From Amman to London

British Airways Flight

Arial view of the London Eye, a huge ferris wheel and surrounding area

A British Airways plane waiting at the gate

The 4am alarm gets us up. Within an hour, our driver arrives and we head to the airport.

We’re now sitting at our gate, waiting to board. I can’t wait to go back to sleep.

An Arial view of the Thames River with the London Eye

An Arial view of the Thames River with the London Eye

We are flying British Airways. It’s a 5 hour 20 minute flight from Amman to London so it’s not a short flight. The seats do not lean back and the head rests do not bend in to nestle my head when I sleep. There are no entertainment units to watch. I am glad that I have snacks with me because the only food provided on the flight is a small cereal bar and a small bottle of water. Despite the above, I do sleep most of the way.

John gets some amazing shots of London from the plane.

Covid Testing for England

A picture of a negative covid test

Our friend Zoe picks us up at the airport. When we get to her house, we look up the rules for the Omnicron variant which is all over the news. The same morning as our flight the UK government announced new restrictions for people travelling to Great Britain requiring a PCR test and mandatory quarantine until you get your test result back. We arrived Sunday and fortunately these rules commence Tuesday so we got in under the wire.

We still have to take a RT Lateral Flow Test within 2 days if our arrival in England. You have to order and pay for these test kits in advance of your arrival. Fortunately they are not too expensive costing 17 GBP or $30 CAD. We had ours delivered to Zoe’s house and they were waiting for us when we got to her place.

The tests are self administered. You swab each nostril with a long Q-tip then swish it in a vial of solution. Then you put 4 drops of the solution onto a test strip and wait 15 minutes. Lines appear on the strip indicating if you are positive or negative. You then take a photo on of by the rest strip and send the be photo to the testing company. Within 30 minutes the company emails you a certificate confirming if you are negative or positive- we were both negative.

Walk Around Kew

Two women and one man sitting together in a pub

Zoe takes us for a walk to the tube station (so that we know where it is) and we stop at the local pub on the way back for pre-supper drinks.

John and I head to bed early because we are still on Jordan time which is 2 hours ahead of the UK and 7 hours ahead of Ontario.