Those travelogues are here and here. Because this report is so large, I have broken it into three parts:. I started by taking an overnight flight to London on British Airways, reaching London Heathrow midafternoon. The almost-lay-flat seat was about four inches too short for me and was fully exposed to the aisle.
There was little storage or shelf space. The power and USB outlets were flaky. Because of the late evening departure, I went directly to sleep and did not eat on the flight, either dinner or breakfast, except for coffee.
Heathrow was quite backed up with our A arriving and it took over an hour to get the bags from the carousel, and then another hour taking the Piccadilly underground line downtown. I booked a hotel called The Standard, which is right across the street from the St. Pancras train station. It seems to be quite trendy with lots of activity in the attached bar called Double Standard, but my room was a discounted one with no windows and was super quiet, quirky but very comfortable.
Dinner was at the Pizza Express chain and was quite good, including a fabulous small dessert pizza with white chocolate and salted caramel ice cream. I took the Eurostar high-speed train from the St. Pancras train station, right across the street from the hotel. Yes, I could have flown to Brussels, but I wanted to experience the train culture.
Entering the waiting room was just like an airport, with security scans and two passport controls. Once inside it was super crowded. My standard ticket offered a seat with very limited legroom and the train was packed.
