friendly, we bought round-trip tickets on the express train to Paddington Station and taxied over to the hotel from there. We relaxed for a bit and then headed over to the Italian restaurant where we had dinner reservations before the show. A short walk over to the theater, and we are in a mob scene of high intensity. While I did know we had nabbed the last two tickets for this show, somehow it seemed like things would be tranquil on a weeknight. NOT! Gradually we worked ourselves toward our seats, which were Row J in the center of the orchestra.
No surprise, the production was outstanding and I was pleased that Gabe was thrilled with the show. Afterwards we set out walking, we HOPED toward the hotel. It was a pleasant night, but as the blocks went by there were fewer people on the street and we finally grabbed a taxi for the remainder of the distance. And we really WERE headed in the correct direction, Gabe has a very good internal GPS!
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