It’s been a busy week in England! Before our last daily walk through Hyde Park / Kensington Gardens we make a tiny detour to view an old favourite. Leinster Gardens is famous for being home to JM Barrie, author of Peter Pan, but its other claim to fame is more my kind of fact. 

From the street the row of Victorian townhouses looks neat and tidy, only a close inspection lends a clue, but pop round the back and it’s clearly a trompe l’oeil. In the 1850s when this street was being built, the railway tracks were also being laid, and a section was required to be exposed so the engines could vent their smoke, so one section was not built, just a façade constructed to keep up appearances. And so nos. 23 & 24 have only false windows and doors, and from the rear one can see the tracks, flying buttresses and iron ties. 

It starts to rain just as we get to Exhibition Road and today’s destination, the Science Museum. We while away a few hours, checking out the Rolls Royce engines from Concord and early 747, of which I’m always proud as Dad invented a part which was used on every one on these in the seventies and eighties! 

Next we move through medical equipment, clocks and then computers, finally we look at a few cars and other bits. It’s great to find Apple’s I and II models represented, the first a true icon in wood, and the second one of my earlier learning machines with many fond memories. Other exhibits of computer royalty go from Babbage to Cray.

After lunch we head home to pick up our suitcases and catch the Heathrow Express. It’s a smooth journey and we are quickly checking in to Oman Air when disaster strikes – one of us has put a digit wrong on our Indian visa application! The staff are quite insistent that we cannot fly – this has to be notified to and approved by the Indian Authorities, but with the time difference they aren’t open yet. We spend a troubled hour waiting at check-in whilst they await an answer. Finally, and with a very sad face the young lady who’s been dealing with us returns, but then breaks into a huge grin, we’re told we can continue with our journey. 

All this has eaten into lounge time, but as the inbound flight is running late we still get to enjoy an hour or so and a good selection of food and wine, before the receptionist asks us to go to the gate.

The flight is uneventful except that they have no Sauternes onboard! The bed is very comfortable and we sleep well. Arriving into Muscat next morning we only have a short turnaround, and we get to the next gate just as the final stragglers are being processed. This may have saved another incident as the steward doesn’t carefully scrutinise our visas.

The second leg is only just over two hours, so lunch occupies us for most of it, and we arrive in Mumbai much earlier than we would have if we’d stuck to Emirates via Dubai.

Immigration in Mumbai rivals America for speed – we watch with horror as everyone in front of us, just a half-dozen people, seem to take ten minutes each to be processed. They have our electronic visas, electronic entry cards, our uploaded photos, passport pdfs, and fingerprints already, but the administration is interminable. Mark gets whisked away by an official, meanwhile I’m still being grilled, another three photos taken, and Mark is back and cleared long before I’m allowed through!

Meanwhile our bags have arrived so we’re straight out into the sweltering heat, and happily our guide Narendra is waiting, actually still inside security since he has also just flown in, and is sensible enough to wait for us here. 

A few minutes later we’re in a big Toyota on the way to the hotel. After check in we arrange to meet the guide at 18:00 for a short walk and tea at a Persian tea room. Mark and Naren have Chaii and I have Black with lemon.

After we shower and dress for dinner, we pop across the road to the hotel’s sports centre bar, and then return for dinner and an early night. 

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Neil
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