Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: London

  • National Express : London Victoria Coach Station to Leicester

    National Express : London Victoria Coach Station to Leicester

    I’ve had a mixed selection of journeys with National Express, sometimes they can be excellent and other times they’re a bit more challenging. However, the fare to get from London Victoria coach station to Leicester was just £4.20, so I worked on the basis that even if the journey was bloody awful, then it was still cheap. There’s a logic there I think, sort of….

    I was going from Gate 2 and this was clearly indicated an hour before the journey. I like clarity and there was lots of it here, all very organised and there was seating whilst I waited. There’s also a Greggs and Pret nearby for those who like such things, and I popped to Pret for a drink….

    I liked this, an old image at Victoria coach station of how it used to look. Today, the coach station is quite cramped and old fashioned, really needing more space and a renovation. There has been talk of moving the site, but I think it’s staying here for the foreseeable future.

    The driver came and made clear announcements that passengers going to locations on the route that weren’t Leicester should board the National Express branded coach on the left. Those wanting to go to Leicester could get on this service operated by Roberts on behalf of National Express. I was a bit puzzled as to how this worked, as there are multiple stops that the coach was meant to take along the route, but maybe no-one had booked to go from, say Golders Green to Leicester. The driver was helpful though and everything was clear.

    This was a clean and comfortable coach, and I spotted that seat on the left was free. It’s near the toilets, but it also has no-one in front, so it remains my go-to seat. Yes, I accept I need to get out more since I’ve now got a favourite seat on coaches…..

    The service wasn’t very busy. Earlier on in the day I looked to see how many seats were left on the coach by doing a dummy booking, but it was showing as entirely full. That meant that I was expecting a packed coach (which wouldn’t have been ideal from a comfort point of view), but the dual operation meant that there was lots of space. This pleased me greatly.

    As for the driver, Tony, he was exceptional. Warm, personable, engaging and with a sense of humour, I thought his customer service was excellent. He added positively to the journey and his driving was professional throughout. An absolute credit to National Express.

    Safely in Leicester, arriving 50 minutes early which was a bit of a result.

    I assume that National Express are getting new facilities here, unless they’ve moved to a little Portakabin for fun.

    Anyway, this was a first class journey representing excellent value for money. A clean coach, friendly driver, professional driving, a cheap fare and lots of space, absolutely impeccable. I’m back to perhaps trusting National Express again and I would use them a lot more if I could expect this sort of service every time.

  • London – Extinction Rebellion

    London – Extinction Rebellion

    Just photos in this post of the Extinction Rebellion protest outside Downing Street in London this morning. I won’t get involved in politics on my little blog (I’m very pro-rail, which is a tricky subject), but it was a friendly protest although some car drivers shouted abuse at the protesters. The police were very professional and were being engaging and helpful, so at least it was well-mannered and cars weren’t overly delayed.

  • British Airways (Glasgow to Heathrow T5)

    British Airways (Glasgow to Heathrow T5)

    This is the return flight, I went from Heathrow T5 to Glasgow last week. To my considerable annoyance, this journey wasn’t available for anywhere near the same price using the rail network, I try to avoid using aircraft for domestic flights.

    I started from the Travelodge at Glasgow Airport and was pleased to note that they’ve made it easy to walk to the terminal by providing clear signage.

    And the terminal at around 6am.

    The list of departures, mine is the 08:15 flight. Note that I arrived only 2 hours 15 minutes before the flight, which was cutting it very fine indeed as far as I was concerned.

    There’s already a JD Wetherspoons landside, so it seems that there will soon be one airside as well. It was at this point that I popped into the British Airways lounge.

    I liked the artwork here, some interesting Scottish scenes.

    And some information about it, a really lovely idea to help promote the work of an airport security officer, Christopher Marr.

    The minor problem with air bridges is that I can’t photograph the aircraft, this was the nearest that I could get, but the back of it is pointing out at least. It’s aircraft registration G-EUUI, which I haven’t flown on before (I don’t remember the aircraft I fly on, I have to search my own blog, although that’s good for the access numbers….) but has been in the British Airways fleet since 2002. The aircraft went to Dubrovnik after it landed at Heathrow, I must admit to being slightly jealous of it….

