Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: Hounslow (Borough of)

2022 US Trip – Day 32 (British Airways Flight from Dublin to Heathrow T5)
This was the last day of my little trip home and I had chance to pop into the airport lounge at Dublin. This is a different one to where I was before going to the United States, I was off in Terminal 2 at the Aer Lingus lounge then. I’ve written about this Dublin lounge before, so won’t repeat that. I was fortunate to get a seat though, it was at near capacity when I got there and didn’t really let up. It’s an odd shaped lounge and they really need a bigger facility, but it was an entirely satisfactory place to spend three hours.

It had just turned midday, so having a farewell to Ireland Guinness seemed sensible.

Mine was the 15:20 flight and one of the gate staff made an incorrect announcement of the gate number which caused some people to get up and move. I hovered between the two gates thinking that this was far from ideal. I didn’t intend to miss a flight at this stage of the trip.

I had worked out that the flight could be three hours late and I would still be able to get my train home to Norwich. Above that I’d miss it, but I’d either get EU261 compensation or at least a duty of care if it was weather related. I think it transpired that the flight was about eight minutes late so I hadn’t needed to pre-worry.

Ready to battle the rain for one final time in Ireland.

No airbridge in Dublin. This was the tenth and final flight of this trip, along with the twelve or so rail trips I took in the United States. It’s aircraft Airbus A320 G-TTNS and for my own interest only, I hadn’t been on this aircraft before but that’s not surprising as they only took delivery of it on 1 October 2022 and this flight was on 19 October 2022. It’s one of the newest aircraft that I’ve been on I think.

It’s a short flight and it was entirely unremarkable, with the crew being the usual friendly and helpful sort. I was given water and crisps, but I saved them until I was sitting at London Liverpool Street waiting for my train.

Boarding the underground to cross London on the Piccadilly Line, which is always much less exciting when coming back from a trip rather than getting there.

I was able to get a seat.
Facebook

WhatsApp

Twitter

Pinterest
December 30, 2022
2022 US Trip – Day 30 (British Airways Flight from Newark to Heathrow T5)

After an entertaining couple of hours in the British Airways Galleries lounge in Newark, I then walked the short distance to the gate, an earlier flight than I had been anticipating. I was very impressed with how BA handled this, they made it easy not just to change flights but also to ensure that my seat reservations were carried over.

I don’t like the seats on this Boeing 777-300 aircraft, they’re too narrow for me. However, I was in an exit row on the aisle, which is my favourite, meaning that I did have plenty of space. The three seats were all taken, but I was fortunate that the person sitting next to me didn’t veer into my space once.

The crew members on this flight were exceptional, making an effort to build rapport with customers where they felt appropriate and being ever present. I’m rarely disappointed with the friendliness and engagement of BA crew, with the pilot making chirpy and positive announcements.

It’s fair to say that I had enough leg room.

The first drinks round took place around one hour after take-off and the crew member seemed pleased that I asked for Brewdog Jet Stream by name, so she gave me both cans on her trolley.

The crew member didn’t let me down with the Brewdog beer, she remembered me from before and pro-actively asked “would you like another Brewdog beer?”, which of course I did. So she went off on a mission and came back with another four cans, two raided from a different cabin, the other two from the trolley on the other side of the aisle. Apologies if anyone else wanted Brewdog Jet Stream, but the crew member was wonderfully hoarding them up for me. Incidentally, that’s the film Belfast on the IFE, a story about the violence in Northern Ireland during The Troubles.

Onto the food, these meals are catered in the United States and it all entirely met my expectations. I can’t quite remember what sort of chicken dish this was (and I probably wasn’t entirely sure at the time), but it tasted better than it perhaps looks. It comes with a couscous starter, a chocolate dessert and then some cheese and crackers. For an economy flight, which cost me just £220 or so return, I felt I had received excellent value for money with this whole arrangement.

I then thought I’d have a nap after enjoying the heap of Brewdog Jet Stream cans that they had given me.

I admit this wasn’t to my taste, the breakfast option was a cheese bagel or a cheese bagel with turkey. Very innovative. I don’t like the smell of certain melted cheeses and unfortunately this went into the bin, as seemingly did many of those given to other passengers. I rarely eat the breakfast options on aircraft as they’re not often appealing to me, but BA seem to want to provide some sort of hot option. It’s a shame they didn’t have a cold option of just a cereal bar or something, it’d likely be cheaper for them and lead to less waste.

