Day 37 August 17th London to San Francisco.

Day 37 August 17th London to San Francisco.
Today was always going to be a long day. My cell phone woke Fay at 5:45am; we started breakfast at 6:45am and walked to the Tower Hill underground and caught a train at 7:31; we changed to a Piccadilly line train at Hammersmith, a level platform crossing. We arrived at Heathrow Terminal 1 at 8:10am and after a short walk we arrived at the Lufthansa check in. A bit more walking was required to pass through customs and security before reaching the Star Alliance lounge where we relaxed with drinks and morning tea. At 10:45 the gate number we were waiting for appeared and we set off on the long walk to Gate 5 where our Plane was scheduled to leave at 11:10am. We need not have hurried; the boarding time was delayed. We eventually left the terminal at 11:30 and was airborne at 11:45am. We arrived at Munich only 10minutes after schedule time at 2:10pm Munich time. The flight time was 1hour 25minutes during which time we enjoyed a light lunch. Our main flight of the day was due to leave Munich at 4:15pm. Once again there was a delay; this time a passenger had not turned up so we had to wait while all his/her luggage had to be found and taken off the aircraft. We eventually left the ground at 5:07pm Munich time. Eleven hours had now passed since we awoke for the day and we still had approximately 11 hours of daylight flying ahead of us. After about an hour we were served another lunch; the food once again was wonderful. I watched a good video; “You Have Mail” with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan as the principle actors. Outside the sun was bright so Fay closed the curtains and we tried to sleep. After about an hour I gave up trying and watched some more video. Eventually I dozed for about 40 Winks as the saying goes and woke up surprisingly refreshed. Fay also managed a little sleep. The flight path took us North West, across the Norwegian Sea, Greenland and Northern Canada before heading south over Alaska and then The Rocky Mountains. I managed to take some photos of the landscape about 10900 meters below; around Northern Canada the land looked barren with icebergs in the sea; the snow covered Rocky Mountains glistened brilliantly white in the bright sun. With about two hours flying left we were served the Dinner Menu. By the time we reached San Francisco we had made up for time lost and landed as per schedule. I have come to the conclusion that the flight schedules printed have an allowance for delays as we always seem to arrive on time. We proceeded through security without the delays we have experienced in the past at San Francisco. Once again I had my finger prints taken and my eyes photographed. We caught the train 50minutes after landing and thirty minutes later we were entering the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Downtown San Francisco. We emerged from the underground train station literally at the hotel door.
From the outside the hotel did not look impressive but on emerging from the lift at the first floor Atrium I stood in awe at the sight before us. The reception desk was at the base of a large triangle shape floor space surrounded by seventeen floors of service balconies in front of guest rooms. On the right hand side the balconies rose vertically one above the other but on the left hand side the balconies over hung each other forming a sloping ceiling from left to right and from each balcony starting at the third floor and finishing at the 10th balcony many strings of tiny white lights hung down to finish just above the dining area. To the right of reception were five oval shaped elevators moving up and down. They too were impressive with bright yellow domes top and bottom of the glass fronted compartment. We reached our room around 11pm. The quality of the room was consistent with the Atrium area I have tried to describe above. We have a large bed at one end of an eleven by four meter room; we have two couches able to seat five people, two low tables and a wide desk with a broadband cable for me to work at on my computer. We have two 32inch TVs; even the bathroom mirror has a built in 10inch remote controlled TV built into it. The 9 meter lounge window allows us to look over the ferry terminal area with the massive Bay Bridge in the background; at night it is lit up; we feel like we are in Wonderland.
We had survived the 23¾ hour day without sleep, apart from the 40 winks, better than I had expected.