Getting Ready

Nearly a year ago, I read on the Lotus Sevens email list about a coming event to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Lotus Seven in England. On a whim, I mentioned it to my wife Linda, who replied, 'that could be fun!' What a great wife she is -- I kid you not! She had been to England during college, but for all my love of British cars, I never had been there. Linda works for a school system which does not traditionally allow vacations during the school year, other than the scheduled school holidays. She has worked there for some 19 years however, so when she explained the gathering of Lotus Sevens in commemoration of their 50th anniversary, her supervisor exclaimed 'oh! Its a family reunion - how nice! Certainly you should go!'

The other factor involved our children. Our son Austin is 16 years old and daughter Carrie is 14. They are both very responsible and dependable kids, so we figured that under the watchful eye of a couple of our neighbors (who are really more like extended family) the kids would be just fine.

We renewed our passports and made airline reservations -- luckily we had 'frequent flyer miles' enough for one free ride! Having arranged for the dog and the kids to be cared for, we packed our bags and off we went.

Since I can't ever make anything too easy for myself, I somehow got myself into facilitating the sale of a set of four Wobbly Web wheels -- from a seller in Arizona to a buyer in Norway (via England) which I, of course, offered to transport with my checked bags. The wheels arrived to me on the Monday morning in two 18 lb boxes and by Wednesday morning, I'd repacked them into a single box (so that my wife could take a second bag of her own if desired -- we were allowed 2 checked bags per person, under 50 lbs each). I confirmed that the four wheels packaged together came in under 50 pounds, and also that the box containing them fit within maximum size for checked bags. So a box of Wobbly Web wheels became my second bag.

As if helping out with the Wobbly Webs wasn't enough of a last minute challenge, I also decided to have a handful of self-stick vinyl labels cut with SimpleSevens.org/Norwich 07 to hand out to any loyal SimpleSeveners I might meet there. Delivering the electronic files to make these labels, I asked about having the same imprinted on the back of a jacket. "No problem" was the answer. The labels and jacket would be ready Monday night.

Of course, calling the silk screener on Monday, I'm told they'll be ready Tuesday (I leave Wednesday morning, 9am for the airport). So Tuesday I stop in to pick up both jacket and labels, and neither is done! I'm assured they will be ready Wednesday morning however, and the owner himself promises to meet me half way between his shop and my home to hand off the goods. At 8:30am on the morning we leave, I met the owner who handed over both labels and jacket.

In Transit

An hour's drive took us to Detroit Metro Airport and without a second look, our bags (and box) were checked and I only worried a little about what the security people manning the the X-ray would think when they saw this cylindrical object 13 x 30 inches in size. I also remembered my 8th grade science class in which we set fire to a tiny strip of magnesium foil -- very bright and hot fire results! I settled myself by considering how much magnesium there probably is in a modern commercial airliner.

Passing through security, I dutifully put my jacket, shoes, computer (out of the bag please), camera, and assorted pocket items into the bins. Out the other side I hurried to put on and tie my shoes, grab my other stuff, and move out of the way. Down an escalator and 100 yards away, I realized I no longer had my prized 'SimpleSevens' jacket! I looked behind me from where I had just come, but found nothing. I dashed back to the security gate and asked them about the jacket, but they didn't have it. Somebody had most certainly grabbed it out of the bin immediately as I stepped away... So if you see a jacket with the SimpleSevens.org/Norwich 07 on the back...

On our approach to Atlanta, I caught sight of another airliner intermittently through the clouds. It really is amazing how close together these things fly -- particularly when there are clouds between them!

One hour from landing in Atlanta, our flight departed for Amsterdam. During the flight I watched a documentary on Pink Floyd - appropriate just before a visit to England. Also enjoyed an hilarious feature length 'Mr Bean' film in which he wins a vacation to the south of France.

Coming in over the Netherlands in the pre-dawn hours, we saw huge glowing amber rectangles on the ground between wisps of dense ground fog. We later learned they were greenhouses with 24 hour lighting. I heard another passenger comment that there might be something besides the usual plants and flowers growing down there in the greenhouses of Amsterdam!

