Flight #3: Heathrow to JNB; Fugitive Katy

From the pub where we watched the first half of the FA Cup Final, we hopped on the tube to Paddington Station.



There, we caught the Heathrow Express for our return to the airport. It took us awhile to get to the right terminal, but when we got to the South African Airways kiosk, we were helped by the nicest customer service tandem I've probably ever come across. They informed us, and I'm sure glad they did, that South Africa will not admit anyone who doesn't have a full blank page available in their passport.

(It turns out that South Africa's entry visa covers no more than half a page. Even though they add a few extra stamps to the visa, those are the quarter-page variety and could easily be placed anywhere in the passport. I hate arbitrary rules like this, but I digress . . . )

Katy had a number of open quadrants in her passport, but not an entire blank page because of a few errant stamps customs officers in other countries had haphazardly placed. (also annoying) So the plan was that Katy would stay in the lounge for international connecting flights while Jon and I went through customs to claim our bags and recheck them to Lilongwe. A lot of trouble for a silly rule.

***
JP:
Red-eye #2 was a breeze, I think we settled into a groove and established our formation. Eat, nap, movie, nap, movie, eat, nap, etc. South African Airways is great, clean and comfortable, they even provided fresh socks, toothbrush and toothpaste and a sleep mask. The food was pretty good too, Cottage Pie for dinner. Can anyone pick out what's unusual about this picture?

Metal utensils!

[RS: Attention airlines: This man like to steal metal utensils
]

While Ryan and I went through customs to check into our next flight, Katy sneaks into the country so she's not sent back to London.

Katy had even fewer open passport pages than me, something we fixed our first day in Lilongwe where we squeezed in a quick visit to the U.S. embassy.

London

We land in London ahead of schedule around 11:00 a.m. local time. With an eight-hour layover on our hands, we decide to make it into town to see a few sights.

JP: I promise that we saw more than just the Underground sign.

JP: Ryan was stoked, he'd never been to London, look how excited he is.

We thought $50 (per person) for the day would be plenty.

Heathrow Express: 17 pounds return

JP: Ryan put on his glasses so he wouldn't miss a thing. So let's see how much of London we can see in a short afternoon. 1st stop ...

Big Ben, kids ...

Parliament.


the Thames and the London Eye


Westminster Abbey


howdy, Queen. your palace is purdy

Although we should have probably guessed a major sporting event was afoot by the number of Londoners sporting football jerseys around the city that day, we were pleasantly surprised to find out that the start of the FA Cup Final (Chelsea v. Manchester United at the New Wembley) coincided with our fortuitous detour into a big-screen-TV-bedecked pub called Shakespeare. We grabbed a table right as people started to pour in for the game. Three pints, a "city sampler," and an order of fish-n-chips later, we were 54 pounds deep into a British experience that was pretty well worth it in the end.

Not a bad bonus to our Africa trip.

Did I mention that three beers and two plates of food cost 54 pounds? Yikes.

More London photos can be found here.