Around The World

Today we set off on a 52-day round-the-world trip.

After very little sleep for Andrea and no sleep last night for Keith, we left home at 6:00 am and headed for the airport.

We got to the airport around 6:45 am. We checked in, cleared security, and headed to the lounge (so Keith could get a strong cup of coffee!). We got to the gate around 7:40 am for a scheduled departure of 8:00 am for our flight to Sydney but rather than board, we had to mill around as a result of an engineer on board addressing a technical issue. After a delay of about 30 minutes we walked down the air bridge to board the plane, passing the engineer on his way out, holding a couple of rolls of gaffer tape. Not very reassuring!

Despite any misgivings we might have had about the quality of repair work to the aircraft, we had a pleasant flight (sleeping most of the way!). We landed in Sydney and then spent 25 minutes sitting idle waiting for a gate to become available. Eventually we got off the plane and headed for the bus to transfer to the international terminal. After the customary slow crawl along the tarmac in the bus we departed at the international terminal and made our way to security, which was extremely busy. After the inevitable manual inspection and re-scanning of Keith’s camera bag (every time!) we passed through immigration and made our way up the escalator to the Qantas lounge. As luck would have it, our flight to LA was delayed by about 20 minutes, so we were able to relax a bit in the lounge. This delay also turned out to be quite fortuitous because the dessert chef in the First Class lounge doesn’t start until 11:00 am and without this flight delay, we would have missed out on the deconstructed pavlova, which we had both been looking forward to (not just today, for weeks!).

We had a nice brunch (including pavlova!) in the lounge and then trundled off to the gate for boarding.

Our aircraft for the flight from Sydney to LA was an A380. While airlines were grounded as a result of Covid-19, Qantas stored its A380s in the Mojave Desert in California. It turned out that rattlesnakes and scorpions decided that these aircraft made a good home so there was some degree of concern (mostly on Andrea’s part!) about whether they had all been removed before we boarded! We certainly didn’t want to experience life imitating art (if you could call 2006’s “Snakes on a Plane” art!).

The A380 seats just under 500 people. Consequently, there was a heaving mass of people at the gate. We eventually boarded the plane and collapsed into our seats, already exhausted from the airport ordeal. You have to be keen to travel these days because airports and airlines seems to be in the business of making travel as mind-numbingly difficult as they can!

We changed straight into our Qantas pyjamas, settled into our seats, and after a drink and snack, both fell asleep pretty rapidly. In fact, neither of us remembered taking off!

After we woke up, we had a nice dinner, watched a movie, and then had our beds made up so we could settle in for a good night’s sleep before waking up for breakfast. We had breakfast about an hour out of LA and landed a little behind schedule at 6:30 am.

We got off the plane and headed to immigration. Without going into the details, suffice it to say that clearing immigration in LA bordered on comical. We stood in line for an hour and a half before finally getting to someone in a booth, who pretty-much just waved us through. We collected our bags (which had probably been lapping the baggage carousel for well over an hour by this stage) and wheeled them out of the terminal to the Hertz bus for the short ride to pick up our rental car.

As soon as we got off the bus, we were immediately struck by how cold it was! We have been to LA a lot but have not ever experienced such cold weather here. There is even snow on the hills of LA, which makes for an odd sight!

(And we discovered later in the day that it snowed at Disneyland today!)

We crawled through the LA traffic for about an hour to get to our hotel, The London West Hollywood At Beverly Hills. We arrived around 9:30 am and checked in. Breakfast was still being served so, like moths to the flame, that’s where we headed! We enjoyed a nice breakfast and then headed back upstairs.

We decided not to push ourselves too hard on the first day and we opted for a short nap before heading out. After a shower and a sleep, we felt recharged so we hopped back in the car and headed to the Beverly Center to do some clothes shopping, mostly as a result of not packing enough cold-weather clothing!

Our next stop was In-N-Out Burger on Sunset Boulevard. We don’t really eat fast food but for In-N-Out Burger, we make an exception! We each had a cheeseburger, fries, and a large Dr. Pepper. And then we followed that up with another cheeseburger each. Delicious!

After our gourmet dining experience at In-N-Out Burger, we jumped back in the car and joined the traffic jam on the 101 for a bit more shopping, this time at the Fashion Square Mall at Sherman Oaks. We did a bit of clothes shopping but then got distracted when we found a See’s Candies store! We sampled a few chocolates and then bought a few to eat later. Even though we are trying to restrict our sugar intake, we justify our position by being shareholders in Berkshire Hathaway (the owner of See’s Candies) so we feel like we’re doing our bit to support our investment!

We left the Fashion Square Mall just after 8:00 pm and as a serendipitous consequence of missing the turn-off back onto the 101 freeway, we ended up coming home via Mulholland Drive. Mulholland Drive is one of the most popular streets in Los Angeles, providing spectacular views of Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley. It is a mecca of lavish houses, many owned by celebrities and movie stars, and was the setting for David Lynch’s movie of the same name.
And a further fun fact is that it currently has the biggest pothole we have ever hit! Lucky we’re driving a rental!

We got back to the hotel around 9:15 pm. We planned for an early night but given that it’s already past midnight now, that won’t be happening. We’re not sure yet what we’ll be doing tomorrow so we’ll just see how we feel when we wake up in the morning. All in a all, a big first day!