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Category: London

  • London – Ibis Budget London City Airport

    London – Ibis Budget London City Airport

    I stayed at this hotel near to London City airport following my flight back with British Airways from Florence. For a time it looked like my flight would be cancelled, or at best, it would have arrived too late to land at London City and so would have been diverted to Southend Airport. I sent the hotel an e-mail asking if I could check-in late and they responded quickly saying that they’d do the check-in there and then on-line, so I could just pick up my keycard which they had put under the desk for the night porter. All very professional.

    I got there in good time in the end, thanks to British Airways, and the receptionist was the friendly and helpful staff member who had sent the e-mail to me. This is a relatively cheap hotel, but the welcome seemed authentic and I was pleased with the bargain price of £33 including breakfast. It’s only an eleven-minute walk from London City Airport, so convenient for these late arriving flights.

    The room was clean and to brand standard, perfectly sufficient for a one-night stay.

    I went down to breakfast and I was the only one there, so at least it was peaceful. There were cereals, pastries, yoghurts and a selection of meats. This was sufficient before my train journey back to Norwich, with the orange juice and coffee being helpful as well, particularly the coffee for that little energy burst. When I checked-out at around 09:00 the breakfast area had around thirty people in, so it was either a coach party or perhaps a flight load of passengers who were on one of the cancelled flights from the previous day from London City airport. I imagine that the breakfast experience for them wasn’t quite as relaxed as mine was.

    Anyway, I thought I’d have a little look at TripAdvisor to see what people thought about this 81-room hotel and the reviews are quite reasonable. I mentioned above that I walked this in eleven minutes, but some reviews complained it was a long walk, people managed to take 15, 20 and 35 minutes. I don’t know what the one taking 35 minutes was doing.

    One person didn’t like their toilet and must have been told to use the one on the ground floor, which isn’t ideal, although certainly isn’t illegal. I don’t like the comparison with easyHotel, which is one of the few hotel chains that I hold in entire contempt. Which might be unfair since I’ve never stayed with them….

    “Im sure prisoner’s get better service better breakfast. Rooms more then basic think easyhotel – class customer service. First room toilet didnt work fully booked normaly by law a hotel would have to reacomerdate u somewhere else at there cost. Not here so no toilet facility apart from going down three floors in lift.”

    Another guest was pleased:

    “One member of staff in particular was aggressive and combative”.

    I never manage to find aggressive staff in hotels (well, bar that one in Los Angeles a few years ago, which I must write about at some point), but it’d certainly liven the check-in experience up.

    “In my 36 years alive on this earth, this hotel has to be in the top 3 worst stays ever, in fact i would have rather have slept in my car and woke up and jumped in the Thames had i known it was that bad.”

    Hmmm, sounds like they didn’t find this their perfect stay….

    Another guest complained that the place was “full of builders” and there are lots of problems with noise, which I can imagine must be a problem at weekends. Having lived near to this hotel a few years ago, the area isn’t the most salubrious, but I thought that the staff did well to manage everything. To be honest, I was just pleased to be able to get back to London before the curfew at City Airport and get to the hotel.

  • Flights – Florence to London City Airport (British Airways)

    Flights – Florence to London City Airport (British Airways)

    When I arrived at Florence airport, most of the flights from that afternoon were being cancelled due to high winds, so it didn’t bode well for my later departure. Nor was the sign of a lady sitting on the floor outside of the terminal screaming particularly conducive to calm travel, although at least the Italian military and police were on hand to deal with the situation. The staff at the airport lounge were friendly, although warned me that my flight was likely to be cancelled, but as the afternoon turned into evening, all started to look better.

    The inbound BA flight to Florence was delayed, apparently the pilot said due to a technical issue rather than air traffic control or the winds, but the departure was only around an hour later than it should have been.

    The boarding process was a little confused as customers weren’t really shown where to wait, although to be fair to the staff, they didn’t have a great deal of space as there was another flight boarding at the neighbouring gate. There was a vague effort at boarding by group number as I did hear one announcement, but it was ineffective. Although it didn’t make much difference anyway as there was a bus to the gate rather than an air bridge. The boarding gate staff were polite and helpful, with the process being prompt if nothing else.

