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My flight today is scheduled at 7am so my plan was to be at the airport no later than 5am. TfL thwarted that plan though, as I discovered last night that whilst the Heathrow website says the transfer trains between terminals run 4 times an hour, they don’t start running till 5.20am, and the transfer time is at least 20 minutes.

Apparently there are free busses but couldn’t find it, so just cut my losses and took a cab. £37, very ouch.

Got to the airport and there was quite a queue already to check in, so was glad I did take the cab anyway. Then the airport gods intervened and the lady managing the check in line pulled me out of the queue and sent me to the first class checkin line. Have no idea why, maybe having a blue coloured passport in my hand in a sea of red coloured ones paid some sort of divine dividend.

Coffee was from the “Nero” chain here at the airport, average but welcome at 5 in the morning. I also discovered that the pound coins I had left over from last year have expired and couldn’t pay for the coffee with them.

The round gold only ones no longer legal tender in the UK

My Cab ride

The flight from Singapore to London was fine, quite glad I decided on the day and an overnight in Singapore. The only issue was I was suffering a really bad case of DDS – “Digital Deficiency Syndrome”, no internet at all for 14 hours. It was so bad the boredom could possibly have killed me.

On the way to Singapore, internet cost USD30 for 500mb. Really expensive but enough for the flight. On this one to London they wanted USD20 for 50mb. That is outrageous, even I won’t pay that. Not sure why there is such a difference between flights on the same airline.

Luckily I was prepared and had a reserve of digital bits in the form of Netflix downloads. Rather appropriate for the destination, I binge watched a series of “The Crown”.

Since I arrived in London at 3pm and I fly out at 7.30am for my next adventure on the continent, rather than find a hotel in London and lug my bags around, I’m here in the Western answer to the Japanese capsule hotel. I’ve got a very small room with bathroom, tv and bed right here in the terminal. Tomorrow I’ll wake up, switch terminals and fly out. It kind of reminds me of the little room Bruce Willis has at the beginning of the movie “The Fifth Element“. If you have heaps of luggage, this is not for you. They even have a purple night light you can switch on, as there is no natural light so it would be pitch black in here.

I’d planned to spend a few hours in London tonight, but I was so knackered still after all the travel I got as far as Paddington station for a coffee and a burger before heading back to the Yotel for some rest. The immigration line took about an hour to clear, the line was insane.

I used the Heathrow express. If you don’t pre-book it, its super expensive, but rebooked 90 days in advance for weekend use, its only a 5-er each way on weekends. Not much more than taking the tube which takes an hour. This only takes 15 minutes from Heathrow to Paddington station. From paddington anything in london is a simple tube trip away. I also found out that there is now a faster “TfL” train, with prices and times someone between the standard tube line and the express. Plenty of options here.

The coffee wasn’t fantastic in any regard, but really appreciated after such a long day.

Unfortunately the coffee situation at the airport didn’t improve from last night, I thought it might be slightly better on the air side of the airport, but no.

I could only find two options, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, or “Heavenly Wang” 😳

I couldn’t pass the opportunity to try a Heavenly Wang in the morning, but even though they had an espresso machine they were only selling cups of drip coffee with milk.

The coffee from Bean & Tea leaf wasn’t great, mostly frothed milk and nothing else. 4/10. Not cheap either at S$6

Maybe the other terminals here at Changi are better on the coffee front or there is a proper Italian place hiding in a corner somewhere. Going to have to wait until the return trip to find out.

Stats for the trip so far :

• Days : 2
• Trains : 2
• Planes : 2
• Coffees : 4

I’ve arrived safely in Singapore. The flight was on time, although the boarding process seemed to be a little bit of a mess, possibly due to all the work going on around the gate we were boarding through. This was on an A380, the first one I’ve been on. All my other flights have been 350s, 330s or 777s and Its been years since I was on a 747 and probably never will ever again.

