Wednesday, April 23 – Harrow on the Hill
Well, today is sadly the last full day of my winter escape. It’s been another wonderful adventure!
I spent the day mainly on travel prep. And it only seems fitting that the last dinner of my trip would be here on the Hill with Mary and Tony.
We went to the nearby Grove on the Hill.
I chose the salmon fillet. It was amazingly good!
This was a wonderful conclusion to my stay on the Hill. Many thanks to Mary and Tony for their hospitality! I will definitely be back! (just not certain when; maybe 2028?)
Thursday, April 24 – transit from Harrow on the Hill to Madison
My flight out of Heathrow departed at 1pm; I left Byron House at 8:30am to catch the SL9 bus in South Harrow. The first bus that came by was packed, and I had two pieces of luggage. Not good! But I noticed on the arrivals board at the bus stop that the next SL9 was surprisingly only 4 minutes away. So I waited for that one, and it was nearly empty. Brilliant!
I used miles + money to book a Premium Economy seat on United (50k miles + $369).
Travel Note: As a reminder, my business class flight to London in early January was 80k miles + $5. One of the benefits of visiting London in winter!
It turns out I needn’t bothered with Premium Economy, because the flight was only half full! That’s unusual. Oh well…
I know I’ve mentioned previously the advantage of being a member of Global Entry. It paid off again upon my arrival in Newark. According to the message board at the immigration point, the wait time was 20 minutes (for the hoi polloi!). For Global Entry? Zero wait time. Nice! And there’s a new screening process in place since I last traveled abroad. Previously Global Entry required a passport scan; today it was solely by facial recognition.
I think I’ve also written in the past about Global Entry’s weak link: Baggage Claim. You may get through immigration quickly, but if you have checked bags, you’re back to commoner level!
Travel Note: I noted that my U.S. point of entry was Newark (EWR) airport. Well, it looks like I dodged a bullet, because about a week later the airport experienced all kinds of delays and cancellations due to air traffic control issues. You can read more about it here.
Speaking of EWR, apparently they typically have 3 working runways. Well, there was only 1 open when it came time for my Madison flight to depart. That resulted in a one hour taxi time from gate pullback to takeoff. Crazy! (but our Madison arrival was only delayed by 15 minutes – the EWR issues must be taken into account when developing the flight schedules) The trip to Madison was in a plane with a 2×2 seat configuration. It took 2 hours and was completely full.
And a big shout out to Chuck for the late night airport pickup. Much appreciated! And he went above and beyond with a stop for burgers (at the Tip Top Tavern) on the way home! The best!
Well, that concludes another amazing winter escape. Thanks to everyone for following along! Also, I’m grateful for all of your messages, comments and phone calls. It’s wonderful to hear from you while I’m away from home!
I feel blessed to have had this opportunity to visit so many countries and experience other cultures. I do not take it for granted! Like the young woman from Iran reminded me: I’m lucky to have been born in a country that allows me unfettered access to virtually any other place on Earth.
I’m looking forward to seeing all of you back here in January!
Sidenote: I’ll return shortly with one final post: My annual trip summary; including the lists, stats, and pictures that you all look forward to! (well, a few of you anyway!)
