Left is Right...Right?

November 26, 2006

Well, I’m in London. Yes, London. Bit of a change in plans…

We have been trying to plan our trip to Portugal and Madrid for weeks now, but we kept hiding road blocks. We knew that going from Athens to Portugal to Madrid to Paris in 6 days was going to be a bit much, but it was our last week of travel and we were up for the challenge.

We managed to get a hotel in Lisbon for a decent price, but we found out that although the address says Lisbon it’s actually in another town outside of Lisbon, which isn’t that convenient. It is a taxi ride and then the metro to get into town. Given that we only have one day for Lisbon staying outside of the city probably wasn’t the best idea.

In Madrid, things were even more challenging. We were planning to take an overnight hotel train from Lisbon to Madrid and then staying two nights in a hotel there. Unfortunately, well unfortunately for us, there is an environment conference in Madrid this week, which meant that the hotels that had rooms were over 400 euros a night! That’s outrageous!

On top of that Karen had to pick up her touring bike in Christchurch, which is about 2 hours south of London before heading home.

So, change of plans. We are now in London. Our original flight to Lisbon was through London so we just got off the plane here, got a hotel near Heathrow airport and are here for 2 more nights.

We flew from Athens to London yesterday, but completely forgot that we were going to lose 2 hours in the air. So, our original 3 hour flight became 4 hours. I guess Athens is quite far away from London when you think about it.

We got in, took a taxi to the hotel as unfortunately there are no hotel-specific shuttles allowed at Heathrow and the bus system or “hotel hoppa” as it’s called is all a bit confusing especially with a ton of luggage. Although the hotel isn’t the nicest we’ve stayed at, it is convenient for returning Karen, her huge bike box, enormous pack and soon to-be-acquired carry-on bag versus staying in downtown London.

After checking in, we took a 10 minute walk in the freezing cold – okay, well freezing cold for two girls who have been in Italy and Greece for weeks now – and went down to the local pub…for fish and chips of course!

We walked about 10 minutes and then saw the pub. It was completely dark, but there were a few people outside with flashlights so we thought we’d see what was going on. There were people inside sitting in the dark for who knows how long. A fuse had gone off and some guy with a coal miners hat on was trying to fix it. In about 5 minutes, the lights were back on. We enjoyed a nice plate of fish and chips and my new favorite drink “black and cider,” which I’m sure will sound awful to most people, but it’s blackcurrant juice in cider. It’s so good!

Today, we retrieved Karen’s bike from Christchurch. Originally we looked at taking the train, but that was expensive and not the most convenient thing for hauling a huge box with a touring bike.

So, we rented a car. Luckily the Sheraton by the airport has a car rental location right within the hotel. We booked a compact car, but when we actually saw the car we realized there was no way the box would fit in it. Next size available – SUV or Jaguar – we opted for the SUV.

Off we went, fully insured automatic and all with our 5 pound map. As I’m sure you know, the English drive on the other side of the road hence the automatic. We took off with me driving and Karen as navigator.

It had obviously been pouring with rain and some of the roads were flooded. Now, I was very cautious about staying on the right (aka the left) side of the road and not crossing over. Well, I managed to drive right through this huge puddle spraying water everywhere. Once we passed, I thought I remembered seeing someone walking on the path near the puddle. Karen looked back and there was this poor woman now looking like a very drowned poodle that I guess I managed to completely drench! Oops.

Luckily heading out to the freeway was pretty easy and soon we were on our way after a couple of roundabouts. Once we hit the 5 lanes of cars on the freeway that’s when it started to rain. Actually, rain is an understatement. It was a downpour and then it started to hail. Of course, as we do when we encounter such bizarre and ironic challenges as (a) driving on the other side of the road (b) not knowing where we are (c) not knowing how to get where we are going (d) rain and hail, we just laugh it off. Typical traveling adventure.

We hopped off the freeway and drove down some side roads through a part of England called the New Forest, which has been inhabited by tiny horses for probably hundreds of years. I guess the horses are wild and run free, but are quite used to “our folk” (aka tourists). We pulled over at one area and took a couple pictures of us and the ponies!

It took us about 2 hours to get to Christchurch where we met Karen’s friend who was storing the bike for her. By this time it had stopped raining. We went down to a new hotel that had just opened that right was right on the river. We had a lovely lunch overlooking all of the people out for their Sunday walks and then headed back to London.

Driving on the “wrong” side of the road especially in an automatic isn’t that hard. The only challenge is that your subconscious tells you that you, the driver, should be on the left hand side of the lane versus the right hand side of the lane. Therefore, it’s pretty easy to start slowly moving in that direction…of course, Karen helped point out that I was traveling too close to the cars beside her probably every 10 or 15 minutes.

So, all was going pretty well considering we were driving on the “wrong” side of the road in a big SUV in a hail storm. But, that changed when we got back near Heathrow and got lost.

We were probably 5 minutes away from the hotel when we entered the thousands of cars trying to get to the airport. There were signs everywhere and multiple options none of which looked familiar. Before we knew it, we were in some small tunnel going underneath a runway that is for bikes (and I mean bicycle when I say bike), but cars can use it too. It was a very narrow fit and remember what I said about the tendency to “drift” to the left…well, I heard Karen say, “you're getting really close to…” followed by a good thump as we entered this narrow tunnel. We both looked to the left and the passenger’s side mirror was bent inwards. We both paused for a moment and then burst into laughter! Thank goodness we opted for the full coverage on the car for the extra 5 pounds!

Well, we managed to find the hotel after having to do a u-turn and then go through the narrow little tunnel again…this time with no damage!

The best part…the car rental place didn’t even see the damage on the mirror, which we neatly put back together at the gas station. Gotta love the plastic!

We managed to haul the bike up to the room and just relaxed that night…of course enjoying several cups of tea, which for some reason just taste better in London…gotta be the water!