I arrived at the airport slightly before midnight. Checking in and going through immigration was easy. At security I had to remove my laptops and tablet as usual.
I sat inside the nice Oman Air lounge for about an hour and enjoyed a couple of adult beverages hoping to help me sleep on the 2 AM flight to Frankfurt.
The plane was a nice 787 and the seats were pretty comfortable. I had a cookie and a couple of other adult beverages, but I didn’t fall asleep immediately as I hoped.
Eventually I did sleep, and chose to sleep through breakfast.
Upon arrival in Frankfurt I had to walk 2 miles (maybe it was only 1), then take a broken train (well the train station doors were broken, not the train itself) to another terminal where I had to go through security again.
After taking out my laptops and tablet I walked through the x-ray machine so I don’t have to be bit by a radioactive spider, only a normal one to become spider man.
I waited for my next fight in the Lufthansa Senator lounge with the benefit of my platinum AMEX card. It was pretty quiet.
My flight from Frankfurt was late. The flight pushed back at 9:22 AM and was in the air at 9:40 AM.
The Europe business class is a joke. You get 1.5 normal seats. Essentially there is a normal chair between two people. It’s not an actually wider seat like business class in the US.
They served breakfast on this flight – salmon, cheese and a croissant. It was okay as a snack.
I took a couple of photos from the air – over the water there was a big group of wind turbines.
Landed in London, a few more airplane pictures, including a Qantas 787.
When I arrived in London I went through the very long line for the e-gates (which means no stamp).
Once through the mess my bag was ready for me. I grabbed the bag and walked to the London underground.
I had already set up my new contact contactless card in my oyster account, so I was ready to go.
I took the Picadilly line to St. Pancras and collected my train ticket. The train station didn’t show the platform number, but I asked and got the information.
The train was packed, but almost no one was going to Dover. It was actually a nice train and there were outlets so I could keep my phone charged.
I walked from the train station to the Premier Inn, I used stasher to book luggage storage until I could check in later today at my Bed & Breakfast.
I got my camera gear and walked along the white cliffs to St. Margaret’s Beach. The beach is just a bunch of pebbles and small rocks, no sand here. I don’t know how they can call it a beach. In any case the cliffs were nice and I took the opportunity now that I was out of the No Fly Zone around the Dover area to fly my drone around the cliffs.
It was a beautiful walk, especially to the light house. The entire walk is 4.2 miles each way, but really you can turn around at the light house and save your feet.
I walked back briskly along the cliffs to Dover. It took at least an hour and a half to get back to Dover.
I picked up my luggage at the Premier Inn and checked into the Bed and Breakfast. The bloke running the place was very nice and the room was updated very nicely. It was also in a very nice location. Additionally he even offered to drive me to the cruise terminal the following day.
After checking in I rushed to run some errands, the first of which was to buy water, coke and two bottles of wine (the wine was for the ship). I walked a few minutes to M&S’s food hall.
The next stop was to get dinner. I had already done some research and there was a place nearby called Castle Take Away which was highly rated for their fish & chips. It was not too expensive and the fish was very tasty. Highly recommended.
After I finished eating my fish I walked over to pick up a new microSD card I bought through Amazon for my cameras as I was running low on storage.
I continued meandering around Dover, past a nice church and eventually to the waterfront.
The waterfront was very nice and even had a swimming area – which was too cold for me to think about it.
After taking in the sunset I walked back to the Bed & Breakfast to call it a night.
I opened up my laptop and found a cracked screen. I called Dell support, but apparently they don’t provide support on weekends, so I will need to wait until after I reach home to have it fixed. Luckily I purchased the accidental warranty coverage as the laptop is only a few months old.
Today’s timeline:
