Travelogue 2: Traveling to London

After a late night in the Beijing airport we finally boarded our plane to Qatar, a small peninsula off of Saudi Arabia, ready for a good sleep 35,000 ft in the air. However, just as the sheer size of the new Beijing terminal 3 amazed us, the luxury of this middle-eastern, barely-known airline made us feel like we were in business class. Besides the glorious wonders of exit-row seating (thanks to Tiff sweet-talking the lady at check-in!!), we were treated to personal entertainment centers equipped with more movies and TV shows than we could watch in a week, a goodie bag full of an array of useful gear (including earplugs, socks, eye covers, toothbrush & toothpaste), and airline meals like we’ve never eaten before. Our experience flying through Qatar proves one of three things:

1. American based airlines are just horrible, despicable excuses for transportation;
   
2. Airlines funded by oil-rich countries have too much money to burn or ...
3. Both of the above.
   

Much-needed sleep was replaced by movies, food, and games for the first of our two flights to get to London.

We have now arrived in London and are staying with Tom, my roommate from back in college, and Joanna his wife in their very cozy cottage in Chorleywood. The stresses of researching, booking, finding, and paying for a hotel in London have been replaced by an incredible hospitality on their part. To top it all off, they live in the most beautiful, quaint little village only a 5 minute walk from the train station and another 5 minute walk from rolling green pastures filled with horses and sheep. The location is a dream in terms of scenery and perfect as a home-base from which to make London day-trips.

We’re now pulling out the maps and making decisions on which places we must see and which places aren’t as important. Thankfully we have a lot of time here (a full week) so we hope to see most of the big sights as well as take in a theater play or two. We’ll let you know when we do!