I had a two hour connection before my flight to Dublin, but there was a long delay disembarking and then it was a bus to the gate which all took up time. I was moderately disappointed that this was all eating into, well, my eating time in the BA lounge, and I was partly wondering whether I might be able to miss my flight to Dublin and get a later one since I was in no hurry.

Still my favourite airline, although American Airlines aren’t far behind. Who needs Emirates and Qatar?

And off we go to Heathrow T5, where I’ll pick up my flight to Dublin in my next post.

December 30, 2022
2022 US Trip – Day 2 (Terminal 2 to 3 at Heathrow Airport and a Quick Couple of Lounge Visits)

I don’t often do much transiting at Heathrow, but today I was going from Terminal 2 where my Aer Lingus flight landed to Terminal 3 where my American Airlines flight was departing. I had four hours or so deliberately in the schedule when planning this (so that I could enjoy the lounges), and despite the potential delays from the Queen’s funeral, that schedule worked out.

Here’s the transfer bus stop within T2 with a sign saying that there are regular buses every ten minutes. Anyway, 24 minutes later the bus arrived. Another couple were getting edgy as their flight was quite close in terms of time, whereas I was losing lounge time. Obviously mine was the most important situation that needed resolving, but I didn’t say anything.

Wooo, here comes the bus. The process was all quick from there, with another security check required because that’s what UK airports do, but there was a minimal delay with that and I was through and into the lounges within fifteen minutes of that bus setting off.

I do take decadent photos to surprise and delight readers…. This is one of the bathroom units at Cathay Pacific, which also has shower facilities. Note all the complimentary stuff in the little boxes, but I decided to just take the toothpaste as I’ve decided to keep my bag as light as possible during this trip. Fully refreshed, it was time for food.

I’ve written about the T3 lounges many times before on this blog, so a search will help any readers wanting to read my previous missives. In short, Oneworld status passengers can use the BA, American Airlines, Cathay Pacific and Qantas lounges regardless of which Oneworld airline they are travelling with, although the American Airlines one is currently closed. This is the menu from the Cathay Pacific lounge, where food is cooked to order, although there’s a self-service British section as well.

I went for the BBQ fried pork rice although with my regular order of the Mix Dimsum basket. As ever, it was delicious, as was the Guinness which is the first time I’ve seen that in this lounge.

I then rushed off (there’s no time to waste on days such as this) to the Qantas lounge as I’m just a little obsessed with their salt and pepper squid, but here’s the rest of the menu options. I’m not travelling next year so will lose my silver Oneworld status, but I’ll likely be getting it back soon enough in 2024 as I can’t miss out on the delights of menus like this. Yes, there’s more to life than this, but this is a bloody useful contribution to it.

Beautiful, melt in the mouth stuff…..

I remained in the Qantas lounge until it was time for my flight and I was slightly surprised to see that the majority of everyone there was watching the build-up to the Queen’s funeral on the lounge’s TVs. By nature of the lounge, most of the people there seemed to be Australian and some people had built themselves almost like little nests packed with food and drink where they could watch proceedings from. It was a reminder to me of the level of interest that people around the world have in the life and work of Queen Elizabeth II.

It was a lovely few hours, but I had a plane to New York to catch…..

September 21, 2022
2022 US Trip – Day 1 (BA Flight from Heathrow to Dublin)

The sun shines through the terminal windows at T5 lighting up the delights of Gate A9, which was fortunately not the bus gate (which is A10). The boarding process was all orderly and no-one stood in front of the queueing area, which made things much easier for the staff. Although the flight is to Dublin, this is effectively a domestic flight for purposes of border security, the staff don’t need to check passports at the gate, it’s just a photo image they take and that’s an automated process.

I boarded early, but the flight transpired to be relatively busy. It’s aircraft G-EUOF, an Airbus A319 which British Airways have had since October 2001. They really get their money’s worth from these aircraft, it’s doing six flights today, from Geneva to Heathrow, from Heathrow to Dublin, from Dublin to Heathrow, from Heathrow to Madrid, from Madrid to Heathrow and from Heathrow to Amsterdam.

