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July 31, 2005
Getting from the Plane to the City
Having finally arrived at our gate, we were in for quite a hike to passport control and customs. I don’t think I’ve had quite so long a walk since YOW was under construction and you not only had to take quite a hike but also had to board a bus to get from the gate to passport control. As my guide book warned, Gatwick is the destination for many an international flight and lines can be long; they were. Though EU residents had little wait and passengers connecting to other international flights, who strangely must go through UK passport control, breezed through, the international arrivals line started long and got longer, nearly running out the door to the capacious queuing room, while we waited. At least a couple of 747s must have disgorged their passengers at about the same time we arrived.
Eventually my turn came up. A slight delay was occasioned by the fact that while my passport an permit are all in order, the 
permit doesn’t officially begin until tomorrow. After a quick check with her supervisor, the agent "landed" me and stamped the permit. At one point she asked if I’d been to the U. K. before. Upon being told that I’d not set foot on the island to date, her response was "taking a bit of plunge aren’t you?" Indeed.
After rejoining my colleague on the other side of the desks, we moved on. Customs was all but a no-op as I’d carried nothing anywhere close to declaration worthy. I think they do little here but random checks. No we were out in the north terminal. The Gatwick Express train for Victoria Station, however, leaves from the south terminal. Fortunately, there’s an automatic tramway between the two that’s easy to find and not a very long walk. During the short ride, we asked a local about tickets for the train. Yes, they do take cards (and give them back) and you can just hop on and pay during the ride which runs about 30 minutes. Excellent.
Our timing was good, there was an express waiting at the platform that was leaving in five minutes. We climbed on board, wrestled our larger luggage onto the racks and sat down at a table for the ride. While waiting we saw the first evidence that things are not presently as normal in Britain. A pair of body armored police walked by very heavily armed with automatic rifles and what looked to be a larger than ordinary complement of side arms.
The ride north through the misty country and south London was relaxing. We paid for our tickets about ten minutes into the trip, £13.00. After arriving at Victoria, there was a bit of a walk to the cab rank and then we were off to Holborn. Conveniently, my colleague is staying at a hotel about a block from the cab so we could share. The cab ride has settled me in my plan not to drive in London. It was positively head spinning. We zoomed through the city missing busses, cars and pedestrians by inches. And it’s clearly not the case that we had a particularly maniacal driver, all of them clearly expected to be missed by inches, planned on it if fact.
The cab ride ran £12.50 and, as we had a fairly friendly and loquacious cabby, a £2.00 tip didn’t seem out of line. It was gratifying that I could disconcert a cabby with some twenty-one years experience; he’d never heard of the street on which the flat sits. He seemed delighted to find something new about the city he hadn’t known about before.
Paid off the cabby, heaved my bags into the flat, settled down to have a drink of water, and listened to the silence close in around me. It’s Sunday downtown and the flat is in a very quiet yard. The quiet made things seem a bit lonelier and I was getting sleepy so, after sending a quick text to the wife to let her know I’d arrived safely, I went out to explore the area.
Filed under Life in London and Travel.
Posted by eric at July 31, 2005 01:12 PM