2 England Ties

Our layover at Heathrow was five hours. The airport is massive, spread out. We boarded a super fast shuttle from one terminal to the next then jumped on a single-decker white bus for a 15 minute drive to another terminal. The airport is nicely laid out with plenty of good signage directing our paths though “following the crowds” is my preferred means weaving the human maze. We were “processed” in 30 minutes then found our way to the shopping mall inside Terminal 1. Twenty-five duty-free shops lined both sides of long narrow mall with pubs and lounge seats striped down the middle. We plopped ourselves across four open lounge seats, donned the eye covering we got form British Airways, and took a nap. After the long 10 hour flight, the horizontal position was heaven … sweet dreams.

My nap ended with a loud roar. I snapped to an upright position. Still groggy, I peeled off the eye shades and scanned the mall to determine who I should be mad at for interrupting my beauty sleep. A very large crowd had gathered adjacent to my make-shift bed and swarmed around a 50 inch plasma TV engrossed in a World Cup Soccer quarterfinal game. Germany had just scored and the crowd went nuts. Great game.

Leaving Petey to guard the bags, I walked up and down the mall to window shop. In a noveltz store I couldn,t resist a car magazing sporting the newest Alfa Spider on the cover with a lead story about why Alfa lovers are still in love with Alfa … great souvenir for Russ. My $10 bill was converted taken and English Pounds returned for change. A little further down the mall my eye was turned by a tie rack. A huge sale sign pointed to a collection of ties in the theme of England soccer. The Brits love their soccer but now scorn their poorly performing team since they could only tie the US team and eventually dropped out of the Cup. As a symbolic gesture for this hatred, the ties were marked at “throw away” prices. I picked up a $30 tie for less than $3. The lovely cashier requested 1.65 pound but I only had change in my pocket for 1.5 pound. She took it then pinched her nose with one hand while gingerly handing the tie over the with her other like it was a smelly sock. Ya gotta love the passion the Brits have for soccer.