My exit row seat, with the middle seat not being filled on the flight. I fell asleep soon after boarding, fortunately waking just as they handed out the water and cereal bar (which are still in my bag) before having another little sleep. Very restful. This is the big advantage in British Airways over Ryanair or WizzAir, who bang and clank down the aisle trying to sell things. It’s not the fault of the hard-working crew at these airlines, just the model in which they have to work. It was the usual professionally operated flight, the pilots were reassuring and gave useful announcements, whilst the crew were endlessly polite and efficient.

Safely in Dublin, arriving around five minutes early.

There are only six Play aircraft, the relatively new budget airline which operates from Iceland.

The border control process at Dublin is easy for UK passport holders. They do no checks on the passport on their computers, they just check that it’s a UK passport and that the image looks like the passenger in front of them. I think I was at the desk for around three seconds, it was almost as good as being in Schengen, not that that’s looking likely for the UK in the next few decades.

September 20, 2022
2022 US Trip – Day 2 (Aer Lingus Flight from Dublin Terminal 2 to London Heathrow Terminal 2)

As is just about visible for anyone zooming into the image to look at the screen, I arrived at the gate at 05:29 for my 06:30 flight. I left the lounge at 05:28 thinking it might take twenty minutes to get to the gate. It didn’t. I refuse to ever be realistic in case the one time that I’m not, I’ll be delayed somehow en route and miss my flight.

Here’s the Aer Lingus flight having landed into Heathrow T2, as I couldn’t get a photo in Dublin. The aircraft was at capacity and I boarded towards the end (no status with Aer Lingus) which didn’t much matter as I had an aisle seat. Nothing is provided free of charge on Aer Lingus in terms of refreshments, but there is a trolley going around selling food and drink. I can’t add much detail to the flight since I was asleep for the entirety of it, but I’m sure it was lovely.

For reference (more mine than anyone else), this was an A320, registration EI-DVE, which Aer Lingus have operated since they acquired in new in 2007.

It felt appropriate to land at Heathrow T2 on the day of the Queen’s funeral, as this is the Queen’s Terminal. Despite dire warnings from Aer Lingus about delays on the day of the funeral, including trying to get me to change my flight, everything went to clockwork in terms of the flights. Although to be fair to Aer Lingus, they did have to cancel some of their flights later on during the day, so the situation probably felt quite fluid last week.

September 20, 2022
2022 US Trip – Day 1 (Getting to Heathrow T5)

Well, we’re off (I say we, it’s just me on this trip) and the first part of the expedition was getting to Heathrow T5. Luckily my ever-ready friend Liam was willing to take me to Heathrow T5, avoiding a potentially expensive hotel which I would have only been in for a short period of time.

As Liam has an electric car we had to factor a couple of charging points, with the first meant to be at Harlow. However, a horde of taxi drivers (is that the correct name?) were using the facilities and we would have been quite some time waiting for them. They’re not in the photo, I didn’t want to look rude by taking a photo of them. There seem to be ever more electric charging points being added to the network, but it’s still not comprehensive coverage and there’s little protection from a queue of taxi drivers wanting to use them.

We drove on a bit and found what seemed a slightly ridiculous set-up at a business park which seemed in the dark to be in the middle of nowhere. I’m sure it’s very vibrant in the day, but it felt rather shady at night.

Car charging doesn’t get any more decadent than this. Parking is free on Sunday, so I got a ticket printed from the machine in case we were meant to have one. I didn’t expect to see a parking attendant though at this time of the morning.

All was going very well, Liam’s had checked the app of where people were charging and that saw us glide into our second location at Gerrards Cross in Buckinghamshire. He went off to get a coffee for £1, a perk that you get when charging cars at BP petrol stations it seems. After 25 minutes or so, we were good to to.

Heathrow annoys me, it doesn’t let you walk in, it has scrapped the free travel zone and it now charges for drop offs. Far from ideal, but they do at least allow free drop-offs at the long-stay car parking. You get 29 minutes to park there for free, with buses operating every ten minutes or so. Liam, who built some of Heathrow T5, was pleased to see that this is on the site of his former works car park. I did wonder where to get the bus from at first, then Liam realised that it was the huge big bus shelter at the entrance to the car park, which is a very sensible place to put it.