The last leg of our journey to England was scheduled to leave an hour after our arrival in Amsterdam, but ten minutes after it should have left, we received word that heavy fog at our destination would delay our departure. About 9:00 am we did fly out, heading back to the west and our final destination of London City Airport.

The twin turbo prop international commuter aircraft was small, but quick and we were soon over the coast of England. Strangely, just at the coast we banked steeply to the south, continuing through approximately 180 degrees. I began to wonder if perhaps the fog had not cleared and we would be returned to Amsterdam or directed to land at another airport. A minute or two later, we went into another steep bank, the same as the first, taking us through the rest of a full circle. It seemed to have been a bit of a holding pattern as we then continued inland and began our decent.

Looking down through broken cumulus clouds, I could make out a few small towns, traffic driving on the opposite side of the road, and a multitude of traffic circles -- I watched closely as vehicles moved onto, around, and off the circles, knowing that soon we would be down on those roads too.

Upon arriving at the airport, we went for the baggage claim, and plenty of baggage was already moving along the conveyor... none of ours to be seen. With as small a plane as we had been on, it was only five minutes before the last of the bags had been picked up by other travelers and we went to have a chat with the baggage authorities.

My biggest concern was, of course, for the wheels. I could do without my own bags (not sure my wife would agree on that one!) but I knew that if the wheels did not catch up with me in England, they would be returned to my home -- in Michigan! The baggage personnel assured us that the bags would very likely arrive later that day and if we would provide her with our London address, they would be sure to deliver the bags as soon as they did arrive. Our schedule was Thursday night in London, Friday and Saturday in Norwich, and then Sunday back in London... I could just imagine us being one step ahead of the bags (and wheels) for the whole of the trip!

Well, we couldn't do much more about the baggage, so we caught a taxi to our first bed and breakfast, the Park Hotel, across from Valentine Park in Ilford about 10 minutes from the airport.

I was a little concerned when the driver pulled out a map and tried to find the address we gave him -- while driving! I offered helpful hints such as 'it's just a few miles north of here,' and 'it's across from Valentine Park'. I was really surprised when he handed me the map and asked me to find the road for him! I obliged, and after another 5 minutes and watching the meter tick up to 18 UKP, we were there.

The Park Hotel didn't quite live up to its description on the UK B&B web site I had used for reservations... the lovely building in the photo on the site turned out to be a front - the enchanting building was there all right, but after checking in, we were shown right out the back door, to our room in a completely separate building behind! Okay, to be fair, the room wasn't all that bad, but it was very, very small, reeked of cigarette smoke, and we did have to unplug the TV to plug in the lamp!

Our unfamiliarity with English electrical and plumbing systems then caused a bit of frustration when my wife tried to turn on the shower and was completely baffled by the unit on the wall. After a minute or so (she's not all that patient after an international flight) I came into the tiny bathroom to investigate. On the wall in the shower enclosure was a unit about the size of a shoe box, made of white plastic. It had a push button that said 'power', and two dials, one that went from hot to cold (like you find in a car) and the other that indicated from less to more, like a volume control. Then there was a recognizable bit, the shower head on a flexible hose.

Pressing the power button had no visible effect, although there was an indicator light that seemed like it should come on with the pressing of the power button. So I repeatedly pressed the button and turned the dials, all to no avail. I wandered back out into the room and noticed on the wall, about the place where the shower 'box' was on the other side, there was a rocker switch with a red rocker... I had thought maybe it was a fire alarm, so hesitated for a moment, but then thought what the heck and switched it on. the red switch glowed, and I knew I was onto something! I dashed back around into the shower, pressed the power button, and on the shower went! Adjusting the hot/cold control was more of a continual sort of challenge, but in the end, we each had a fair shower and were ready for London!