    The BA flight to London City Airport before mine had been cancelled, so the aircraft I boarded was completely full, although I’m not sure where the other passengers were sent from the earlier flight. The crew member made some authoritative, but essential, statements that baggage must be placed into the lockers quickly and everything other than large bags should be placed under the seats. I like my bag by my feet, but it’s perhaps still a little unfair that BA reward those with large luggage by having the area under their seat clear, whilst those who pack light have their foot room impeded.

    The aircraft was G-LCAA, an Embraer 190 which was used by China Southern Airlines from 2011 until May 2019, when it entered BA’s fleet. I find it quite intriguing to know that this aircraft has spent most of its life shuttling around China before being entirely refitted by BA.

    The pilot then made a friendly announcement and in that he mentioned that there was a slight rush as we had headwinds against us and a need to get into London City Airport by 22:30 because no incoming flights are allowed in after that due to their curfew. As a slight spoiler to this post, the aircraft landed at 21:54, which meant that all was well and we avoided having to land at London Southend Airport which would have been over an hour by bus transfer. London City Airport usually closes at 22:00, but it remained open to deal with our flight.

    Back to the flight itself… British Airways have, for the many years I’ve travelled with them, managed to perfect inconsistency. I’m aware of what the offering would be, since I read the timing of the flight and associated menu on Flyertalk, but it was a near pointless effort compared to the excellent meal provided on the outbound flight to Florence. I had eaten in the lounge, but most other customers hadn’t, perhaps expecting something similar to what they had received on their previous flight.

    And into London City airport, safe, sound and only a little later than anticipated. The curfew at London City Airport is an absolute one, so all told, BA did well to get this aircraft back given all the problems there had been at Florence airport during the day. A bus journey from Southend Airport is something that I could have done without, so I’ll forgive BA for their limited catering arrangements on this flight….

  • Flights – London City Airport to Florence (British Airways)

    Flights – London City Airport to Florence (British Airways)

    This is the first time that I’ve flown from London City Airport, an accessible and easy to reach airport in east London with its own DLR stop. And I’ve liked the DLR ever since I lived next to one of the network’s stops a few years ago.

    One of the advantages of London City is that it’s relatively small and compact, so it’s possible to roll up around 45 minutes before a flight and still board in time. I can’t be taking those sort of chances though, but I didn’t go through security until two hours before my flight, which is cutting it very fine for me. The airport was comfortable and clean throughout, with an almost endless supply of power points and places to work from for those who needed that.

    There’s an extensive views of the airfield from the departures building.

    The walk to the aircraft went by the side of a building, with the nature of London City Airport meaning that there aren’t air bridges routinely used.

    Approaching the aircraft.

    I started off on an aisle seat on the seventh row, but there were some empty seats ahead, so a crew member said that I could move to a window seat on the fifth row. The aircraft was clean and comfortable, feeling slightly tired though, with this aircraft being G-LCYI which is an Embraer 170 which BA have owned since new in 2010.

    This flight left at 15:50, so there were some spectacular skies visible from the other side of the aircraft, they almost looked photoshopped in on this photo. But they’re not, I can’t use Photoshop….

    The CityFlyer service still comes with free food and drink, although I was unsure exactly what the choices were before boarding. They actually seemed to be generous, with Speedbird available which pleased me. I think there was Heineken as well, but the Brewdog/BA partnership that has led to Speedbird is IMO much better. And BA are releasing a new beer soon in partnership with Brewdog again, so hopefully this venture has been a useful one for both parties.

    The food was much better than I had expected, it was salmon on rice, along with a side salad, roll, cheese & crackers and a chocolate dessert. There was also a water thing served with it, although it was easy to get extra drinks from the bar from passing crew members.

    The crew were friendly throughout and their announcements, as well as those from the pilots, were professional and appropriate. The aircraft landed into Florence slightly early, with the whole process being seamless and well managed. It was a reminder of how BA used to be across their short-haul fleet though with the free food and drink, as it allowed an engagement between the crew and customers. Now, that engagement has been nearly entirely lost, and on most flights there’s nearly no connection between customers who don’t buy anything and the crew. It’s a shame, the crew are one of the best assets that BA have in my view, but I’m sure that Alex Cruz knows what he’s doing…..

    This, incidentally, is my 2,000th post on this blog. How lovely….

