faire du ciel part 2

Just arrived in Memphis last night for the Christmas holidays. Travel again was not so bad: I got here about 23 hours after I woke up in Marseille, which was only a couple hours later than originally planned. The fog in London was extremely thick, and I’m grateful we weren’t delayed further. The ciel is still a pretty nice place to be. Despite the delays, the ground was, too.

London’s Gatwick airport gets pretty crowded during these times of travel trouble. The waiting lounge (full of duty-free shops of all kinds and a few restaurants) had nary a seat open. I had breakfast at Garfunkle’s, which advertised itself as “legendary and loved.” I was impressed with how they manage such a hectic time. Service was prompt; food was good. I had the vegetarian British breakfast. Two things struck me about this meal: first, it’s hard to find places in Europe that specifically make options available for vegetarians, so that was nice to see. Second, I think this is the first restaurant I’ve ever seen to declare on their menu that their eggs are free-range. Excellent. It was pricey, of course. Just the previous night at dinner I had been hearing from one of the Hubbards’ children, who lives in London, just how expensive life there is. Apparently for $10 one can usually only expect a mediocre meal, and if one wants to eat well, one has to consider the $50 range. I spent $14 on eggs, beans, toast, hash browms, mushrooms, a tomato, and a cappuccino, which in light of the dinner discussion seems entirely reasonable. I’m just glad I didn’t have to stay there longer.

I was intrigued by a poster I saw, advertising all the destinations you could reach from the airport via rail. “The easiest way to get to and from Gatwick is by train,” it declared. Unfortunate, I thought, that it’s an airport and not a train station, then.