To London

Having alerted the front desk at the B&B that our luggage might be arriving any time, we made our way out onto the street, walking in the direction of the nearest Tube stop, Gants Hill Station less than a mile north of the B&B. We knew we wanted to phone home to talk with the kids, and also to phone John Watson, with whom we were having dinner that night. What we didn't know was exactly how to work the pay phones... There seemed to be two types that we walked by -- one that only accepted coins, and another type that accepted coin or credit cards. And no, none of the 'traditional' English phone booths :-(

We started by calling John Watson to confirm our arrival and to finalize dinner plans. The call was placed easily enough and John himself answered the phone, with a cheerful and excited greeting. We had been exchanging emails for about 8 years, so we were looking forward to finally meeting eachother. John had put together a simple dinner plan: we would meet in Soho at an Italian restaurant called Amalfi's on Old Compton street at 'half Seven' -- which I clarified as 7:30, rather than 6:30!

It was a little past noon, which meant a little after 7am at home, so we tried to call our kids who would be getting ready to leave for school. There was no answer, so we left a message saying we would try again later, and we continued on our way to the Tube station. Once down inside the station, we went to the ticket booth to explain our plans and ask what would be the most appropriate tickets to purchase. We ended up with a 24 hour pass that would allow travel throughout the system on a single ticket, and we boarded the train headed for Westminster Station.

About 25 minutes later, we burst into the sun at Westminster Station, and our (my anyway) first look at London was a view of the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. Wow. We also immediately spotted the London Eye, which we had planned as our first stop to get a bird's eye view of London. A short walk up the Thames took us past entrances to a variety of shows and displays - a Star Wars presentation and a show of Dali's art.

The Dali sculptures were surreal alright, and the Star Wars Storm Troopers peering out over us on our first day on the ground in London was an interesting feeling. Riding up in the Eye we were not disappointed as the weather was fairly clear -- some dark clouds looming on the horizon, but otherwise a crisp clear view of the surrounding city. From the top of the Eye, we were able to make out many sights of interest, including our next stop, Buckingham Palace.

Back on the ground, we walked a block or two up the Thames to get a better view and photos of the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben from across the river. Mission accomplished, we crossed back over the Thames and made our way past the Houses of Parliament and Parliament Square, down St Margaret Street as it passed between the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey. It was an ominous feeling to walk along the roadway that had been barricaded to traffic, knowing that the reason was the security of these two world-renowned landmarks.

We walked along the north side of the Abbey, marveling in the incredible detail and age of its architecture. From the front of the Abbey, past the automatic weapon toting guards, we made our way north to Birdcage Walk along Saint James park, enticed into the park by the pathway that led to the bridge over the pond. In looking at our pocket map, we were under the impression that 'The Mall' was a part of the park that led up to Buckingham Palace, and so, The Mall was our current target. Crossing over the pond in St. James park, we looked back to the east and were treated to a spectacular view of the London Eye rising above the trees in the distance. Making our way to the other side of the bridge we came across a small snack shop. Since it was quite a while yet before our scheduled dinner, we decided to grab a quick snack before walking on up to Buckingham Palace. The 'mature cheddar sandwich' caught my eye as something that I was unlikely to find back home, so that's what we shared along with a banana and bottled water!

On toward the 'The Mall', we realized that it was actually the road that led to Buckingham palace, rather than a wide green space! We went ahead on up toward Buckingham Palace, in the hope of catching a glimpse if not a photo or two of the famous guards. We made our way past the great Queen Victoria sculpture and roundabout, and on up to the front gates which were, of course, closed. We were able however to spot the guards in their wonderful furry hats, and managed a couple of unremarkable photos. there was one small section of gate open (and guarded) and I wandered over to it for Linda to shoot a photo of me there. I briefly considered a dash to pet a furry guard hat, but the urge quickly passed.

With a little time to kill and another walk ahead of us we took a few steps to the north of Buckingham Palace into Green Park and sat down beside an interesting modern fountain to review our map and our path to Amalfi's on Old Compton street.

After a while sitting on the grass, we were ready to continue our walking tour. We located Old Compton street on our map, and headed in that general direction. Not more than a block or two along, we found ourselves walking in an ever thickening crowd. We made our way to Picadilly and walked along peeking into windows as we went. Most of the shops had already closed so we did not do too much shopping! We did make our way into a small clothing shop in which we picked out a nice sweater for our daughter. We also wandered into what seemed to be a small 'mall' which had many different shops of tourist-type things. I found it odd that many of the shops we went into offered very expensive luggage!