I was busy taking photos having just got to the bus stop when I realised that the bus to T5 was coming to the stop, Liam had timed the drop-off perfectly. So, it’s quite a blurry photo, but the driver had a big smile and seemed unnervingly content for 04:30 in the morning.

It’s only a five minute or so journey on the bus to Heathrow T5, so in terms of drop-offs, it is convenient and saves paying the £5 fee.

Some professional signage there. But the service was timely, the bus was clean and it’s fast and efficient, so definitely worth considering for those who want to avoid the Heathrow drop-off charges. I’m not sure if you’re meant to, but you could actually just avoid paying for the TFL bus into Heathrow T5 and just get on this bus from the long-stay car park.

My obligatory “welcome to our home” photo, which has again come out blurry. I didn’t get the sleep that I had hoped for, which is also not ideal, but I’ll muddle on by. I’m not going directly to the United States, that’s not until tomorrow, I’m first going to Dublin.

Heathrow is commemorating HM Queen Elizabeth II in numerous ways, including on these large signs.

Timing wise, this was all rather lovely, the security process took around twelve minutes and I arrived at the entrance to the lounge one minute before it opened at 05:00. Liam is getting very good at this timing thing (he has been known to cut things far too fine) and it was very kind of him to do the dropping off. Hopefully he has good fortune using the chargers on his way back to Norwich.

September 18, 2022
2022 US Trip – Day 1 (BA Galleries South Lounge Heathrow T5)

Liam’s impressive timing meant that I got to the airport at a perfect time, not too early (my usual style) and not too late (his usual style). I arrived at the Heathrow T5 BA lounge complex at 04:59, one minute before it opened. Very handy.

I was the first person into Galleries South lounge, that’s never happened before. I can’t claim it’s something that I should get a badge for, but it did let me get some photos without other passengers cluttering them up. This is the main food area in this photo where they were laying out breakfast.

One of the seating areas, this one is just behind where passengers enter the lounge. These lounges do sprawl and there are three of these Galleries Lounges for BA customers at T5, two in the main terminal and one at B Gates (plus the First Class Lounge and the Concorde Room, which are too decadent for me).

The seating area at the end of the lounge which overlooks south security, with the cinema room off to the right.

And my favourite seating area, high chairs and power points, very convenient for my laptop arrangement.

Another photo at the back of the lounge. You used to be able to overlook security until they put that sea of grey over the windows, which is understandable, but I did used to like watching it.

One of the coffee stations and sets of beer fridges, where I was pleased to see that Brewdog Jet Stream was available. I had a few espressos to wake me up, although I’m not sure that they worked that well.

The cinema room.

I only had one beer as it was a bit early. I was pleased to see that the lounge had burnt the bacon, which is good as that’s just how I like it. Those sausage patties are very moreish as well. The BA food offering has definitely improved recently at this lounge (and non burnt bacon was also available).

Some healthy eating. Along with some grapes.

Anyway, my three hours in the lounge was very productive, although I was a little sleepy. The lounge was starting to get very busy when I left, so I was pleased with my timing.

I’ve photographed this before, but it’s just an iconic image and so I thought I’d have another image of it.

September 18, 2022
Thursday – Crossing London on a Rail Strike and Flying to Newcastle with BA (Part 1)

Starting Thursday having stayed at the YHA at Lee Valley, I was fully rested and ready for the excitement of crossing London during a rail strike. Although I’ve trailed that bit with the title of this post really.

Much of Britain has been a bit short of water recently and this is the River Lea looking the driest that I’ve seen it. Incidentally, it can be spelled either Lea or Lee, or as Wikipedia notes “the spelling Lea predominates west (upstream) of Hertford, but both spellings (Lea and Lee) are used from Hertford to the River Thames”.

The railway tracks for the Greater Anglia services are on the left, but they weren’t running at all from Cheshunt, although there were some trains shuttling up and down the line. The Overground was operating, although it wasn’t going to be the next day, but only from 08:00 which is later than usual. I wanted to get across London as quickly as possible for my 13:20 flight, so I caught the 08:02 service. I’m not entirely sure why the Overground was operating later than usual, but I assume it was because there were difficulties in getting drivers in on time.

