Sleepless in San Francisco.

My phone tells me it’s just after 6.35pm in the U.K. My body clock doesn’t disagree! The journey from my home in Derbyshire has been remarkable in that, so far, the litany of arrangements have ” gone like clockwork”. Buxton, as well as much of northern England had received a substantial fall of snow, thus destroying any hope of catching the 11.49 Cross Country train from Macclesfield to Reading. All roads out of Buxton were blocked. Plan B was to catch the 10.34 train from Buxton, which I made with just 30 seconds, to transfer my luggage from car to train at the station. Thus, I made it on to my original train after all. At Reading, my connection for London Paddington went smoothly, and soon, I was settled into the Hilton, a magnificent restoration of the former Great Western Royal at Paddington Station, formerly one of the major Railway hotels, where, back in the day, I would stay with staff discounts. Those days are gone, but strangely, my superb room, I felt was well worth the £221.00 including breakfast. Better value, I thought, was the late afternoon flight from Heathrow to San Francisco. £650 secured a seat in Premium Economy. The flight, scheduled to arrive at San Francisco at 6.50pm local time, came in 35 minutes early, but all was lost in the lengthy processing of hundreds of passengers from, I would think, several different flights arriving at roughly the same time. I enjoyed the just over 10 hours in the air. I had two seats to myself, and thus plenty of room to spread out. Flying over Greenland was spectacular and added to the enjoyment of this long flight. Travelling west, the sun did not set fully until we were approaching San Francisco. I watched a couple of movies on the seat-back screen in front of me, as well as various documentaries. My third set of earphones actually worked…I think they were imported from Business Class. As promised, a fine limousine arrived minutes after I telephoned the car company, and, after what felt like huge delay getting through airport procedures, I was on my way to San Francisco’s Nikko Hotel. This was even better than the Hilton the night before. Despite being at the end of a 32 hour day, I still had the energy and curiosity to walk around early evening San Francisco, ‘though I didn’t stray too far. I was unable to finish a Thai green chicken curry, but did enjoy what I managed to eat. The next day (today as I write), would be the first of my “explorations”. As I expected, rising early would not be the imposition it would be back home. Probably because of excitement and some anxiety, my sleep was somewhat intermittent. But, the bed was magnificent. However, hence the title of today’s blog, “Sleepless in San Francisco”.

So, today, I was up at 6am, with all preparations for my journey to Long Beach taken care of. I had a breakfast of oatmeal and toast at the Cafe Mason, just a block away from the hotel. Then, leaving my main luggage, two pieces, at the hotel, the porter arranged my taxi for the temporary Transbay Terminal for the connecting bus to Emeryville. All worked out brilliantly, and I am now on my way to Long Beach for three nights on board the former transatlantic Cunard liner, Queen Mary.

1, Heathrow 2,and 3, inside the Boeing 787. 4, sun reflects off the jets. 5, view from my room on the 18th floor. 6 and 7, Amtrak’s connecting bus before an on time departure from the terminal at 9.05am.

The journey continues.

Thanks for reading,

David.