    Lots of people in boarding groups 1 to 3, a lot more than my flight to Glasgow last week. The boarding gate staff were helpful and cheerful, which I thought was impressive for an early Tuesday morning. The cabin crew were equally engaging, so first impressions were all very positive again. The pilot sounded chirpy and happy as well with his announcements during the flight, so my general impressions remained positive.

    The view from the window, although I was more engaged in watching some customers in the aisle trying to put their bags into the overhead lockers. Children often have a toy where they try and fit a shape through a hole, I suspect some of these customers didn’t have that game when they were younger. They will try and fit a bag that clearly doesn’t go in the space provided and look endlessly surprised.

    I had an exit row seat by the window, but the aircraft was full and I didn’t see any empty seats at all on the flight. The aircraft felt very clean, but everyone was handed a cleansing wipe if they wished to do a bit more cleaning.

    Flying over Glasgow and what I assume is the River Clyde.

    The free food and drink was a bottle of water and a Nutri-Grain bar, entirely sufficient for an hour long flight. The newspaper was free at the airport, I’m not into paying for them.

    The aircraft arrived 29 minutes early at the airport, but arrived at the gate one minute later than anticipated, with a half hour wait on the runway for a gate to become available causing that delay. The pilot made regular announcements, so it all felt professionally managed and I wasn’t in a rush anyway. Customers seemed content (no-one was tutting or grumbling anyway) and the disembarkation process was well managed, with five rows being called to leave the aircraft at a time.

    And this is where the domestic passengers are tipped out, right down the end of the terminal.

    13 minutes?!?!?! This Piccadilly service back into central London was every ten minutes a couple of years ago, apparently now reduced to every 20 minutes. For most parts of the country a 13 minute wait would be normal for public transport, but in London it stands out as feeling a long time.

    Anyway, this was another perfectly operated flight from British Airways, I remain entirely pleased at their service. All rather lovely.

  • Heathrow T5 (BA Galleries South Lounge in August 2021)

    Heathrow T5 (BA Galleries South Lounge in August 2021)

    This is my first flight in nearly a year, a domestic flight from London Heathrow T5 to Glasgow Airport. I don’t like taking domestic flights for environmental reasons, but the rail network didn’t give me many options on this one in terms of the price. Things are going to have to change to improve capacity, customer service and pricing if people are going to be tempted away from their cars and from airlines.

    I’ve always liked this “welcome to our home” messaging from British Airways at T5. I was able to use premium security several hours before my flight as I like to arrive early at airports in case of a disaster en route. I then meandered around a rather quiet airport to the T5 Galleries South lounge.

    There’s a new scanner at the entrance to the lounge check-in to avoid needing to go to a staff member. Anyway, it rejected my boarding pass and the kind and patient lady overseeing it mentioned “they’re new and don’t work very well”, but it was soon over-ridden when I used the more traditional staff member at a desk set-up. The lounge felt quite quiet and there’s no self-service offered still, everything is ordered on-line by customers and it’s brought to the table. Staff in the lounge were all personable and kind, it’s a friendly and peaceful place at the moment.

    Having quite a lot of time to get things done I was able to work my way through the menu, this is the Sticky Ginger and Tamari Chicken. I’ve never heard of Tamari, but a quite Google search tells me that it’s a Japanese version of soy sauce. This was really pleasant, tender chicken with a rich sauce and fluffy rice. And some green stuff. Incidentally, on another point, there are power points available so that my devices could charge up throughout the afternoon.

    The beer choice was Heineken, which is a completely pointless drink as far as I’m concerned. BA have reverted to having a whole range of wine, but absolutely no beer of even average quality. I hope that the Brewdog tie-up can be brought back soon to rectify this little omission. I’m sure that normality will resume soon enough in this regard.

