Friday Oct 22, 2010
Again took the train downtown for £12.50 day pass, for an adult and two children, family pass. Went to the clink hostel and met my sister and her son. Bought a ticket, at the hostel for the London Eye – huge ferris wheel like thing. Great view of London and took some great photos. Then hopped on a double decker towards London Bridge, got off at the Hop Exchange…address… Visited The Wheatsheaf Pub, had a pint, while the boys played darts. A beautiful pub in an old underground cellar with vaulted ceiling, for barrels perhaps?
Caught another bus back to Black-Friarhead and transferred to a bus that took us directly back to the Clink Hostel. Bus also went to St. Pancras Stn. #83???
Took train directly to Gatwick Airport to catch the Ryanair flight to Stockholm.
Nice amenities at the airport while waiting for the delayed Ryanair flight.
Flight was delayed and the boys were getting impatient for a gate number to be posted. I saw a group of Swedes leading a mad dash towards the gates and told the boys our gate number had been posted. They asked how I knew, and I said there are a bunch of Swedes running towards the gate, and I said if you’ve been around Swedes you recognize them. We laughed.
At the gate it got funnier, the first people at the gate sat down, then a couple with a stroller came and stood near the gate door to the plane. Next thing, people started lining up behind them. The line got very long as I and the boys sat. Do Swedes like line ups? The atmosphere was frenetic. A strange feeling after having been relaxed by the London Eye trip.
The gate door to the plane opened and a mad dash of shoving and baggage banging to get through a narrow door ensued, followed by a rush down a staircase to the outdoors. Then people..passengers…actually ran to the plane to climb either the front or back stairs to the plane. I followed. After getting on the plane and being greeted by bright yellow seat backs, I found very small, tight and uncomfortable seats. I started to laugh at the humor of the situation of boarding the plane. I was not alone in finding the mad dash match quite amusing as other passengers were laughing and making comments about the mad dash.