  • Flights – Bucharest to Heathrow T5 (British Airways)

    Flights – Bucharest to Heathrow T5 (British Airways)

    With my time to Bucharest over for this year (or at least I have no plans to return this year), my flight back was the BA887 service from the Romanian capital to London Heathrow T5.

    I don’t always see the British Airways aircraft landing whilst waiting to go back to London, indeed I very rarely see it due to the layout of airports, but I did today. Here’s the aircraft landing in Bucharest, just a few minutes late. The aircraft is an Airbus A320, registration G-TTNH, introduced to the BA fleet from new in January 2019.

    The boarding process was well managed, Groups 1-3 boarded first in what seemed an organised little arrangement, then Groups 4 and 5. The staff members were friendly, it was all quite a relaxed affair.

    I had an exit row seat by the window. I’m going off these exit rows a little as I have to put my bag into the overhead lockers, and I like it being nearby. Anyway, there wasn’t too much pressure on the overheads today and so it wasn’t a difficulty. The seat next to me was kept clear, which is a handy feature of FLY, with a gold status member in the aisle seat, and my lesser status by the window.

    The flight was free from any issues, which is just how I like them. I fell asleep for about an hour, watched everything I’d downloaded from Netflix and then, a few minutes early, the aircraft was ready to land. The crew and pilot announcements were all professional and timely, but I miss the drop-down screens as it was nice to see how much progress we’d made. I think on airlines with wi-fi fitted that this information is freely available, but this wasn’t a wi-fi enabled aircraft.

    I still don’t really like the Buy-On-Board (BOB) strategy that BA implemented, when they started to charge for food and drink in Euro Traveller. The food and drink is a little immaterial, but it allowed the crew members to engage with customers and it also broke the time up a little bit. The BOB didn’t take much during the flight, or at least, it didn’t whilst going by the rows near to me and before I fell asleep….

    The aircraft landed at A Gates and that meant just a short walk to border control without walking from B or C Gates. Very impressively, it took me less than twenty seconds from entering border control to leaving it, as there was no queue for the kiosks and my passport was processed within two seconds. Marvellous.

  • British Airways Lounges – Crisp Selection

    British Airways Lounges – Crisp Selection

    As evidence that I need to get out more, I was overly excited to see that British Airways have replaced Kettle chips with Tyrrell’s crisps in the lounges. Not that there’s anything wrong with Kettle chips, but a change is as good as a rest or whatever the phrase is. Hopefully they’ll change the flavours about a bit and won’t try and stock the vegetable crisps that Tyrrell’s make….

  • Heathrow – Ibis Heathrow

    Heathrow – Ibis Heathrow

    This is what I think is my seventh visit to this hotel, and also the third time that I’ve posted about it. I might need to switch to a different Accor hotel for future visits to give me something else to write and moan about….

    No welcome gift, which is mildly irritating since I’m trying to compile a list and it’s constantly this hotel that fails to deliver one. It’s not important at all in the scale of things, although Accor themselves said that customers should rate the hotel down on review sites for this, which is probably not what the hotel franchise holder wants to hear. On more important matters, the room was spotlessly clean and was well provisioned, so no complaints there.

    For the second time this year, the hotel didn’t offer me a drinks vouchers. I had to query it, at which point the staff member discovered that it should have been given out.

    Service at the bar was polite, but the staff were serving customers out of turn. Since I wasn’t buying anything, just getting a free drink, I’m happy for them to serve their paying customers first, but the staff didn’t know at that point that I wasn’t buying anything…. The drink is again under-measured and the staff member slid it across the bar at me. That requires some confidence, as if a staff member gets it wrong then the drink will go crashing into a customer.

    The free drink is though generous, it’s any drink other than champagne, so I went with the reliable if unexciting London Pride. What more interested me though is that another customer asked if they had any craft beer. This was a very good question, and one I haven’t bothered to ask as I knew the answer. The hotel doesn’t have any incidentally, although it really should….

    The hotel doesn’t have any information in the room about, well, the hotel. So I had to go and take a photo of the breakfast sign I had noticed by the lift to get the times. I’m not sure why the hotel can’t provide this information in the room on an information sheet that nearly every other Ibis does. Anyway, the room was quiet and I didn’t experience any issues with noise either internally or externally. The wi-fi was also fast, efficient and easy to connect to.

