Rose on the grounds of the Crowne Plaza Heathrow Hotel

As most experienced transatlantic travelers will tell you, traveling back from Europe doesn’t seem to come with as much jet lag as going to the other direction. I don’t recall all the reasons that have been cited, but that has been my experience. We were a little late taking off from Heathrow yesterday although they made the time up in flight. One of the drawbacks to a long daytime flight is that people tend not to settle down as they do when it’s dark out and yesterday was no exception. There was constant motion around me and that was distracting enough so that I didn’t get a nap in. Let’s see, what movies did I watch? Birdman which was very odd. A Miss Marple one and I started two or three others that I then lost interest in or I could tell the movie was complex enough that I needed to be more focused to enjoy it.

I’ve been through a lot of international airports and I continue to be irritated with the very long way it is from most arrival gates to get to Immigration and Customs in Miami. If someone has a connecting flight and they don’t have at least two hours, there is a good chance they won’t make the flight. I don’t know why the airport is configured the way it is and maybe there’s a good reason for it. The distance simply seems excessive.

Oh, interestingly, the weather when I left for Heathrow yesterday was chilly and raining just as it was the day I had to drive back to London. Must have been something about me having to be hauling luggage around that attracted the rain. However, Saturday afternoon was pretty and I took a break from writing and walked for a bit. The hotel grounds had some lovely roses and how can one not think of roses if visiting the United Kingdom.

Ah well, I am home and glad to be so. Laundry takes a high priority today.