Days 1 and 2 have been spent getting here.
Tuesday 31st Jan
Down to London
Bus to Leeds Station
Train to London
Tube to Ealing
Night with our friends Sue & Richard Baker
Wednesday 1st February
34-hour extended edition
Taxi to Heathrow at 05:15 …bleurgh
Boarding an 11 HR flight to San Francisco – a 5300 mile journey which took us right back over Yorkshire on the way
We could not believe how empty this flight was – we each got a whole row of 3 seats , which made it wonderfully restful. Plus a lovely attendant called Dodi kind of adopted us and kept showering us with gifts – like extra Stroopwafels , first class toiletry bags etc). Great views of the city and bay on way in
Then a completely deserted immigration hall at San Francisco with the easiest/fastest entry ever into the US.
And a nice surprise when we found Marilyn had emailed us complementary passes to the United lounge. This was especially valuable as the expected 4 hour wait became more like 7 , our onward plane needing a new tyre (?!have they not heard of KwikFit?)
5 hour flight to Honolulu, cabin rammed full, and including an hour of juddering turbulence .. nice.
Finally rolling in to the Honolulu hotel at midnight ( given the 10 hr time diff, this was 29 hours since we got up for our London taxi)
And in the morning ….on to the Big Island
Excellent start to the blog. It was interesting watching the flight path on FlightRadar – not what it shows on the flattened map picture above. You actually flew over the north coast of Scotland and the north of Iceland, and covered a lot more of Canada. Nice wallpaper in the hotel.
Thanks Paul. Was amazed when we landed to see that you, Dave and Matthew had been discussing our trajectory live on WhatsApp !
Great to privide the Heathrow B & B (without the B) . Sorry we didn’t wave you off at 5.30am!
But you provided an excellent Dinner & Bed service – and we look forward to seeing the new van . Thanks !
Yes, welcome to my world. I had twenty years of that almost continually and it took a good two or three years after packing up long haul for me to actually get a decent night’s sleep remaining in the same time zone. Great circle is always the best long haul route depending on the upper winds and takes you way North towards the Western Seaboard. Anyway, Aloha! And looking forward to reading your blogs now you have arrived. By weird co-incidence John Lydon has just failed in his bid to represent Ireland in the Eurovision song contest with his love song to his wife, who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease. One of the few things she can remember is their holiday to Hawaii years ago and so it is quite poignant to listen to to it and understand how that beautiful place leaves such a lasting impression. Have a listen to the video here: https://youtu.be/HURFlF8CyV8
Love S&Bxx
Thanks for the link – and what’s even more weird is that the friend we are visiting here ( Van Eden) always used to refer to me as Johnny Rotten ….