    I hadn’t noticed this book corner in the hotel before, looks good.

    Well it looked good until I saw what they had done with this book. Grrrrr….

    I went down for breakfast at 06:29, a precise time as they were serving the hot food from 06:30. I had a yoghurt and fruit selection whilst waiting and the hot food was brought out pretty much exactly on time at 06:35 or thereabouts.

    The hot options are fine, although the sausages are of an unexceptional quality. The bacon was what I’d consider part-cooked as the bacon wasn’t rendered enough for me so I was left cutting bits of fat off. But, I’m irritating like that, I’m sure most customers were entirely content with the bacon. I don’t usually eat scrambled eggs, but another customer asked for fried eggs and a polite member of staff said that the kitchen couldn’t offer those.

    These pastries really aren’t great, although I still suspect that they’re sourced from a central supplier agreed by Accor, so it’s hard to blame the hotel. I don’t know, but I wouldn’t be surprised if these are from Brakes. The staff were all efficient at the breakfast area including one who was using customer’s first names, which is unusual, but adds a bit of personality to the event.

    Overall, the hotel came in at just over £30 as part of the Black Friday offer from Accor, so given that includes breakfast is a very reasonable price. There’s some tidying up needed on how they deal with the ALL (Accor’s new loyalty scheme) as they’re well behind most other Ibis hotels, but their reception staff are helpful and efficient. The bar staff, as I’ve noticed on my previous visits, verge between helpful and hopeless, but there we go. Still recommended, although I saw people using the Hoppa service again when they could have just got on any TFL bus free of charge to the airport….

  • Flights – Heathrow T5 to Bucharest (British Airways)

    Flights – Heathrow T5 to Bucharest (British Airways)

    My flight today was the 10:05 BA886 service operating from London Heathrow T5 to Bucharest in Romania. I haven’t been to Bucharest before, although I’ve been to Romania when I visited Oradea a couple of years ago. The aircraft being used today was G-TTNC, an Airbus A320 which was acquired new by British Airways in June 2018. The aircraft had come from Toulouse this morning and after it had returned from Bucharest, it then flew to Brussels.

    The boarding process was well managed and the boarding by group was enforced. One of the staff was quite forthright in dealing with customers who tried to board before they were meant to, but if there’s going to be a policy on things like this, it may as well be enforced. I was surprised how many customers tried to ignore the instructions that the staff members were making and although some might have been lost in translation, there were a few customers with headphones who seemed just a little oblivious to everything going on around them and they just wanted to board.

    I had an emergency exit row seat, so there was plenty of space, and no-one was seated next to me either. I felt sorry for the crew, playing Jenga with bags to try and fit them all in the overheads. They had to put some bags in storage elsewhere on the aircraft and so they were perhaps fortunate that there were twenty or so seats which were unused. As I’ve posted about before, the amount of bags that are brought on board is going to have to be reduced at some point.

    The emergency exit row.

    This is the first short-haul BA aircraft that I’ve been on which has wi-fi availability. I can cope, well – just about, without Internet for a couple of hours, so I wasn’t tempted, but it’s a useful service.

    For those who do want to use it, the wi-fi service costs £2.99 per flight, which seems reasonable enough.

    The descent was quite bumpy, with one customer walking down the aisles stumbling somewhat, but the crew were on hand. The crew were always pro-active and helpful, offering a really friendly service which always felt efficient but unhurried. The flight arrived in around ten minutes before its scheduled time and the pilots offered useful and timely announcements. The flight wasn’t the cheapest at £66 return and it would have likely been cheaper with a budget airline, but the cost wasn’t unreasonable and I felt that £33 for each journey was entirely acceptable.

    Incidentally, the border process at Bucharest Airport was efficient, although the staff took quite some time with every incoming individual and so I’m not sure what they were checking. There were lots of signs about the coronavirus as well, with a fair few passengers wearing face masks. Anyway, what I was going to mention was just as I was being called forwards, a customer came from the back of the queue to ask the member of border staff to hurry up. He was ushered away by another staff member in what was a polite manner, but I have to say that any customer who is rude to border or customs staff is taking a huge risk….. I suspect that his request for a swift route through the border wasn’t granted.

