A quick breakfast in the BA lounge at Heathrow T3 early this morning, before my flight.
Today I’m off to Luxembourg for the day, then getting the Flixbus to Bern. Given my past experiences with Flixbus, it’s anyone’s guess just whether I’ll actually reach Switzerland, but we’ll see. It’ll be an adventure.
Sadly, and most inconveniently as I prefer this terminal to T5, this is probably the last time that I fly to Luxembourg with British Airways from T3. It’s relocating to T5 in a few weeks, shortly before my flight which I had scheduled from there.
I’ve written about this route before, and since I was in Euro Traveller, there’s not much that is new to say. The boarding process was all very efficient and well managed, with customers called forwards by group both for the document check and also for boarding. Although there’s a slight flaw in the plan that boarding passes aren’t checked for the latter, but I can’t imagine many people were that keen to rush on board. Although, having said that, there are always a few who barge on board perhaps thinking it might leave without them.
I had an emergency exit row seat, so there was plenty of legroom. It was nearly a full flight and so there were very few empty seats on the aircraft, with my entire row being occupied. The in-flight magazines were a bit battered, but the cabin was unusually clean for a British Airways flight, although it was likely the aircraft’s first flight of the day.
The crew were efficient although I didn’t see them particularly engage with any customers, although the whole buy on board process makes that much more difficult for the crew. The flight was around 20 minutes late taking off, but that time was mostly caught back up in the air, with a journey time of under one hour.
This photo was taken on arrival in Luxembourg, with the temperature being 39 degrees, which is entirely unsatisfactory as far as I’m concerned. The aircraft was an A320 and it had the registration G-EUYC which has always been part of the BA fleet, first flying in 2008.
Luxembourg is one of the few countries I fly into which doesn’t inspect passports by hand, they’re done my machine. As with most things in Luxembourg, everything seemed to work as expected in the airport (with the exception of the sole hand dryer in the male toilet, but that’s not necessarily the most important thing to get right in an airport).
I walked down this street whilst following the Jack the Ripper Ramblers Route, otherwise I’m not sure that I would have ever found this street.
It’s hard to imagine this quaint street is actually in the heart of Spitalfields. The street was formerly known as Red Lion Court and the Red Lion Court Chapel which was once on the street has long since been demolished.
The text of this tablet reads:
“These almshouses were erected in the year 1860 for poor inhabitants of the liberty of Norton Folgate in place of those taken down for the new street”.
The original almshouses were in Blossom Street, but a road widening was needed there, so compensation and new land was provided to the charity.
I’m off to Luxembourg tomorrow and got the train today to my hotel at Heathrow. Inspired by the Hike Norfolk London trip on Saturday, I decided to follow one of the Ramblers routes which are available to members of the organisation via the national web-site. It’s a handy resource and the walks come with a .gpx file to follow, as well as the route description.
This one is the ‘Jack the Ripper’ walk which is a 3.3 mile walk around the area in which the murders took place. There’s not a great deal to see of the murders, as obviously the areas aren’t what they wanted to preserve, but the walk does visit some of the parts of the city which the murderer and victims would have known.
More of the walk itself in separate posts….
Located outside the Capitol Building in Austin is this monument to all of Texan veterans who have been disabled during their active service. The monument was erected in 1980 and the text in the centre reads ‘they offered their lives for the nation and received each for his own memory the noblest of shrines not the graves in which their mortal bones are buried but a home in the hearts of men’.
Located at the Capital Building in Austin is this monument of the ten commandments. It was installed here by the Fraternal Order of Eagles of Texas in 1961 and is made of Texan red granite.
There was a substantial court case in 2005 which was held at the Supreme Court about whether this should be located at a state building. It was decided by a vote of 5-4 that the monument was constitutional in what appears to have been an enormously complex decision.
Quite a simple monument this in terms of its intentions, it’s a tribute to the youth of the state of Texas. It’s located outside the Capital Building in Texas and was designed by Lawrence Ludtke, a sculptor from Houston.
This beautiful looking structure is the Frost Bank Tower, the first skyscraper completed in the United States after 9/11. It cost $137 million to construct and has 33 floors, standing at 157 metres high. At the time of its construction it was the tallest building in Austin, although it is now the fourth tallest behind the Austonian, Fairmont Austin, and the 360 Condominiums.
When I visited Denver in Colorado I went in a Quiznos as it was the first one that they had opened. I hadn’t heard of the chain before, so that visit was just experimental, but I was very impressed. At one time there were 5,000 Quiznos locations around the world, but for a series of reasons they ultimately lost out to Subway. There are now around 750 Quiznos around the world and over 40,000 outlets of Subway.
Unfortunately, I’m of the view that the wrong company has won out here with Subway’s food being bland, predictable and IMO cheap. Quiznos, in my view only, are far superior with the food actually having a depth of taste to it. Norwich has a few Subways, although one has recently closed, all of which I can’t say I’m ever tempted by, but if Norwich had a Quiznos I’d be there….
Quiznos have the option of 6 inch, 9 inch or 12 inch subs (Subway are 6 or 12 inches) and the 9 inch sub is the one that I think is the ideal snack size. Above is the Classic Italian (Italian sauce, tomatoes, red onions, olives, salami, pepperoni, ham, mozzarella, and lettuce) with a healthy (well, something like that) pack of Cheetos.
All very lovely and perhaps there will be another expansion of Quiznos in the UK, as the number is now very low (eight at the time of writing).
I’ve been slowly making my way around all of the Presidential libraries in the United States and I’m nearly half-way through them. Unfortunately, some of them are more accessible than others in terms of their locations. The library and museum of President Lyndon Baines Johnson, the 36th President of the United States, is located at the University of Texas in Austin and so is one of the more accessible.
I took quite a few photos when I was at the museum, although unfortunately a combination of my limited phone camera of the time and Google’s compression of the photos has meant they’re not particularly clear. Behind this talking animatronic of Johnson, who was President from 1963 until 1969, are numerous caricatures of him.
A series of photos of former Presidents and their wives.
A recreation of the Oval Office as it would have looked during Johnson’s time there, with this recreation being a common theme at Presidential museums.
I liked this quote.
These photos aren’t very clear, but a few weeks before I visited the museum it had been also been visited by President Barack Obama. It’s not very clear, but the upper photo above is of Barack Obama listening to the exhibit’s phone, which I decided to also use whilst standing in the same location knowing I’d then listened to the same phone as a former President. I’m easily pleased…
On the subject of recordings, President Johnson secretly recorded many meetings and phone calls, around 800 hours of them. Many of these recordings were available to listen to at the museum, a fascinating record of the times and it gave a real feeling of being there when political events were unfolding.
As a museum it was cleverly put together and it was accessible in terms of the information provided. I don’t know a great deal about the politics of the United States in the 1960s, but this was an interesting overview of the work undertaken by the President of the time. All rather lovely.
