Our touchdown in Gatwick (London) was uneventful. We headed out a Peter speed (I have long legs and like to walk fast) only to find that most of the disembarked passengers from our plan were keeping up with us. This never happens, anywhere, ever. It was somewhat akin to the experience we had at CPH where I was surrounded by tall, mostly blond, people such that I didn’t feel tall. Refreshing; change.
One other difference between the UK and the US. Their signs are horrible. Seriously, after the airport and the drive to Maidstone tonight I am convinced that these people just like messing with tourists. Such a signage fiasco took us on a tour of the airport in order to find the passport station for people not from the EU. We had to fill out forms and answer questions very unlike Denmark where they just let us in.
Once through all the mess we found ourselves at National picking up our brand new Vauxhall diesel. At that point it was starting to hit me that I was going to have to learn to drive on the wrong side of the road while navigating a foreign country, operating a stick shift left-handed, read crazy road signs and generally figure out what the heck I had gotten myself into. The gentleman at National was nice enough to give me a map to Tesco, where I would be able to get a SIM for me iPad, and then I’d be able to get data and navigation so we could find our way to Maidenstone before 10pm.
Wrong. I still don’t have working cellular data and it took us an extra 2 hours to find our hotel (remember when I said I hated the signs here?). Luckily, we found a couple of guys leaving a pub who were enthralled with us being Americans and seemingly unable to understand why we’d leave California to visit their “shit hole.” They let us follow them and we made it to the hotel in short order. Thus far, everyone has been very friendly and I can’t imagine why we wouldn’t want to visit.
Upon arrival at the Hilton Maidstone we were greeted with a nice note from the manager, two micro bottles of Australian Cabernet and Shiraz and some Pringles. How did they know I like Salt and Vinegar, but more importantly how did they choose the pairing of Salt and Vinegar crisps with a Cabernet and a Shiraz? I thought a Merlot might have been more up to the task, but oh well. Further, someone went above and beyond to make an origami elephant out of a towel just for Layla. All in all add in a hot shower and we had a nice ending to a long 2 days of travel.
