Our Flight: Charlotte to Colombo
The advance party for our trip, Lee Rice, Alice Mahy and her daughter Gwen McTaggart and Bill Mosher, left Charlotte on Sunday, May 14, at 4:15. We flew to Chicago where we waited three hours for our United Airlines flight to Heathrow Airport near London, England. Some of us slept for an hour, but with the help of a benedryl tablet I, Bill Mosher, slept through supper, the movies and breakfast and got seven hours sleep. We were packed hunched shoulder to shoulder on this United (the low cost airline) flight. There wasn’t an empty seat.
Our transfer to Heathrow terminal 4 was easy. It is a clean, modern terminal with stores from all over England and many, many places to eat. I had a full English breakfast at a price (12 pounds) I don’t care to convert to dollars. It was delicious. We walked some for exercise and sat for a while in the designated quiet room with lounge chairs at the end of the terminal. There was also a shower room, but none of us bathed.
And then we boarded Sri Lankan Airlines where the green saried stewardesses welcomed us with folded hands and handed us hot damp towels with silver tongs from a silver tray. We each have as many seats to stretch out on as we want. After cocktails we were given a menu with a choice of meals--Western, South Indian and Sri Lankan--with red or white wine and coffee or tea to drink with our desserts and crackers and cheese.
Everyone has a window seat, but Europe was covered with clouds. It was only between Graz and Vienna, Austria that the clouds thinned for while and we could see the snow covered Austrian Alps in the late slanting sun. A map on our individual screens tells us exactly where we are. Right now at 7:41 p.m. England time, 12:43 a.m. Colombo time and 2:41 pm. Swannaoa time we are just southwest of Bucharest at 37,000 feet and -70 degrees with 7 hours and 41 minutes to go of our ten hour flight from London to Colombo. It seems a dream.
In Serendib, the Sri Lankan Airlines on flight magazine we read about the marvelous Barefoot Shop with its brilliant textiles, which we are going to visit in a couple of days. In the darkened cabin people watch movies in Tamil, Sinhala and English. I am drinking a Tia Maria, which tastes like very sweet cough syrup and am quite content.
Daily Record
Monday, May 15, 2006