The flight was good, Singapore Airlines lived up to the great reputation it has. WiFi worked so I was online almost the entire trip. The flight was uneventful except for the last 10 minutes or so when 2 little kids on the row opposite me decided to have a punch up in the middle of the flight. Misbehaved kids are a parents worst nightmare on planes, and I really felt for the mum trying to break it up, but also had a tinge of thank god they aren’t mine.

I used to transit through Changi airport all the time when I was working in consulting but haven’t been here for years. It was awesome then and is still awesome now. It has to be the nicest airport I’ve ever been through. Plenty of people but didn’t feel crowded, was through immigration and customs in minutes. Took a while to find the hotel (I was looking at the opposite end), its nice and I’m glad I’m getting a full night before flying onto London tomorrow.

After checking in, and changing into summer clothes, I decided to find some dinner and check out the coffee options for the morning. Unfortunately the coffee situation here is dire at this part of the airport, two chain based stores, one of them Starbucks.  Since I’ve been through customs I can’t access most of the airport till I check back in tomorrow, so I might be better off on the other side.

Dinner was at a small place called the “Colonial Club”. Had some fantastic satay chicken sticks.

 

After dinner I checked out a small 7-11 type store to see what weird and (not)wonderful products I could find since I’m in a foreign country. I found seaweed chips. Not great but not as gross as I thought they would be.

The coffee situation is not good :-

For a minute I did wonder about this hotel when I first got in the lift. It looks like is has a button for dispensing condoms….

Stats for the trip so far :

• Day : 1
• Trains : 2
• Planes : 1
• Coffees : 3

 

 

The countdown is finally over and I’m about to embark on the holiday for 2018. Back in 2016 I discovered two things I loved doing, cycle tours of European cities and travelling on the high speed trains. The trip from Italy to Paris was amazing, just siting back and watching Europe go by. A week in Paris had us wanting more as well, still plenty to see there.

So this trip has a full week in Paris again and about 13 individual trains across to France, Copenhagen, Berlin, Prague, Warsaw, Krakow, Austria and Amsterdam (not in that order though). I’d been planning to attend a conference through work, with Sharon and Emma joining me after the first week. That didn’t quite pan out, so I’ve ended up with an extra few days to explore Europe (how terrible…). So my first week will be spent in Eastern Europe after a night in London. If time allowed I’d do everything by train, but I don’t have an unlimited time budget, so I’m flying to Warsaw and Copenhagen at two points in the trip. I’ll be seeing plenty of Heathrow and the Heathrow Express this year…

Sitting here at the airport with my last Australian coffee for a few weeks wondering what I’ll find this time. This particular coffee is probably only a 6/10 at best, but somehow knowing it’s my last one in Sydney for a few weeks makes it seem better than it really is.

As far as coffee goes I’m most excited about the potential of Vienna but you never know what surprises I may find along the way

I’m taking a little longer to get to London this trip. My flight to Europe last year was with Cathay Pacific, a fantastic airline, however I didn’t choose fantastic flights. Left Sydney in the early afternoon, quick stopover in HK and onto London on an overnight flight arriving at 6am in the morning. The trip home was the worst part, 9 hours wait in Hong Kong for a night flight back to Sydney.

For this trip I was only going to do day flights. This first one is a flight leaving Sydney in the mid morning, then leaving Singapore at 9am the following morning for London. Staying at a proper hotel just attached to the airport which should be fantastic as I don’t need to travel into Singapore. On my return trip back to Oz I’ve got two nights in Singapore so will be able to have a look around.

Using the map below you can get an idea of what I’m doing, flights are in red, trains are in blue. My flights to Europe are SQ232 and SQ308. My flights home are SQ305 and SQ211

Given I’m doing lots of trains on this holiday, only fitting that I ended up getting the train from home to the airport. Very quick less than 40 minutes including a quick change. Way less stressful thanthe quagmire that the car run to the airport has become. The extra platform access charge is a total ripoff though.

Stats for the trip so far :

• Day : 1
• Trains : 2
• Planes : 1
• Coffee : 1