The service was busy when I got off at Seven Sisters, but I think that was just a lot of people switching to the underground network who would have otherwise got the train into central London. It wasn’t busy for much of my journey, but I can imagine it was nigh on intolerable for many.

This is how I spent much of my journey, in the peace and quiet of the underground. I arrived at Heathrow T5 at around 09:40, which was as fast as I could have expected even on a day without strikes, so I was more than pleased with TFL.

I don’t often fly on domestic flights for environmental reasons (and my flights will be decreasing sharply next year anyway), but I have to note, it is much cheaper and convenient than using rail. However, I didn’t have many options when I needed to be in Newcastle and the trains weren’t running. A single fare cost £30 on BA, which I thought was very reasonable and compared to the railways, it’s just far better in terms of comfort, speed, efficiency and cost.

They’ve changed the security queueing system around a bit and I was stopped from going to the premium security bit by a staff member who said that there was no access via the way I wanted to go. I asked how I could get to the premium security line and she pointed me the way that I had been going. I suspect my dishevelled look must have slightly disorientated her. The staff were all friendly, but there was a woman complaining that her liquids were being seized. Again and again this happens, surely people must realise they can’t sneak stuff through, although I’m always impressed how surprised people pretend to look.

I had time to visit the BA Galleries South lounge and the breakfast spread here has improved no end recently. I’m not saying this is world class, but it’s more than sufficient and everything has reverted to being self-service once again. I’m pleased that they’ve stopped insisting on putting the bacon and sausages into rolls, it’s now served separately.

How decadent.

There’s now a market table as they’re calling it, with salad items and the like, as well as rolls.

And it’s the first time that I’ve seen nachos in a BA lounge as well.

Some of the hot options, which includes pies, chicken curry, vegan curry, chilli and the like. I was very pleased that the gravy was self-pour. They took the breakfast options away just before 11:00 and brought the hot food out just after 11:15, which I think is earlier than it used to be.

I was pleased to see the gravy was self-serve because that meant I could drown my pies in it, just as I like them. I’m easily pleased I accept. They’ve changed to pea and ham pies this month, and the quality is very acceptable indeed. I could have had quite a few of these. I know that as I did have quite a few of them.

There seem to be a lot of screens down around Heathrow at the moment, although the number of staff seems to have increased.

Boarding was a mess and it took them nearly 40 minutes from announcing the gate was open to letting people through. It’s easy to be critical, but they could have explained what was happening as I could see the annoyance on the faces of some people. And, if I couldn’t, the man next to me shouted down his phone to someone “it’s blasted carnage here”. I’ve changed the “blasted” word to be less rude, but readers (if it’s plural) of this blog can guess the word he used. I privately thought that the word “carnage” was a bit strong for a queue of this length, but sometimes people like to recount their stories of drama.

It transpired, as the pilot mentioned it on board, that the computer system had gone down and the gate staff were trying to fix it. They probably could have just said that whilst we were waiting, but they did look short-staffed and perhaps they were just focused on getting people through quickly. Boarding by group fell apart, although the queue I was in moved quickly and so I boarded relatively early. It was all fine, but it isn’t helped that there aren’t enough seats in this part of the terminal, so it’s not entirely comfortable waiting.

I can’t recall many air bridges that are so long, the terminal building is visible at the rear of the photo.

The flight was impeccable as ever and I had plenty of space and no-one seated next to me. The snack was the same crisps and water as with every other flight, but I’m content with that. Helpful and personable crew, but that’s fairly standard in my experience of British Airways.

Safely in Newcastle in under an hour from taking off. We had taken off 44 minutes late and arrived 38 minutes late, but I wasn’t in any hurry, so all was well. The boarding had been a bit odd as people were trickling on the aircraft for over half an hour, but on a day of a national rail strike, I was just glad to have arrived safely.

The aircraft is G-NEOR which as the registration suggests is an Airbus A321 NEO which BA have had since new in 2018. Of no interest to anyone else, but just for my own interest, I haven’t been on this aircraft before. The weather was colder than I’ve experienced in Norfolk over recent weeks, which to be honest was just a relief.

And I’ll leave this post here, starting off again soon enough with getting on the Newcastle Metro into the city and then checking that the pubs were all still open.

