Check your bag, sir?

[skyring]

The story of how I arrived in London in midsummer without my luggage is a poignant one, though not without its high points, the highest being that I didn't have to schlepp it onto the train system and then up (or slightly longer down) the hill to my hostel. In fact, I only had my carry on, so after pretending that I was driving the train, I got off the Docklands Light Railway at Bank station and strolled lightly and more or less randomly along London's grid system of streets until I arrived at my hostel.

We had a good flight in. Only a small plane, a four-jetter Avro, and half the passenger load was Australian, judging by the passports I saw. Crossed a Channel crowded with shipping then flew up the Thames and right over the centre of the city before turning onto the glide slope down to London City airport. I can see why people like this airport compared to Heathrow and Gatwick. Compared to them it's like getting off the bus at the side of the road instead of at the bus terminal. But my bags weren't on the bus.

So I arrived, a bit hot and sweaty, at my hostel. Wanting a shower and a change of clothes. Had a shower and put the drip back into drip-dry. But nothing to be done about the clothes. Put my head down for a bit. Drew the curtains, turned off the light, stretched out on my lower bunk, luxuriated in the horizontalness of it all, the softness of the mattriss, the increasing dreamy drowsiness...

And then one of the other hostellers entered the room, snapped on the light, saw me and spent ten minutes trying to be quiet while rummaging around in his things. Silly trying to nap in the middle of the day, but I got an hour, I guess. Then I got up, checked out the swapshelves, and then browsed through a couple of bookshops on Ludgate Hill.

Sat out the front of St Pauls for a bit, enjoying the coldness and cola taste of a Marks and Sparks generic drink, then next door to Starbucks and here I am. I usually get a 10p discount for having my own mug, but that's in my luggage, which is probably passing overhead about now.

Apparently they left it behind in Frankfurt and it's coming on the next jet, which gets in at quarter to seven. They'll courier it out to the hostel and I'll collect it there. In theory. I'll report back later.

Not sure what to do tomorrow. Elhamisabel, what would you do on a loose day in London?

Comments

[martip.livejournal.com]

You poor dear. I hope the luggage shows up. I once spent five days in Key West with no bags - ended up writing a poem about the experience. Maybe you should sit on a park bench and write a poem. :-)

[resqgeek]

As experienced a traveller as you are, you should know by now that the optimal time to lose your luggage is on the home stretch. This allows you to head straight home from the airport, where you have extras of everything you need, and the airline has to schlepp you bags home to you...

(This happened to us coming home from Venice a couple of years ago. It also made clearing customs easier...)

[skyring.livejournal.com]

Great suggestion, Marti! I'll finish off my coffee by the ATM outside St Pauls where I commenced my Monopoly Tour. "Ode By a Teller Machine"

[mojosmom.livejournal.com]

Not sure what to do tomorrow. Elhamisabel, what would you do on a loose day in London?

Shop for clothes? ;-)

Sorry about your luggage. What a pain. When my sister was in college, she did a junior term abroad. Flew to New York to catch the boat (yea, this was the old days when there were regular trans-Atlantic crossings!), and the airline lost her luggage. Fortunately, they found it in time to get it to the boat before it sailed.

My lost luggage story is from when I flew to Canada for my other sister's wedding, and my bag with the dress I planned to wear went AWOL. Again, it was found in time, but I was so agitated that I couldn't relax and enjoy the night-before-the-wedding fun.

Hope yours turns up soon!

(Oh, I hear London has some good secondhand bookstores . . .)

[asterapallas.livejournal.com]

I hope your luggage gets there, soon.
*hugs*

I also hope your jetlag eases up sooner, rather than later...

If you are looking for things to do in London... :D

a) Say hello to The Tower of London and Big Ben for me, please.

b) Go see the Tower of London.
:D

c) Go to the British Museum?

Oh, to be in London, again.
*wistful sigh*

Safe times to you, my friend.
*HUGS*

[tzurriz.livejournal.com]

I also lost my luggage en route to a wedding. The wedding was in Nagadoches Texas, a 3 hour drive (if memory serves) from the Dalls / Ft. Worth airport.

My traveling companion's luggage made it no problem, when I informed the airline that my suitcase was missing, they offered to deliver it (upon arrival) to any hotel in Dallas/ Ft. Worth that I wanted. I explained to them that I was driving to Nagadoches, to attend a wedding the next morning.

After much arguing and hassle, they agreed to Fed-Ex the case to me by 8 a.m.

I barely made it to the 9 a.m. wedding.

All night I had nightmares about having to go to my friend's wedding in the jeans, sneakers, tank top, and cardigan I had worn on the place.

Lost luggage stinks.

[elhamisabel.livejournal.com]

Nope, not shop for clothes!

What I'd do:

Wake up early, go to Holland Park, take my breakfast and a book with me. Read and eat and watch other early birds jogging, taking the dog for a walk or whatever they do at the time. Then browse some bookstores. Around lunch time, take a sandwich/whatever at a near M&S and sit down at Hyde Park and watch all those people having their lunch break. In the afternoon, go to Primrose Hill, enjoy the view of the city, walk the back streets.

Or: go to Richmond. Delightful. Or to Hampton Court Palace. That will be full of tourists at this time of the year, though. But still, if you go early, before the official opening time (9 or 9.30 in summer I think), walk in the Hmpton Court Gardens.

God, I want to be back in London!

[elhamisabel.livejournal.com]

Oh, I forgot about the Kensington Roof Gardens. I've never been there (I eas told about it just before my last trip and that was so packed with things to do that I hadn't hasd time to go there). Maybe you can visit.

http://www.roofgardens.com/home_flash/

[n6tqs.livejournal.com]

I've got to say, I always carry a change of underwear in my carry-on, except on the last flight leg home. My baggage also went astray in Frankfurt when I was headed to London from Delhi last month, but turned up that evening. Like you, since I was unencumbered with my baggage, it was easier. Enough easier so that I stopped off at the half-price ticket booth at Leicester Square and picked up a ticket for that evenings performance of _My Name is Rachel Corrie_.

I assume you've done the Lissun's London Walk?

Me, I'd head out to the NMM at Greenwich. Or Tate Modern.

You can't just have a nice uneventful trip, can you?

[gorydetails.livejournal.com]

Last time I flew in to London I arrived so early that the hotel wasn't open yet - my friends and I all had our luggage with us but nowhere to go to change clothes. The hotel-folk agreed to let us leave the bags on their doorstep for a few hours, and we went off to find a cafe and get some breakfast; after that I wandered around Regents Park by myself for a while, in that dreamy/dopy state resulting from jet-lag and too little sleep.

Of course, I wasn't a BookCrosser then. If I had been, I'd probably have set a higher priority on finding an internet cafe and some secondhand bookstores!

[skyring.livejournal.com]

All night I had nightmares about having to go to my friend's wedding in the jeans, sneakers, tank top, and cardigan I had worn on the plane.

Oh Tzurriz! You don't have to wear anything special to look stunning!