The first 5000 miles is the hardest...

London, England

Virgin Atlantic VS 020 parked at SFO.

Well I arrived in London a few hours ago. My bag made it and I had no problems at immigration. The trip almost got off on the wrong foot when I nearly got hit by a motorzied wheel chair in San Francisco just outside the 16th St BART station. The reason for the near collision? The "driver" was looking at her cell phone, either sending a text message or trying to dial a number. So there you go, I guess driving anything is dangerous with a cell phone...

My Virgin Atlantic experience was fair, as a whole the flight was fine, a quick 9.5 hours (favorable winds). Here's a quick summary:

• Good: Aisle seat (55 G).
• Bad: It was broken and didn't recline (neither did the one beside me).
• Good: Nobody in the seat in front of me.
• Bad: There was a huge metal box under my seat which presumably was the entertainment system that seriously restricted my leg room.
• Good: Choose your own movies, individual screens.
• Bad: It's not video-on-demand, they just show all the movies twice, back to back.
• Good: (For Will) They had Virtual Bowling as part of the entertainment games!
• Bad: The lane conditions were horrible and I shot in the low 70's.
• Fair: Passable food, but of course no "normal" Diet Coke, just Virgin Diet Cola in a cute can.

So that's my Virgin experience. For those that still have jobs, you might want to consider the Virgin First Class option, because from what I could see, each person gets their own mini apartment up in front of the plane! (They even had a sit down bar up there!)

I'm now just hanging out near Trafalgar Square at some "Easy Internet Cafe" waiting to meet up with my friend Sonia who gets off work around 5pm. It's weird, but this being my 3rd time in London it almost feels normal to be back here. I guess familiar surroundings have a way of making you feel at home...

We'll probably head out tonight and tomorrow before I catch a flight to Barcelona on Sunday.

Till then, cheers from London,

Kenny