Sweet ending
My flight back to Prague was delayed, so we didn't land until 10:30 pm. Then I schlepped back to the hotel, slept briefly, and got up at 5 am to pack my stuff, check out, and and go back to the airport to make the 7:45 flight to London. Oy.
The connection process at Heathrow is ridiculous. All the incoming international flights dump into the same place, where you have to squeeze through a small passage into a room with twisty, Disneyland-like lines in order to have your hand luggage scanned. (I think it might actually be faster to fill out the arrival card and go through normal immigration, then re-check in from the main terminal-- I'll try that next time). Anyway, it took about 40 minutes to get through the line, so I was grateful for a 1.5-hour layover time.
The British even know that the Heathrow system does not work. There are signs on the walls saying that any threats, verbal abuse, or physical violence toward airport workers will be severely punished. They must need those signs for a reason!
On the long flight to San Fran, I sat next to a couple from Marin who were returning from Morocco. It sounded like they had had a great time cruising around some of the interior portions, not just the coast where most tourists go. To pass the time (it's not good to sleep too much going west), I watched "Million Dollar Baby," the Clint Eastwood movie about the female boxer, and found it quite riveting.
Upon reintegration to my California life, I found two things. First, I had collected an insane amount of sweets on this trip! It seems like every time you turn around in Europe, someone is handing you a free piece of chocolate or a cookie. I stashed most of these in my bag as I went along since it was rarely convenient to eat them at the time. When I unpacked, here is what I found:
5 mini candy bars, like Halloween candy
1 small Cadbury bar
3 King's College mint chocolate squares
2 Belgian dark chocolate squares
2 Czech milk chocolate drops
1 Czech cookie-- wafers dipped in chocolate
2 individual packs of English tea cookies
1 English cookie called a "flapjack," which was billed as being "nobbly and oatey"
In addition, I had a few sweets I had bought in the Prague airport upon departure, to use up my kronas. These included a honey-gingerbread bear, some hazelnut wafer cookies, a dark chocolate bar filled with pistacio cream, and a dark chocolate bar filled with bananas. I have the feeling I'll be giving a lot of this away; I am getting nauseous just thinking about eating it all.
The second thing I noticed was how dark it got in the evening, and how dark it was the following morning! Just one week up north and I had gotten used to the (almost) midnight sun.