    The beef chilli with sour cream and rice, again all very nice.

    I had a quick vodka and Coke, because the Pineapple Ciroc sounded very lovely. And it was, I’m a fan of that now.

    Photos of part of the lounge.

    My dessert of carrot loaf, or whatever it was called. It’s like a stodgy carrot cake.

    At this point a lounge manager walked around politely telling everyone that as it was quiet, they were closing the Galleries South lounge down for the day. She added that customers could go and use the First Class lounge instead, somewhere that I haven’t been for over five years.

    I had finished for the day with food, but there was a different menu on the on-line ordering system in the better lounge, so I felt the need to have a little try of the Barbacoa beef tortilla. This was a step-up in terms of the food quality, very tender beef and the sour cream complemented it well. Quite messy to eat though, but an innovative little dish. Other options I could have gone for were the red wine & mushroom pie and the Caribbean spiced chicken.

    The infamous (well, on Flyertalk anyway) lounge horse lamp…..

    Then the walk to my flight began, through a very empty Heathrow T5. The whole experience is somewhat different to what it was two years ago, but I think it’s all nicer now for customers, although that’s partly just because it’s quieter. Anyway, all very lovely, and a pleasant way to spend a few hours before the flight.

  • London – Hackney (Borough of) – Shoreditch – Goose Island (Sixth Visit)

    London – Hackney (Borough of) – Shoreditch – Goose Island (Sixth Visit)

    Firstly, I accept it’s perhaps a bit much to be writing about Goose Island again, although I have to add that they were my pub of the year in 2020 and so I’m allowed some exuberance here. NB, I also accept having a pub of the year is a bit self-indulgent as well, but here we are as they say….. The actual reason I want to write about this visit is there was a beer that I thought was quite beautiful.

    I won’t write about the bar itself again, I’ve done that to death already. But, this little snack selection from Nanny Bill’s (the in-house food provider) really was rather lovely. The Aggy Fries are rosemary salted with garlic mayo, parmesan cheese, Frank’s hot sauce and spring onions. And they were beautiful, at a hot temperature and the flavours all went nicely together. Those buttermilk fried chicken strips were also beautiful as they were tender, hot, interesting and the coating had a pleasant taste. But, delightful at this was, the beer is the main part of the Goose Island show, the food and staff are just the near perfect complements to it…..

    The Vermont Sticky Maple, a strong 11.3% ABV imperial stout from The Bruery, from Placentia which is in Orange County, in a region of California that I know very well and is perhaps one of the areas of the world that I love the most. Anyway, my reminding myself that I love California to one side, this is a rich and interesting beer.

    The Orange Line beer from Goose Island themselves, a New England IPA with tropical fruit running all the way through it, a lovely light flavour that would go well on a summer day in Maine. A smooth taste and packed with hops although I didn’t get the “flavour of straw” that one person decided they got from this. What flavour does straw have anyway?

    And the shining light of the evening, the Escape Pod Cherry Edition from Pressure Drop Brewing, a small brewery from Tottenham in London. This was quite magical, with rich and smooth flavours of chocolate, vanilla and cherry, and strong aromas of cherry. As may already be evident, there was no shortage of cherry here. A deep mouthfeel with that velvet sort of texture that these imperial stouts can bring, with no harshness from the 10% ABV. The aftertaste was balanced and decadent, a lovely alternating taste of chocolate and cherry. It was like a Christmas chocolate and very memorable, one of the best beers that I’ve had. Quite marvellous.

    As ever, the staff at Goose Island were friendly, engaging and knowledgeable. The bar was clean, the environment was laid-back and this is as far as I’m concerned one of the best bars in the world. And I am unanimous in that…..

  • London – Brent (Borough of) – Wembley – Ibis Wembley (Repeat Visit)

    London – Brent (Borough of) – Wembley – Ibis Wembley (Repeat Visit)

    Before writing this, I feel the need to say that the Accor customer service seems to be in a difficult place (or they just dislike me, which is fair enough, although I’d rather they said that as it’d make for a decent blog post on its own), so it’s probably best to book using a third party booking agent.