August 22, 2022
Thursday : From Prague Airport, Walk Across London at Night and Back to Norwich

Carrying on from the previous post, this is now late Wednesday evening. After a hot day of public transporting around Prague, I arrived four hours early at the airport, ready for my 21:15 flight back to London Heathrow with British Airways, albeit operated by Finnair.

The security process at Prague Airport is just before boarding, so I was able to get to the Mastercard Lounge quickly and without delay. The staff member politely mentioned that entry was only allowed two hours before my flight, but then she asked who I was flying with and when I said British Airways, she said I could enter immediately. I don’t know whether BA offer a higher rate than lounge pass schemes such as Priority Pass, but I was very appreciative.

I was here a few months ago with Richard, but that was a morning flight and this was one of the last flights of the day, so there was a different feel to the arrangements. It was all clean and organised, there’s a self-serve soft drinks machine, snacks in the fridges and self-pour alcohol. They had a separate beer fridge with a couple of choices in it, nothing exceptional, but perfectly acceptable given it was free. I’m not at all picky when stuff is free, I’ve noticed I’m more inadvertently generous on Untappd. Nathan would no doubt tut at my lack of consistency….

The two hot options were pasta and chicken drumsticks. It seemed an odd choice for a lounge, as the chicken was a little greasy and they were going to end up with bones dotted around the place on places. However, I wasn’t let down with the taste of the chicken, although the pasta was a bit bland.

The food menu and the meat platters were rather lovely.

It’s a relatively large lounge, although it wasn’t particularly busy when I was there. They have very few power outlets, although I was fortunate to find one as I did need my devices fully charged given that I might not get chance later on. They had views over the runways, although no power points in those areas of seating. They also have unlimited popcorn…..

The seating was comfortable, it was practical for those with laptops and the like, although there were some more comfortable chairs for people who prefer just to relax and not always sit and stare at a screen as I seem to.

The flight was showing as delayed by one hour, but after three hours in the lounge I thought that was enough, so I meandered over to the gate. There was plenty of seating available, with a few power points dotted around.

The boarding process was efficient and customers were called in group order.

There’s the Finnair aircraft, which BA are wet leasing as they seem to have managed to not have enough of their own, a situation which seems far from ideal.

And as it was the Finnair aircraft, I opted for my favourite seat with lots of legroom.

Excellent crew again, although the Finnair cabin crew nearly always seem very professional and personable. I had the entire row of three exit row seats to myself. Whilst I was in the lounge, I had received a message from British Airways saying that there would be no catering on board the flight due to operational reasons. I had another chicken drumstick to fill me up in case there was no mini bags of crisps and water on board. It transpired they had water, but no crisps, which I could manage without, although I’m not sure that the Club Europe passengers would have been quite so impressed as they get meals provided. The crew said that the catering lorry couldn’t reach the aircraft due to a crash at Heathrow, which meant that they didn’t have their food either, so they were wondering where they could eat at nearly midnight at Heathrow.

We arrived into C Gates of London Heathrow about thirty minutes late, although I was in no rush. It’s not ideal to be at C Gates usually, as it’s quite a walk as the internal trains don’t run when it’s close to midnight. But I was in no rush and I like walking.

The UK border was moderately busy, but their automated machines were rejecting a lot of people, including myself, which meant a bit of a queue as there weren’t many border control officers. They were doing some quite detailed checks on some people entering the country, but I was waved through after a cursory check of my passport. I tried to look and act as British as I could in case they thought I pinched someone else’s passport or something.

As my flight was arriving late, I decided against a hotel in London, which at the moment are ridiculously priced compared to what they were. I had a great idea of just getting the 06:00 train from London to Norwich, which was £10, and getting the night bus from Heathrow into central London. That meant I wanted my devices fully charged, so this was the arrangement I set-up for myself, I found the chair and moved it towards the power points and refused to leave (not that anyone asked me to) until everything had full battery. This travel isn’t as easy as people think when there’s a fear of devices without power….

The arrivals floor at Heathrow T5, not very busy at night. For anyone who wants to stay the night at the terminal, it’d be on this level, they remove people from the departures floor. It’s not particularly comfortable, but there’s power, wifi, toilets and I think one of the shops stays open overnight.

I was pleased that the weather was overcast and not too hot.

