London

It's Easter which means it was one year ago since we went to England. I've been to many places on this earth, North and South America, Europe, Australia and Asia but never to the British Isles so I thought that it was time to go there. We got very good ticket pricing from, now defunct Iceland  based, WOW Airlines. Considering the prices that we paid, the airplane was reasonably comfortable. We had a short layover in Reykjavik and then flew on to London's Gatwick Airport. From Gatwick we took a bus to Victoria Station in London. At Victoria Station, we took a cab to our hotel. The guy who supervises the loading of the cabs at the station tried, unsuccessfully, to load into some Nissan minivan abortion. After waiting for all these years to go to the UK, I wanted to ride in a genuine London Taxi. I persevered, as is my nature, and finally got my own way. 

The Millennium Gloucester Hotel London Kensington a four star hotel which is conveniently located. We sit here in the USA and consider the US  to be the only place on planet Earth with running water and electricity.  Actually we do know better but deep down inside we like to feel more advanced the the other poor folks.
Such is not the case. Europe, especially Germany and the UK are very much in the twenty first century. In our Uber to LAX, the Mideastern driver gave us a discourse on Halal. For you ignorant slobs, such as me, who never heard of Halal, Halal is the Moslem equivalent of  Kosher. They are basically one and the same. London, much like Long Beach, is  very much a multicultural city. Which means, so it seems, that half the people that you see there are not English. This means, among things, that there Arab everywhere. That meant that in a lot of eateries there were large HALAL signs in the windows. 
I was really surprised how much better the food was in England then I was led to believe. There is much more to eat than boiled beef and black pudding.
Our inauguration was in the morning when we went down to breakfast.  There is an entity called the English Breakfast. It is a bit like an American breakfast but instead of Egg McMuffins and pancakes it goes something like this.
 The traditional full English breakfast includes bacon (traditionally back bacon), fried, poached or scrambled eggs, fried or grilled tomatoes, fried mushrooms, fried bread or buttered toast, and sausages (also known as "bangers"). Black pudding, baked beans, cooked tomatoes, and bubble and squeak are also often included.
Along with all of this theren was a London Times newspaper to read which I enjoyed so much I  have subscribed to the digital edition that I still read every day. 
I had to try the fish and chips across the street. As an aside, these folks drive on the "wrong" side of the street. While walking, we Yanks when crossing the street, we look to the left before stepping off of the curb. WRONG yank, there speeding towards you from the right. I almost got creamed to many times to mention. But I digress. After braving the crossing of the British street, we were in front of a nice looking establishment that had a HALAL sign in the window. I said to myself, myself you only live once what the hell go in and risk your life. I came, I ate, I loved it. I still have an inherent distrust of Middleasterners, yes all of them, Arab and Jews. I used to work for two Israelis so I've earned the right to keep my guard up. But that's another story for another time. I think my distrust is partially due to their accents but it's now a little less so. 
For two weeks we were tourists of the highest order. We now can navigate the London Underground like a couple of Cockneys. 
We went to dozens of museums, which most have free admissions in the UK. 
We took a couple of coach excursions. To Stonehenge, Leeds, Dover, Standford on Avon, Bath, Winchester, Cambridge and Jamie's all time favorite Highclere Castle where Dowton Abby was filmed plus the surrounding villages.  We went to Greenwich to see the Clipper Cuttysark and the Naval Observatory. 
We took a train to Portsmouth, the home of the British Navy which the US Navy is modeled after. 
I would be remiss if I didn't mention Big Ben, The Tower Bridge, The Tower of London, Buckingham Palace and Westminster.
All too soon we had to take a tram to Heathrow Airport and fly WOW back to LA. I do love to travel but I also love being home here In Long Beach.


 

WHERE I'VE BEEN

When I was very young, my parents and I went to  Atlantic City and Niagara Falls. I believe this whetted my appetite for travel. 

Between my junior and senior year of high school I went to Chicago on a New York Central train to go to boot camp at Great Lakes Naval Station. This trip heightened my desire to see the world. I knew that I didn't belong in Northern Ohio. 

After I graduated from high school I took a train to the Naval Recieving Station in Philadelphia on the Pennsylvania Railroad. I was booked in a roomette and had my own little stateroom to myself. This was when my fernweh really kicked in. 

