Time Travel to L.A. - Part 2 of 10

Despite a half hour delay in Glasgow, we managed to arrive in Heathrow pretty much on time. The journey from Terminal 5 to Terminal 3 took longer than our taxi journey from Jordanhill to Glasgow Airport and making our way through security and on to the flight to L.A. left no time for reflection.
Looking along Sierra Madre Boulevard, Sierra Madre, Pasadena
There was a kerfuffle over seating on the plane as the previous day's flight had been cancelled by the airport authority and it was rather like the last train out of Calcutta, except that hanging out of the windows and sitting on the roof is frowned upon. We exchanged seats with a young couple and a baby so that they could be near the baby-changing facilities, which elicited a double 'wow' from an air stewardess. This was apparently a rare and wonderful thing to do.
The flight - at eleven and a half hours - was fairly arduous, leaning heavily toward the boredom end of the scale. None of the inflight entertainment could be made to start at the beginning; usually commencing some 8-15 minutes in. It passed the time between food, (I hesitate to call any of it a meal, although the mini pizza served shortly before arrival at L.A. International actually resembled a well-made version).
We were both amazed at how closely a lot of L.A. resembles the Northern Mallorca of our experience; much bigger in scale obviously; more of everything, but in essence a very similar landscape and much of the building style in the same manner - the Spanish influence obviously. Espana with American gloss.
Immigration procedures were a potential nightmare involving fingerprinting, photography and questioning (which might have been recorded - there was a small microphone next to the camera lens). This we successfully negotiated after a long wait, although several others from our flight were not allowed in so readily - one man because he could not give the address at which he was staying. It seemed to us he was not understanding the questioning and maybe was distressed by the hectoring tone. We saw him later before leaving the airport, so he made it through.

Our hosts were thrilled to see us - as were we to see them - and after so much planning and waiting for this moment. It was dark by the time we reached their home  and we began to accustom ourselves to having travelled 8 hours back in time to look forward to Los Angeles. 

More to follow...

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