Heathrow still have no date of when pedestrians can walk into the terminal, something they’ve currently banned from doing, although cyclists can cycle in from next year when the tunnel reopens. The free travel zone has been scrapped and they’ve introduced this new drop-off fee, all adding to the expense for many people. But, Heathrow have shareholders who need cash…..

I’ve never caught the night bus N9, but it’s a bargain really at £1.65 to get from London Heathrow to Trafalgar Square.

The bus timetable if anyone should want it, but the services are regular throughout the night and it’s an 85 minute journey from one end to the other.

On time and not very busy.

The passengers who boarded were just using the bus to get to T3, so I was on my own on the bus for a while after that. Well, with the driver obviously as I’m not sure what my bus driving is like…. (although, I have driven a bus without incident when the driver let me near Cromer, but I’m not sure that was entirely within the rules so I best not go too far down that line). It was a very peaceful journey and it’s actually really quite nice to be able to watch the city go by without stopping at literally every bus stop. There was a mixture of night workers coming back from work, going to work, some early morning commuters, party-goers and travellers.

Sad to see the Admiralty pub like this, certainly different to the last time I was in it a few months ago.

The pub was badly damaged by fire a couple of weeks ago and it looks very serious in terms of the repairs that will be needed.

It was gone 03:00 by this time and I was surprised just how many people were still around Nelson’s Column and Trafalgar Square. It all felt safe and non-threatening, although I was careful taking photos as I didn’t want any mugging incidents.

The Royal Courts of Justice. I had intended to pop into the 24 hour McDonald’s on the Strand to kill an hour, but it was at near capacity and I didn’t want all that raucous noise and party excess. I’m over 30 now and can’t be dealing with that.

St. Paul’s Cathedral and it was a real treat to walk across the city when it’s so quiet, it feels like such a different place. Buses still shuttle around the city, so it seems alive and energetic, but yet with a sense of calm.

The Royal Exchange.

It took me around 40 minutes to walk across London, so I arrived at London Liverpool Street at 03:45. I’ve never seen the railway station all locked up, but the side entrance to McDonald’s was open so I thought that I’d get a little snack.

Back in the day, there used to be seating in this McDonald’s, but this is it now, just self-ordering kiosks. They were all switched off and I wasn’t sure what to do, but a security guard came up when I looked confused and got a crew member to come and take my order at the counter.

McDonald’s probably wondered what they’d do with the £1.80 I gave them for two burgers….. But just as I had finished, the gates of London Liverpool Street railway station swung open at 04:00.

It’s not often the concourse is so quiet.

By now it was 04:02 and the first train out is at 04:40 to Stansted Airport, which is where most of the waiting passengers were heading I think.

It’s very hard to get a photo of this statue as there’s often rubbish on or around it, and it’s also used as a seat or somewhere to lean against. I don’t entirely like this sculpture here, it’s not prominent enough and I hope they can rearrange things a bit. Note the uncomfortable seating behind it designed to avoid anyone homeless sitting on it.

Für Das Kind, or For the Children, designed by Flor Kent, which I’ve written about before.

I sat down for an hour in view of where the new Greggs will be opening soon.

There was nearly no-one around after the first train to Stansted Airport had gone.

I was pleased to see that this wasn’t the Stansted Express with no tables.

This wasn’t a busy service at all. I managed to fall asleep as soon as the train departed, but was conscious that the train guard was checking tickets nearly straight away as there were so few of us on the train.

And safely into Norwich Railway Station at 08:00. The blog will be quite quiet for the next month, with the exception of some odd random and irrelevant (not that they ever really cross the boundary into relevant) posts which I’m sure I’ll feel the need to make, as I’m doing nearly no travelling. Expect a few bits about the LDWA AGM weekend, the Summer Poppyline and some pub photos, but not much else.

July 31, 2022
Tuesday : Nearly Missing the Bloody Train in Krakow, Finn Air to Heathrow and Ibis Budget

After a few days in Krakow eating pizza and complaining about the heat to anyone who would listen, whilst calming my overheated nerves with the large hotel breakfast every day, it was time to return to the UK. The old railway station is visible in the photo above, but they’ve built a new station building which is linked it to the Galeria Krakowska shopping mall. It was also surprisingly busy for a Tuesday morning at just before 09:00.

