Day 3 – Tuesday 24 May 2016

Up at 5.30am, shower & we were first at the buffet when it opened at 6am. The buffet is huge & looks good with seating for hundreds of people. There was a good selection of all styles of food, primarily Asian style. The breakfast we had was great & we headed off to the airport terminal before 7am. There were very long queues getting into the departure areas, with separate queueing to get into the area to start with, then immigration, then security, always with seemingly a lot less people than I think is required to process everyone in a timely manner. Our plane boarded on time, but then we were delayed sitting in the plane for half an hour as some people did not board & they had to unload their bags. Some 13 hours & 3 or 4 movies later we arrived in overcast balmy, 15C London, it is still a very long way, even after overnighting in Hong Kong.

In London the Customs queues were even longer & slower than Hong Kong, if that is possible to comprehend. The baggage carousal had stopped and all remaining bags taken off by the time we were cleared through. Our driver was patiently waiting for us & chauffeured us safely to our hotel near Marble Arch. For those into Monopoly, it is on Oxford Street across from Park Lane. After check-in we went for a stroll to Marble Arch, then back down along Oxford Street. The traffic was at a near standstill & we walked past a double-decker bus that was in the middle of Oxford Street surrounded by police, it looked like a female pedestrian had been hit by the bus. Continuing past the accident we turned off down Molton Lane, now a shopping mall closed to traffic, full of high-end fashion. We stopped at the “Spread Eagle” pub for a quit pub dinner on the first floor washed down by a “London Glory” craft beer.

A slow walk back on the other side of Oxford Street, past Selfridges also Marks & Spence & back to our hotel. It is currently 9pm & still daylight outside. There are a lot of people wandering around Oxford Street (we can see them from our window) & the shops seem to be open still.

We have been awake for more than 24 hours, the brain is starting to get a bit fuzzy, but we want to stay awake until normal bed time (like now) to adjust our bodies clock to London time.