  • Acton – George and Dragon

    Acton – George and Dragon

    This was the second Good Beer Guide pub that I went to in Acton, the other being the Red Lion and Pineapple. It was a strange first impression, as I entered the pub and the first room was empty (well, it had furniture, just no people), then the second room was the same and then the third room, which was the bar, was empty other than for a member of bar staff who seemed to be cleaning. It was one of those experiences whether I was wondering whether I’d wandered into a pub that wasn’t open yet.

    But, all was well, it transpired that the pub had just opened at 16:00 and I’d meandered in a few minutes after that, so they likely weren’t expecting many customers at that point. The staff member was friendly and engaging, willingly explaining that there was one dark beer option that met my requirements.

    This photo is of the main bar area, with fermentation tanks at the rear of the room, as the pub brews its own beer, trading as the Dragonfly Brewery. In 1958, the pub was advertising that it had opened a new ballroom and restaurant, which I assume would have been in this room. They also advertised “West End Cuisine at Moderate Prices” and this is clearly a location that has seen many weddings and functions over the decades. Like most pubs, the premises were also used to hold inquests into deaths, something which might be seen as a little macabre today. I’m not sure that the Queen of Iceni would be an ideal location to debate how someone had died whilst people are queueing for their unlimited refills of coffee.

    The pub actually has a screen which lists the beer, which is clear and well presented, although I didn’t see it at first as it’s only noticeable when leaving the bar.

    The beer that I opted for, the Clout Stout from the Clouded Minds brewery. It might have been because the beer was served just a touch cold that I struggled to get many flavours from this stout, although it had a generally pleasant and refreshing taste to it. There are meant to be tastes of malts, cocoa, dried fruits and figs, although they went over my head (or over my palate, whatever is the most appropriate phrase).

    This is the second room that I mentioned earlier. There’s a lot of history evident in this building, something that I very much like. This was once a pub that was a stop-off for anyone travelling from London to Oxford, and they’re proud of their list of landlords dating back to 1759 which are on a board in the pub.

    And the first room, where customers enter from the road. It seems that this first room dates to the eighteenth century, whilst the second room is earlier, from around the seventeenth century. The building itself wasn’t mauled about in the nineteenth century, a fate which befell most other similar premises in the area, but was originally two separate houses when it was constructed in the seventeenth century.

    This is a communal table, a nice idea for when the pub is busy. There’s also a bit of a stage in this room, as there is live music offered, something which reading in old newspapers the pub has been known for over the last few decades. The pub also serves Thai food, although I didn’t see any menus, so that might start a little later on in the evening.

    I sufficiently liked this venue to make it my first candidate for my pub of the year….. There’s a quirky edge to the pub, which is clearly full of history, with a welcoming feel to it. All very lovely.

  • Acton – Red Lion and Pineapple

    Acton – Red Lion and Pineapple

    I had some spare time en route to Heathrow, so I had a little stop in Acton to visit a couple of pubs listed in the Good Beer Guide. This one is a JD Wetherspoon operated pub, which they took over in the early 1990s from Fuller’s. There seem to be different stories about this pub’s history, but it was the Red Lion until around the 1960s, when the Pineapple bit was added to prevent any confusion with other pubs with a similar name (of which there are no shortage). Part of the building is from an older pub which was mostly demolished to make way for a tramway project in the nineteenth century.

    That’s the story anyway, but an 1880s map shows that there was nothing here at all, but a pub was built in the 1890s which I suspect is the older part of the current pub. It was all one building by the 1930s, so the new pub building seems to be from the early twentieth century. Anyway, whatever the truth, it’s an interesting building and the main part of the pub has a large circular bar which dominates the interior.

    A sufficiently well balanced beer selection, with the Gothick Dark from Twickenham brewery having rather an attractive pump clip. The taste of it was a little less exciting, the faintest flavour of chocolate and not much else, although it’s something different at least. The staff member was conversational and engaging, so all entirely welcoming.

    Anyway, onto TripAdvisor, which is something I haven’t been able to do for over a month, as there are few ridiculous reviews on Polish bars, restaurants and hotels….

    “We went for a bottomless brunch nearby and here straight after. We bought a round of drinks and all was fine however, one of our party went to ask for tap water and they refused to give it as we had been to the brunch. Apparently police have asked them not to serve Aeronaut brunchers – but really? Water?”

