Over London

I have flown into Heathrow from the East a few times recently in cloudless skies, for me it is one of the most amazing approaches to an airport there is and I never tire of it. The geography of London is breathtaking and from above you can see how the city had developed. The first thing you see are the 1960’s housing developments of Thamesmede, often you see this many times as you go round the holding pattern!! Once released by Air Traffic for the final approach you fly over Docklands and its impressive skyscrapers, then the tightly packed City of London followed by the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, the Houses of Parliament and London Eye. Then it’s Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park and the west end all the time getting lower and lower. Finally its over Richmond, Kew Gardens and Hampton Court palace about 60 seconds before touchdown. At night with all the lights on is it different but equally breathtaking. I can only imagine the excitement this a must bring out in tourists visiting the city for the first time.

Not seeing anything ......

It’s all been airports the last couple of weeks, I have a new contract and need to open a facility in Warsaw. A typical visit is to start at Heathrow for the two hour flight to Warsaw. I am picked up at the airport by the local manager we visit possible locations for the office meet lawyers and I get driven back to the hotel adjacent to the airport. The next day it’s more of the same and then a trip back to the airport I hope to get to see something of Warsaw on one of the visits. Yesterday I spent the day in Helsinki. Once again it was an early flight from Heathrow which meant leaving home at 4AM I arrived in Helsinki at 12:30 caught the shuttle bus to the hotel for the lunch meeting and then spent the afternoon at an airport office in another meeting. The flight back arrived back at Heathrow at 9PM and I was home by 11PM, I could have been anywhere.

Lost In translation

German Cash machines

I had occasion to use a German ATM this week. When I entered my card I was give the following options

1. 500 Euro

2. 400 Euro

3. 300 Euro

4. 200 Euro

5. 100 Euro

6. Another amount

Needing cash for a bus ticket I selected “another amount” and was offered multiples of 50 Euro notes. This raised a couple of questions for me such as who takes the equivalent of £435.00 out of a cash point, why do Germans carry so much cash around with them anyway.

Beach by the Bahnhof

This is becoming more common all over Europe, a totally man made beach by a river. In this case it is next to Berlin Hauptbahnhof and the “beach” is an outdoor nightclub with a different theme every night of the week. Given the winter weather in Berlin I assume they bag up their beach and put it into storage until next year.

Value for money ..... or not?

It was time for the annual holiday in Scotland recently; we make the journey from London in a single day with a stop in a North Yorkshire village for lunch. This time we stopped in a small cafe where they were advertising a special deal of a bottle of wine for £2.50 if two people bought an evening meal. I can work out if was going to be an incredibly good deal or an undrinkable bottle of wine

Top temperature 48.5C

A recent visit to a Middle Eastern country in Summer lead to some VERY high temperatures it apparently reached a top temperature of 48.5C...... or did it!! I later learnt from one of the people that I was with that there is a law where everyone can go home from work when the temperature reaches 49C. In order that no one ever gets the day off work the maximum temperature in the country is 48.5C when it goes above that figure the temperature becomes a “perceived temperature”. I understand that the airport had a temperature of 51C on that day of my visit but that the thermometers were wrong and in fact it was only 48.5C after all.