    I’ve been to this Ibis hotel in Wembley on a few occasions before (1, 2 and 3 before I stopped writing about it) and it has always been reliable. I wasn’t going to write again given the number of previous posts, but I particularly liked this visit.

    The check-in process was a bit convoluted as I was told that all guests need to show ID. I don’t have my passport as it didn’t seem to be necessary to visit Wembley (although I was in Pimlico yesterday, but that’s an irrelevant reference really) and I don’t have a driving licence. The situation didn’t seem ideal as with the exception of the ever quirky Ibis Styles Walthamstow, I’ve never been asked for ID by Accor in the UK. After dropping out of the queue and finding a photo of my passport on my phone I went back to reception, with the staff member being pleased with this, which was fortunate as I didn’t have any other solutions. He then looked at my details on his device and found my booking, before telling me that I hadn’t needed to show ID. I decided not to question what had gone on here. The staff member was friendly, although I had to ask for the welcome drink.

    Just as I like it, my room was on the top floor and I’ve never had a view of Wembley from this direction. I rather liked the hills (well, what I call hills) in the background, although that building in the front does monopolise the view somewhat.

    This is also the largest room that I’ve had in this hotel, all spotlessly clean and well presented. Its location in the corner of the building also made it incredibly quiet, which was rather lovely. I was also able to open the window so that I could hear life outside, albeit 14 floors down. The room also only had wi-fi in around one half of it which was nearest to the door. It transpired that being in the corner of the building was a problem for mobile and wi-fi signal.

    The bar on the ground floor and the beer selection hasn’t changed from my last visit, with the Goose Island being entirely acceptable to me.

    The prices charged here are generally low (which is why I keep staying here), unless there’s some sort of event on at Wembley. There’s a great deal of hotel capacity in the Wembley area which is designed to serve the events and sports market (the hotel overlooks Wembley Stadium), which has been badly affected by the whole pandemic thing. For me, this is a very good hotel which is well managed, clean and organised. I suspect that I’ll meander back at some point.

  • London – Overheard on the Train (an occasional series)

    London – Overheard on the Train (an occasional series)

    As part of my “overheard on the train” occasional series, which is some of the reason that I like travelling.

    There are what I assume to be two grandparents and their two grandchildren on the train and we’ve just gone by Romford greyhound stadium on the Crossrail train (currently branded as TFL Rail).

    Anyway, the grandfather said “there’s the greyhound stadium, do you know what your grandmother did there back in the day?“.

    The boy (aged about 6), in all seriousness, replied “did she run round the track?”.

    The grandfather is highly amused, but the grandmother looks positively livid. I don’t think the kids will be getting the McDonald’s they had been asking for….. For the factual record, she worked in the ticket office.

  • London – Hammersmith and Fulham (Borough of) – Ibis Earls Court

    London – Hammersmith and Fulham (Borough of) – Ibis Earls Court

    I’ve written about this hotel a couple of times before (Earls Court Ibis and Earls Court Ibis) although I’ve stayed here on around eight or nine occasions now I think. I thought I’ll add this visit just because it’s the first time that I’ve been since the on-site pub has opened, it’s never been busy enough before for them to open. I admit that it’s not hugely breaking news, but it’s something new…. This is a hotel where conferences usually take place, so I can imagine that this gets very busy when these are in full flow.

    This is the former bar, which is just now part of the general reception area. There was quite a queue for check-in, typically when I was in a rush and I needed to be on a Zoom call and had just been stuck on the Victoria line for over half an hour. I tried to look slightly annoyed but there was little point as the staff were working through the queue quickly and they were polite with large smiles. The staff member who checked me in was bouncy and welcoming, mentioning that he had the same first name as me which was a reminder he had been at reception the last two times I’d visited. The reception staff here always seem friendly, it’s a positive introduction for guests.