    The Aeronauts is a nearby pub which offers unlimited alcohol for brunch. The pub’s management replied that there’s water on the bar (which there is) and no-one was refused access to it.

    “I too was in the group mentioned previously (in fact I bought the initial round of drinks which was a decent bit of business for yourselves and which, presumably, you would have foregone had you known we had committed the terrible crime of attending the Disney singalong brunch before attending your vile establishment).”

    Calling a pub vile because they were nervous about serving drunk people? I think it’s clear what’s happened here….

    Another customer questioned the management response, posting:

    “I think management have got our group confused with someone else as no-one was ‘shown where the water dispenser was’ or ‘helped bring water to our table’. I do understand previous people from the brunch may have caused trouble but when you can see a group of friends trying to enjoy your pub and not causing trouble a little more compassion wouldn’t go a miss.”

    But the entirely unnecessary “vile establishment” comment is hard to ignore….

    “I felt i was been badly patronised by a team of youngsters who, put togheter, would have reached the age of 70y.o so,as i felt hungry,discretelly,i went accross the road and i got myself a portion of chips”freshly done”. I m sitting in the pub having my beer and a proper portion of chips till the extremelly young table service boy comesto my table and start telling me off about the chips,i explain that what i ordered and what i was served wasnt the same thing and he kept on repeating what he had already told me. This went on three times at which point i decided to make a fuss and asked to speak to the manager(probably around 20y.o)i explained what happened but,obviously,her experience in dealing with customers amounting only to speaking to drunken sods(and there were a few of them around the room).”

    Astoundingly, managers aged 20 can be incredibly good….. This customer wasn’t satisfied with his chips he purchased from the pub, so instead of asking for them to be recooked, he got some from the chip shop across the road. Which seems pretty passive aggressive to me, but each to their own….. It’s hard to imagine many more non-violent ways of making more fuss than bringing in food from another establishment…..

    “Male staff seem to focus on serving the many elderly, single men who frequent this place and ignore female customers”

    I have no idea whether this customer comment is true or not, but it’s the first time that I’ve ever heard a complaint that male bar staff ignore female customers…. I’ve heard the reverse complaint very many times.

    Anyway, the pub was all clean and organised, with an interesting choice of beers. My beer was £2.25 (or £1.75 with the CAMRA voucher) which is excellent value…..

  • Greater Anglia : Norwich to London Liverpool Street (New Trains)

    Greater Anglia : Norwich to London Liverpool Street (New Trains)

    This is the first time that I’ve had chance to go on the new train between Norwich and London Liverpool Street, I seem to have caught the older rolling stock over the last couple of months. The train was the 11:30 from Norwich, which seemed relatively quiet, even though it was taking passengers from the 12:00 service which had been cancelled. The new train has twelve carriages, and they’ve been made by Stadler in Switzerland.

    A screen showing customers where everything is on the train.

    It’s possible to see all the way down the train, but there are closeable see-through doors along the carriages. The design of the seats is clunky and rushed, the heater unit on the side is in the way of customers, as is the table’s central support which is just where knees might otherwise go. There is now just one power point between two people (unless one has a USB) and for reasons that I cannot comprehend, plugs don’t fit into many of the power sockets as the base of the seat is in the way. I was able to plug my laptop into the power sockets under the seats on the other side of the table, but only because there was no-one sitting there. It’s an unfortunate bodged job from Greater Anglia, arguably unacceptable given the price increases that they’ve introduced which should have meant they had more than enough money to do this properly.

    This slightly irritated me, some idiot putting their feet on what are nearly new seats. Fortunately, it also irritated the guard who politely, but firmly, told the passenger to stop this behaviour when he saw her.

    And safely into London Liverpool Street, all on time.

    The old rolling stock on the left and the new rolling stock on the right.

    Taking everything into account, I prefer the older train. It’s more comfortable, it’s better designed and I think it’s more functional. However, there are two caveats with that, the older train isn’t easy for those with disabilities and it also doesn’t hold as many people as the new train, so these are two big advantages with the upgrade. It’s all very nice that money has been spent on new trains, but I’m hoping that they’re taken in for an interior refit soon to try and give the finish a slightly classier and more functional edge.