S2L77: North Atlantic

From 1977 05 10 England

After the jump, the end of the road.

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All good things must come to an end. That includes my 1977 overland trip from Singapore to London. I had seen the Malaysian jungle, the imposing Himalaya mountains, the Taj Mahal by moonlight, the lawless provinces of Afghanistan, the rich culture of Iran, the endless and varied history of Turkey and more. But London was the end of the road. There was no going on to Málaga for me.

Instead, I found a travel agent above a bookstore in Charing Cross Road and booked the cheapest flight to New York. It turned out to be a charter flight out of Brussels, so I would have to first fly there to pick up the cheap trans-Atlantic flight. I paid for but wasn't given a ticket. I was told to go to Gatwick Airport the morning of the flight and look for "Emma" under the clock in the arrival hall. She would have my ticket. And, oh by the way, if anyone in Brussels asked, I was to say I was a German geographer. Well, OK then.

Well, it went just as advertised. The only drawback was that six hours after I left London, landed in Brussels, boarded another plane and took off, the captain came on the intercom and announced to the passengers that if they looked out the right side of the plane, they would be able to see... London.

I made it to New York's JFK airport, went to an airline counter and booked the next flight to Chicago. At O'Hare airport in Chicago, I went to an airline counter and got wait-listed on the last flight of the day to Wisconsin. Luck was with me. After a long day in airplanes, I was finally back where I started from some 800 odd days before. Having left going west and returned from the east, I had circumnavigated the globe. Whew!

The end.

One of a continuing series.
Start: Around the World in 800 Days
Previous: Windsor