    All of my previous visits have seen me placed higher up the building (as in on a higher floor, not on the roof), with some rather lovely views, but I was down on the third floor this time. I suspect that they’ve done up the rooms in the higher levels of the hotel with a more modern design, as this is the older Ibis room interior. However, it’s still clean and functional. This remains one of the few hotels that keeps Bibles in the room, something that I haven’t seen for some time.

    I haven’t seen an Accor hotel do this for a while, but these have the dual purpose of being decorative and also advertising other locations from the brand around the world. A nice touch I think, JD Wetherspoon used to do this in their pubs as well to advertise new openings from around the country.

    Anyway, this is the hotel’s own little pub which is located on the first floor. The George and Dragon is designed to look like a traditional British pub and I quite like this, as often hotels go for something with a theme which isn’t local to their environment at all. Without generalising, this is at least something a little authentic for American guests and the like. I say authentic, it’s a hotel bar, but it’s all relative.

    There was a sizeable amount of space inside the pub, although it was also quite busy with many customers getting food as well as drink. It all looked a bit expensive, but since my drink was free I didn’t dwell on this matter for long. They looked a little short-staffed and empty plates started to pile up on most of the tables, but they seemed to be doing their best. These remain challenging times for the hospitality industry, so I’m just impressed that the hotel is still functioning.

    I found myself a high table to monitor proceedings from….

    The beer choice was acceptable, albeit a little orientated towards lagers, but there were at least some choices. I can always tolerate a nice Goose Island IPA for my welcome drink and they didn’t seem to have any limits on what I could pick as my free beverage.

    Anyway, another lovely stay with friendly staff, a clean environment and no noises issues either internally or externally. I shall hopefully stay here again, despite Accor annoying me (which I may have mentioned several times….)

  • London – Newham (Borough of) – Travelodge London City Airport

    London – Newham (Borough of) – Travelodge London City Airport

    I used to live down the road from this large Travelodge hotel, so it was rather lovely to be able to use Pontoon Dock DLR station again all week. It was a reminder of just how many steps there are to get to the platform level and I’m sure I used to get up them quicker than I do now. Such is ageing….

    This hotel usually benefits from being nearby to London ExCeL (I have to look that up every time to remember which letters need capitals and it annoys me very slightly every time) and London City Airport. Neither are quite the draw that they were a couple of years ago, meaning that this hotel has become just a little desperate to get customers in. I paid £21 per night, which was lower than usual as Travelodge have a “buy four nights, get one free” deal in London at the moment. That was a bargain as far as I was concerned, just over £100 for five nights.

    For those interested in the history of this area, if we went back 100 years there were terraced houses lined up here rather than a chain hotel. Today, there’s little residential here, primarily as it’s nearly underneath the flight path of London City Airport. That has been evident from the thundering noise of aircraft from the airport all week, although I find it quite soothing. I accept that a lot of people don’t find aircraft noise as soothing, but there we go.

    The room is on a business floor, which seems to solely mean that they’ve taken out the sofa beds from the rooms. It’s quite a spacious room and entirely functional, although the carpet probably needs replacing. Everything worked as it should and the windows open. I like it when the windows open and I might have mentioned that several times in recent weeks. There was a radiator and fan to give me choices, although it has been a little hot in London this week. I say a little, it has been far too bloody hot.

    The hotel isn’t cleaning rooms on a daily basis, instead giving guests these. The one on the left is a bit pointless, as the default is now to do nothing anyway. The one on the right means that coffee is restocked, towels are replaced, the bins are cleaned and the bed is ignored. I put the one one on the right out on three days and they did do as they promised.

    As one of my irrelevant asides, I’ve noticed on Facebook that people seem genuinely furious, livid and shocked that hotels charge more for the same room at different times of the year. I’m amused that Travelodge ruined a family’s hotel plans as they wanted to pay £29 per night for a week in Blackpool. I’m slightly puzzled that people think hotels charge the same amount every night, although perhaps I shouldn’t be shouldn’t be surprised by these things. It did mean I had a little look at the hotel reviews to see what palatial accommodation some people had been expecting.