To Dinner with JWW

Finally making our way onto Old Compton, we found the street lined with restaurants and pubs, many of which were open onto the narrow street, with customers socializing on the sidewalks, talking and drinking. The general atmosphere was very much like that of a street party, with far more people than cars in the road. We spotted Amalfi's about 6:00pm and peeked in to see if John was there yet. Of course I had never met him before, although I had seen a photo or two and thought I could spot him if he were there. Being a half hour early, I didn't really expect to see him yet and in fact, did not.

We walked a bit further down the street through the thickening crowd and the party atmosphere continued on. Eventually we turned back arriving again at Amalfi's at the agreed time. I had another look around and this time as I saw a fellow I thought was John, he stood up and I was sure it was him. After hearty hellos we introduced our wives who smiled knowingly at each other, acknowledging their husbands' apparent mutual fanaticism over something as mundane as an automobile. Linda recounted to Barbara the story of how we ended up with a Lotus Seven: the story was that I bought it for her as an early birthday present for her 40th birthday -- of course I'm her "chief mechanic and driver" so although we tell everyone that it's actually her car, I spend plenty of time behind the wheel -- sometimes she even comes with me!

Although John's wife has little interest in his cars, she does seem amused by his interest in them and was more than gracious spending the evening chatting with my Linda while John and I talked about the latest goings on on the Lotus Seven email list and about various Seven owners we both knew. Of course both Linda and I had had a very long day, so after the delightful Italian meal, we determined that we had best make our way back to our bed and breakfast for the evening.

Luckily we only had a single transfer to make on our way back, but staying on the outskirts of London, the better part of an hour had passed by the time we made it back. Coming through the reception area, we were delighted to hear that our luggage had in fact caught up with us, me especially because of the wheels I was to deliver the next day at the 50th Anniversary Event! We unpacked what we needed for the evening and prepared our plan for the morning: breakfast, followed by a walk to the nearest car hire office where we would rent a car, drive back to the hotel, pick up our luggage and wheels, and make our way to Norwich. We were surprised to find that the bed and breakfast had wireless internet access, so a quick look online found that we could rent a car fairly close by. Plan complete, we settled in for a good night's sleep.

To Norwich

We awoke the next morning, and now that we were familiar with working the shower, quickly got ready for breakfast. The options for breakfast were not out of the ordinary, except for the offer of baked beans with our eggs and toast. 'When in Rome' I thought to myself, and ordered them. We finished up and on our way out of the dining room passed a sort of buffet table where Linda spotted a packet labeled 'Wheatabix' which we presumed to be a sort of granola bar (which to us was a very common thing to bring along as a snack on a day's outing) so Linda tucked one into her pocket and we were on our way. We had already packed and left our bags (and box of wheels) with the manager so off we went to collect our rental car.

After we walked about half hour toward where we expected the car rental office to be, we came across a stand of taxis. Knowing that we'd be on our feet most of the next day at the gathering, we made a quick decision to take a ride the rest of the way. It turned out to be a good decision because it took another fifteen minutes to get there, even by car!

Finishing up the paperwork we went to get the car, a small Peugeot, with only a bit of trepidation knowing we'd be on the other side of the road from what we were accustomed to. John Watson had assured us that driving on the left side was easy, particularly since we were already familiar with our right hand drive Lotus Seven. We turned left out of the car hire lot since it was easiest, even though we actually needed to go the other direction to return to the bed and breakfast to pick up our luggage. We figured it would be easy enough to turn in to a neighborhood and get back onto the main road going the proper direction... fifteen minutes later we were nearly lost in a maze of narrow, one way streets, struggling to find out way back to that main road! We were able to see the road we were trying to get to, but the roads all seemed to dead end before we were able to enter onto it!

Eventually (probably less than an hour anyway) we did find our way onto the road we wanted and headed in the right direction. Soon enough we found our way back into Ilford, and recognized the tube station we had used the day before. Minutes later we were gathering our luggage into the car and by about noon we were finally on our way to Norwich, at which point we spotted our firast Seven of the trip :-)