Burlaki on the Thames

So, Becky is now taking a bus to school on her own. My onetime morning routine of getting up early to drive her, then to drive back, and only then to go to work, is history. I can sleep for a whole hour longer in the morning (and as my brother remarked here, I tend to value morning sleep hours quite highly).

Since it normally takes less than 40 minutes for my door-to-door commute, I should now be in for a not too taxing trip to work, right? Wrong!!! We are forgetting about the Olympics…

Not this year’s Olympics in Beijing. The ones four years from now.
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We are in between visitors, for a few days anyway. My mother-in-law departed back to Russia this morning. Her trip’s first leg took her to Frankfurt from the London City airport, which again impressed us in terms of check-in and controls experience. You can literally be at the gate within 10 minutes of entering the terminal.

It took us a bit over 20 minutes to drive to the airport at a non-rush time, highlighting again that we made a mistake to rely on the public transport the last time. If we could get onto DLR to the airport with no more than one change, it would probably still be worthwhile, but two transfers and over an hour of travel one-way via the trains make the expensive parking considerably more palatable.

City airport serves only British and European destinations, but anyone staying/living in the eastern part of London and flying to/from another European city should consider flying through it. Your sanity is important, you know.

My cousin Alex - who, in our family parlance, would be referred to as my brother - is on a work assignment in Dublin for the next couple of weeks. Obviously, we wanted to come and visit. And the truths exposed in my onetime editorial on the costs of European travel garnered new evidence.

Four travelers, less than a week’s notice, understandable constraints of time between the end of schoolday on Friday and beginning of the next schoolday on Monday. The route, London - Dublin, is served by a plethora of airlines, from majors to regionals. The actual trip is just a bit over an hour. One would have thought that even at the last moment, the fares would be under £100 per person.
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The problems we encountered on our trip to the States last summer (which turned into an upgraded, if lengthier, journey, as described here) were truly an advance warning. It took several more months for MAXjet to declare bankruptcy - which it did on Christmas Monday - and stop flying. I am a big fan of upper-class transcontinental air travel, and who wouldn’t be? The advent of business-class-only commercial airlines, of which for the last couple of years there were just two, MAXjet and Eos, with SilverJet a very recent new entrant, made such travel more accessible and affordable. You lose most of the trappings of privilege, since not a single person on the plane is flying a lower class, and the service may be down a notch compared with the likes of Virgin Upper Class, but it is still markedly more pleasurable than the best experience that can be had in coach. The cost is only about a third of what you would pay for a major-carrier business class, with frequent deals available to bring the expense even further down.

 
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When I tell my British acquaintances the reasons for our relocation to the UK, - you know, travel and all, - they invariably offer in exchange that it is incredibly convenient and cheap to travel throughout Europe, having London as your base.

Convenience is certainly in the eye of the beholder: I have already posited at the end of Loire Valley post that crossing the channel for every trip to the continent is a chore.
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The cost of a weekly economy car rental (automatic transmission, A/C, unlimited mileage) in Andalucía for a UK resident: £157. The cost of the same rental for a US resident: $650.

Something to be said about the inter-EU travel.

On the other hand, business-class-only MaxJet tickets cost almost 50% more (at the current exchange rates) if paid through a UK “gateway”, and our upcoming Swiss ski trip would cost 60% more if we were to book it through a non-US agency.

Go figure!

Some bloke knocked on our door a couple of days ago and offered Natasha to wash our car. And wash he did, inside and out, stopping just short of waxing. The car is disgustingly clean. The job cost quite a lot compared to what we’d pay at a car-wash in the US, £13, but the premium for convenience and quality is likely worth it.

He promised to come back again in a month - now, that may be overdoing it. I probably never washed my car more than a couple times a year in New Jersey…
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I was woken up this morning by the wonderful sound of jackhammer right under my window. Two nice blokes informed me that there was some water leak that they would be repairing for the next hour…

Looking at the bright side, I might have overslept work if not for them…
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Getting up in the morning full 40 minutes later that normal for an otherwise regular arrival at the office did nothing for my customary beginning-of-the-day discontent - I still felt denied the pleasure of staying in bed a bit longer… I also ended up staying late at work. Hope there is no correlation, or I should be worried.
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And we are back! Another trip is in the books, not entirely a success, but still a largely positive getaway.
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As I mentioned, our car needs repairs. So I went to look for a shop.
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Well, we’re back! We had a great time, despite having driven more than a thousand miles overall, and entered new year on a high note. Hope you all did the same! (I don’t mean driving)
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The cover story in this week’s Economist talks about British transportation problems. While the angle is more towards fixing the roads, the article also mentions in gory detail the issues with rail networks. Incidentally, I am starting to believe myself that my earlier high marks to public transport were misbegotten.
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Saturday was again spent on the run, and it was certainly a day of several firsts.

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