    George (surname unknown) annoyed this customer:

    “Extremely bad customer service specially from a member of management called george wast very determine on giving his last name but just to be precise he where’s glasses and has curley hair very bad manner and extremely poor customer service skills and should definitely be removed from site as he is giving and providing a bad reputation for travelodge very unhappy and will be reporting with audio and camera proof of such bad customer services from the BBC”

    Unfortunately, I can’t find any footage on the BBC…… Another guest wanted to punish the chain for their incompetence:

    “Terrible hotel! Manager was so rude and unhelpful. Ended up booking another travel lodge it was that bad”

    Hmmm, I’m not sure that Travelodge lost out here. There is another Travelodge handily located about a three minute walk away though….

    I did quite like the brutal nature of this review of the hotel’s SuperRooms though:

    “Spent a little more for a super room and found it was the same as a normal room but had a coffee maker in which made really bad coffee”

    I’m not actually sure they’re far wrong, but as I know from my friend Richard’s experiences, you do get a free Kit Kat. Another customer really battled the elements:

    “Despite the dust hanging from the lamp on our bedside table, we went to sleep.”

    So brave…..

    I hope that Travelodge don’t mind if I say that they’re something of an earthy hotel chain, although perhaps not in the literal sense. They’re down to earth, generally affordable, honest and clean. They don’t pledge anything they’re not, so I continue to be entirely pleased with my stays. Accor and myself have fallen out with each other (although technically I think I’ve fallen out with them, they probably just think I’m an idiot), which is awkward when I’ve got an entire section on this blog about them. I can’t see myself falling out with Travelodge and what better praise could they want than that…..

  • London – Barking and Dagenham (Borough of) – Travelodge Barking

    London – Barking and Dagenham (Borough of) – Travelodge Barking

    The cheapest accommodation option (or at least the cheapest that I considered safe) in London was the Travelodge Barking, a hotel that I’ve never stayed at before. The frontage is certainly colourful and it’s above a Tesco Express store for anyone who wants some snacks or the like. I arrived just before 23:00, which is never really an ideal time to arrive at a hotel on a Saturday night, but all was well. Other than I managed to get behind some other customer’s crisis at reception, but that was soon resolved. I always have to try and stand in a way that makes me not look annoyed whilst I have to wait for staff to deal with crisis matters like this (as it’s not their fault), despite being slightly annoyed that I am having to wait.

    The room, all clean and tidy. Travelodge are consistently decent in terms of their accommodation, there was nothing here for me to be disappointed by. The only limitation for me is how far the plugs are away from the bed, but Travelodge seem to be fixing that when they modernise the rooms.

    I can’t recall having an electric window in a hotel room before, but because it was recessed some way back there was a little switch to open and shut it. I like having an open window, although it meant listening to some rather drunken conversations outside which kept me awake because I was insistent on listening in and not missing out on anything interesting. The temperature in the room was fine and there was a fan available for anyone who was too hot.

    One of the harder to read fire escape plans that I’ve seen, but I decided not to let this bother me. The reviews for the hotel aren’t exactly ideal, although by far the lowest rating on Google is for the location. I’m not sure what the hotel is meant to do about that given that it’s two minutes away from Barking railway and underground station, but there we go.

    One guest stayed at the hotel before her wedding and was disappointed that there was no air conditioning, car parking or intercoms in the room (I assume that’s a phone). I can sense the disappointment for anyone staying in a Travelodge as a pre-wedding night treat…… There was another guest annoyed that they had to wait five minutes for a receptionist who told them to wait until the check-in time when they arrived early, but that definitely comes with the territory of a Travelodge for those who don’t want to pay for an early check-in.

    Anyway, I liked this hotel, the room was just over £30 for the night and everything was quiet, clean and organised, with the staff member being friendly (although she looked exhausted trying to do everything herself). The hotel could do with something of a refurbishment of the public areas, but it was all still serviceable. If the Ibis down the road is a bit expensive, I’ll likely stay here instead in future.