The new platforms are in this photo, the old railway station is behind me. Like nearly everywhere in Poland, it’s all very clean and organised.

There were no ticket machines to be seen on the platform which seemed odd. I discovered on the way out that passengers could buy tickets on the train, but I wanted to get this sorted in advance and so I bought mine from the PKP web-site. It’s a ticket that doesn’t need validation and is for a specific train, which is the one that should be leaving from the platform I was standing by after the 09:01 to Gdynia got out of the way. Anyway, the train didn’t move and I heard part of an announcement which was only in Polish, stating that my train to the airport was switching to another platform. I was moderately annoyed as that meant I had to rush, but obviously I didn’t want to run in the Krakow heat. Or indeed run at all, it’s exhausting.

I caught the damn train with thirty seconds to go, but I noted some others didn’t and were still on the wrong platform. They didn’t even check the ticket (I mean the ticket inspectors on the train, not the people on the wrong platform). Anyway, I arrived into the airport as expected, but could have done without the rushing about the place. Clean train and on-time, so I can’t really complain.

I was through airport security in under two minutes and so next was the non-Schengen airport lounge at Krakow Airport, which was small, although luckily I had given myself three hours to sit in it. It reached near capacity by the time that I was about to leave the lounge, and it does feel a little under-sized. Very friendly staff and there are toilets and showers within the lounge complex.

Lard and bits of pepper sliced up, it’s not exactly Greggs is it?

Now we’re talking though.

My starter.

The amuse-bouche. They had a couple of different beers, nothing exceptional, but sufficient for me.

In fairness the chicken salad was very lovely, so that proved to be a useful main course. I never had the lard.

There was a ten minute delay, but nothing too bad, for the return flight to Heathrow.

This was as clear as mud, with a Ryanair and British Airways flight departing at the same time, as well as separate queues for Groups 1-3 and Groups 4 and 5. I guessed the queue correctly when the Groups 1-3 were called, but numerous other customers didn’t, finding themselves in the wrong place. Anyone who tried to access the Groups 1-3 queue without having the correct number on their ticket was sent packing, albeit politely.

As with my outward journey, this was a British Airways flight that they’ve wet leased to be operated by Finn Air. It’s the Airbus A321 with registration code OH-LZN, which Finn Air have operated since the aircraft was new in 2017.

This annoyed me, it started to pour with rain just as I boarded. All week I waited for rain and the moment I get on board to come back what happens?

I’ve blurred this (again) by mistake as I was trying to rush, but I was the first to board. The person in the photo is flight crew and they were all exceptional during the journey, again Finn Air should be proud of their professionalism. Someone in my row seemed quite seedy in the way he was talking to the crew member, but she professionally batted him and his attempt to take her for an Indian meal away.

Got my seat with lots of leg room again. The flight was near full, but the boarding was efficient and well managed. At this point we sat there for around 45 minutes, as the rain that I craved all week was now flooding the airport and so they had to temporarily shut down operations.

The chatty and friendly crew came around with the snack before take-off to ensure everyone remained happy. The water was served after we had taken off.

Safely back at Heathrow T3, ready to spend ten minutes walking around their slalom course. You could practice for an LDWA 100 walking around this.

I’m starting to feel that I know Heathrow T3 far too well.

The Central Bus Station, ready for me to pay for a bus to get me to the Ibis Budget on Bath Road since Heathrow have removed the Free Travel Zone. Yes, I will complain about that in every post for some months, there’s nothing like repetition to cheer the soul.

I had pre-paid for this room at a much cheaper rate, but this is a sign of the ridiculous prices in London. For an Ibis Budget which isn’t that well located to be charging £100 is far from ideal.

I stayed here a few weeks ago, it’s the former Travelodge they’ve converted into Ibis Budget. The windows here don’t open and I asked for a fan, which they said they’d bring to the room, but they didn’t bother. However, I decided the air conditioning worked sufficiently well for me to not traipse down again to ask where the fan was. The hotel though is still receiving deluges of negative reviews about the air conditioning not working, but it appears they should have it all fixed soon enough.

Not that I’m one for complaining, but just I got in the room it started to rain again. That weather is just ideal for me, cloudy and rainy, perfect for exploring a city.

July 6, 2022