Lounging Around

Virgin Lounge Heathrow

Champagne in my Virgin PJ's

What do I wear to a Bollywood Wedding?

We are heading back to India. We never have flown on Virgin Atlantic, so we decided to try them. We left Los Angeles for a 10 hour flight to London where we would have a 5 hour layover before continuing on to Delhi.

At Los Angeles Virgin uses the AirFrance Lounge. I can only say it is a dump and offers almost no amenities. It was depressing. Someone said it was worth paying a fee and going over to the Air New Zealand Lounge. So we went over to that lounge and were equally disappointed. With our tail between our legs we retreated back to AirFrance, and decided we would only drink.

The Virgin plane has a very unusual seat arrangement in Upper Class. No two seats are directly next to each other. The seats did convert however to very nice lie flat seats. They are kind of fun to watch them convert as they flip over making a bed.

We took a sleeping pill and woke up in time for breakfast before landing in London. After a long walk we wound up in Heaven. The Virgin Lounge at Heathrow is consistently awarded the best lounge in the world. Clean, architecturally interesting, large, fabulous food and we both had massages and a shower. It was perfect! Hats off to Virgin Atlantic. I am writing this aboard the plane as we fly from London to Delhi. Soon a glass of wine and a sleeping pill and I will wake up in one of our favorite vacation spots.

Somehow when we left the plane in London I had inadvertently grabbed the wrong rolling suitcase from the overhead bin. I didn't notice it. When we were in the Virgin Lounge I needed something from the case and realized what an error I had caused.  I immediately went to the concierge and explained the problem to her. She called down to somewhere at Heathrow and they said they had my bag. I thought I would have to schlep through security and long halls to switch bags, and to face the poor person I had inconvenienced. Virgin had a better idea: they said go have a massage and your suitcase will be here awaiting you. It was the 2nd best happy ending to a massage I ever had!

Because both flights are night flights, Virgin gives you pajamas to change into and keep. Between Cathy and I we now have 4 pairs. After our return flight we are thinking of opening a small pajama store. Most probably we will donate them or invite all our friends to a pajama party. 

One of the strange problems in flying halfway around the world I strivng to take pills at the correct time. In our case we take them in the morning and with dinner. Because of the time changes, the sequence gets screwed up, so we basically give in and align our pill taking with the food service no matter what the actual time interval is. No ill effects have been noted except a desire to go shopping. 

We were met by VJ our driver, who we knew from previous trips and were driven to The Imperial Hotel in Delhi. It is a favorite of ours – very Raj.  After settling in we walked around the neighborhood, constantly getting accosted by touts trying to get us to go to favored stores. We returned to the hotel and went out by taxi to a favorite shopping area.

A bottle of wine followed by Thai food at the hotel. It is 9:04pm and boy am I ready to fall asleep. We left LA Monday at 9pm and after flying halfway around the world arrived in Delhi at 11:40am on Wed.