After two weeks in Philly  I boarded a Greyhound bus for Guidedmissileman A School at Virginia Beach. I was now in the real navy and I really enjoyed my time there.

After A School I boarded a Continental Airlines DC-3 at Norfolk airport. The weather was too rough for a piddly DC-3 so we turned back to Norfolk. An hour later I boarded a Vickers Viscount a four engine turboprop to Washington National Airport. We jumped on a United Airlines DC-7 to Baltimore. At Baltimore, we boarded a DC-8 jet to LA. So in one day I went from never being on an airplane to piston powered to turboprop to jet. All on the same day. This in February of 1961 when I boarded the jet in Baltimore I was bundled up in woolen dress blues and a peacoat. When I deplaned, at ten in the evening in LA it was about 77 degrees outside, this was in the prehistoric era before jetways. I knew right there where I wanted to live, SoCal.

After Terrier C School at the General Dynamics plant in Pomona I was transferred to Naval Ammunition Depot Crane, Indiana. I drove back to Cleveland on Route 66. This was before interstate highways. Tom owned a Corvair and we drove through the deserts of California, Arizona and New Mexico. Over the plains of the Midwest and farm country east of the Mississippi.

After two and a half years in Southern Indiana and reenlisting, I sold my Auston Healy Sprite and bought a 59 Buick. I, and my new wife, then drove west across the USA to Vallejo, CA to attend Missile Technician B School. After B School, we drove down the coast of California to San Diego where I was stationed on finally my first ship, an aircraft carrier USS Constellation CVA-64. We made a MidPac cruise to Hawaii. That was fun but I wasn't fond of life on a birdfarm and after only seven months on board I got orders to go to new construction at Todd Shipyard Seattle, WA.

This started my life as a plankowner of a brand new Guided Missile Destroyer USS Waddell DDG-24. We made two WestPac cruises to Vietnam with ports of call in Yokosuka and Sasabo Japan and many calls at Subic Bay in the Philippines which was virtually  our second home port. Between the two WestPacs we drove back to Cleveland where I took a thirty day leave and then back again. We stopped at Mount Rushmore and Yellowstone on the way back.

I got out of the Navy after eight years and we, once again drove back to to Cleveland in 1968.

After two years, we realized returning to Cleveland was a huge mistake so in 1970 I got the company that I worked for, API Instruments, to move me back to SoCal. While with API, I made numerous trips to Mexico City, Austrailia, Japan and Korea. I suppose because I was gone so much my wife left me. After a while, I had a new girlfriend who was from Germany. I had to learn how to speak German because when Brigitta and her German girlfriends started talking in German, I wanted to know what mischief they were cooking up. 

I took a month off and we flew to Germany. Brigitta was from this cute medieval walled town, Bad Wimpfen, up on a hill next to the Neckar River.  I bought us Eurail passes while in the USA which was like a bus pass. All you needed to do, was flash the card on any train, or bus, in all of Europe and off you went. We would go to a train station in the evening and look at the board and select a destination that was about eight hours away. We would then sleep on the train and not blow money on a hotel room. We had no
predetermined itinerary and had a ball. We went to Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Monaco, France, Spain, Belgium, Holland and of course Germany. 

I didn't much like the new management at the company when they merged with LFE Corp, so I moved on.  

My second wife was from Rhode Island so we ended up diving cross country twice.

My third wife was a TWA flight attendant and I flew on many flights with her and for free on my own.

By 2010 I had been to every state except North Dakota and Alaska. I drove to South Dakota to do a job in Watertown and thought as long as I'm this close, I might as well drive up to North Dakota.

Three years ago, we took a cruise through the Inland Passage to Alaska and I made it a clean sweep, all fifty states plus Puerto Rico. We went to Loreto in Baja Sur, south, to pet the baby gray whales in Laguna San Ignacio and liked it so much we made a second trip to Loreto.

Last year we spent two weeks in London, I'd never been to the UK. Three weeks in Italy mainly in Tuscany, a week in Honolulu, two weeks in South Carolina, ten days in Kauai and Maui and another week in Italy.