My visit to Derby

[Undertoad]

And I'm back!

PHL to Heathrow-
to Heathrow Express at Terminal 5-
to Paddington Station
to King's Cross via Underground
walk to St Pancras for East Midlands train
to Derby
to the hotel,
to work and back for five days...

And this morning, up at 5:15am Derby time to catch the 6am train back through that return round, landing at 4pm Philadelphia time where J waited for me.

I would not try to do that schedule again. Exhausting.

Got upgraded to business class for the return flight! British Airways was very strong both flights. Good food good wine. Customs both ends was under 5 minutes. Security both ends was under 10 minutes.

Signage around London Transport is perfection.

Our American credit cards are no longer guaranteed to work in European systems, because they use the chip-and-PIN system with a smart card that holds your password. I think they must use that system because it doesn't require the vendor to be online in order to process a password-protected transaction. The American "swipe" system was confusing even to the hotel's front desk personnel. (They didn't know the meaning of the term "last 4 digits", which is part of the password protection for our system.)

Next time I might just rent a car. Fuck it, I've done right-hand-drive before.