I own the Riley and Briggs man's suitcase. The maiden voyage for that piece was when we landed at Heathrow 2006 all planes just landing were delayed on the tarmac. Security/intelligence had just intercepted the gel bombers, but not all of them. Naturally every plane in that airport and across Europe was grounded, and thousands of pieces of luggage went missing. When we finally got to the carousel to pick up our bags, Paul got his. We had our carry ons and I had some extra underwear and light weight clothing, just in case...Good thing. Going around on that carousel was a filthy older version of mine. The name tag was a guy named Borenstein. I knew he'd grabbed mine and hightailed out of that airport. I hope he found my size 51/2 shoes comfortable, but all I had were some sandals.
And it was a nightmare finding a place to stay. London lodgings were totally booked. There was a booking desk with long lines; I told the agent to book us somewhere in Richmond Upon Thames, site of Turner's famous paintings of Richmond Hill and Hampton Palace. In 1989 I'd taken students on a tour where they studied theater at Richmond college and we took the tube into London every night for theater. I figured we might as well act as if we were already on vacation and be somewhere pleasurable. I also was an ignoramus thinking our travel insurance would cover that amazing hotel on Richmond Hill, which it did not. We were delayed because of terrorism. Not covered by travel insurance.
After going through the hell of having to search in a hall the size of Portland, where luggage was stacked top to bottom in a three story high pile on each wall, I kind of knew, no luck. So we waited in a very long line for taxi. I turned to Paul and said: Let's phone our insurance agent. Tap tap tap on my shoulder. I turned to see a very nice woman who introduced herself: "Hi I am Debra Amos with NPR; do you mind if I interview you?" We of course are such NPR geeks, you would think we'd met a Hollywood star, or a rock star. ( I almost never recognize them when I do; like the time I sat next to U2 in another airport delay; but that's another story. Or the time on Santorini when I heard someone talking about Portland, in a small food market, and asked that handsome Ice Cube if he was from there, not recognizing him). Back to Debra, she finished interviewing us and said: "You are going to be on All Things Considered tonight. The one thing either Paul or I said that was aired: Me, "And as soon as we get to our hotel, I am going to get a cocktail." My 5 seconds of fame.
That was an awesome martini! I visited with some very down-to- earth appearing Brits, who chatted with me about Dodi Fayed and Princess Di, who were in the yacht next to theirs on Sardegna, and how nice Camilla really is. And I thought: Oh , how much is this place going to cost us! But we did enjoy our time in Richmond. At Gatwick, I purchase a rhinestone -studded one-piece bathing suit (I don’t do bikinis and that’s all they sell in Italy; I don’t do rhinestones either, but that was the only one piece in my size). I couldn’t find shoes for walking. All I had were flip flops and a pair of sandals, which were fine at our beach villa on Sardegna, but not so good for hikes, or walking cobblestones. Near the end of our trip we took a train to Trieste. That’s where I found size 51/2 Pumas to walk about in. I still own them. I got my luggage when we returned home a month later, delivered to the wrong address one block away. I am still traveling with the same piece of luggage.
Updated Aug 31, 2019, 9:11 AM
May 30, 2016, 2:20 PM
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