An evening and a morning at Heathrow

Dinner at the Urban Brasserie

Having settled in to the room at the Crowne Plaza and checked which of our clothes had got damp due to the heavy rain earlier (getting them out of the case and hung up enabled them to dry quite easily), we went down for dinner at the hotel's restaurant called the Urban Brasserie.

Drew opted to start his meal with a Beetroot and Goat Cheese Salad, this salad of salad leaves, spinach, roasted beetroot, goat’s cheese in balsamic vinaigrette and toasted walnuts tasted as good as it looked. Drew was very impressed.

I opted for Hot and Spicy Chicken Wings, a regular choice for me early in a holiday, as they are something I wouldn't make at home. The Crispy Wings were served with Blue Cheese dressing and salad. The batter was more like a popcorn chicken style batter, rather than a more traditional wings mix, but it was lovely and crisp. The bones in the wings meant that even when the meat was all used up I could still mop up the lovely blue cheese dressing on the bones.

For my mains I opted for slow roasted pork belly, this was largely because I remembered that my first choice - Murgh Mukhani was the dish I had in this restaurant when we were here last year - the crunchy meat was well complemented by sweet potato mash, sauteed pakchoy and char siu sauce, the mash had flecks of sage through it which added to the flavour. I also ordered a side of Broccoli tossed with garlic - the second photo below - it was crunchy and delightful too. I'd have felt I hadn't had enough to eat without it, so I was glad to have ordered it. 

Drew ordered Hyderabadi Chicken Biryani for his own main course, when it arrived he recalled he had had the same dish last year! But no harm as the roast chicken cooked with  indian spices and layered with aromatic rice, boiled egg and mint raita was as nice as he remembered.

We decided to treat ourselves to dessert and Drew opted for the Baked vanilla cheesecake served with a raspberry coulis. He enjoyed the sweet flavours and was able to make some inappropriate masterchef related jokes at the end as the cheesecake had a buttery, biscuit base

I had the delight of a Cheese Board, to be honest I didn't hold out great hope on the cheese front as the restaurant food was good, but eclectic in style. But it turned out that the place did a wonderful selection of delightful cheeses: There was two pieces of Mimolette, a favourite of mine with its orangy colour and tangy flavour, there was also Applewood Smoked, which is of less interest to me, I feel it is a bit rubbery in tecture, but I like the smoky taste. The third cheese was a English Pecorino - a Hard Sheep's Cheese with a strong flavour and texture. The final cheese was a well aged Blue Stilton - one of my favourite English cheeses. All the cheeses were served at room temperature, so many times in the past my delight in the cheese has been disappointed by them still being chilled from the fridge, with their flavour reduced because of it, but not here, they were at just the right temerature to make them a wonder and delight. I loved the whole dish.

After dinner we went back to the room, read for a while and them went to bed at around 10pm, ready for a 6am alarm and 7am departure tomorrow.

Terminal 2

I woke at 4am and posted yesterday's blog at 5am I could hear Drew stirring, so made us both a cup of tea, Earl Grey for him and English Breakfast tea for me. The tea brand here is Birchall Tea not a brand with which I am familiar, but which gives a lovely flavoursome cuppa. 

I made another cuppa at 6am and began my ablutions, then Drew got up and did the same. We left the room at 7am, as planned and headed along the link back to Terminal 4 and down the lift

to the underground, where we picked up our free tickets. 

and caught the 7.15am train which arrived at Terminal 2 at 7.21am

We then went back onto the travelators in the opposite direction from that we had travelled yesterday afternoon and then arrived at Terminal 2, which has the title: The Queen's Terminal!

We had checked in yesterday, so a quick flick of our passports and the machine printed our luggage tags.

It was then onto the bag drop and there was no one in front of us. 

My bag came to 11.2k and Drew's to 10.9k (though to be fair as I am carrying the sealed bag with our dirty clothes from yesterday, I have trousers, shirt and smalls of Drew's in my bag, so I think we were more even before that!). The truth is that with the ticket we have we could have 44k (two bags) each - so we weren't near any limit. It is just that travelling light is a target on a holiday with lots of train coach and bus travel.

In the lounge

Having dropped the bags at 7.39am we went through security and it was speedy too by 7.45am we were through and walking to the Lufthansa lounge. Lufthansa are a partner of SAS and with their SAS Plus tickets - the equivalent to Premium Economy - we are able to make use of the lounge, which we did. Drew got himself comfortable, as you can see below:

It being Friday it was cheese, eggs, fried potatoes and and cheese for me for breakfast. To be fair the small roasts were cooked with tarragon and parsley, a very nice combination and the scrambled eggs were fluffier and tastier than any I remember. 

Drew had an extra treat, having the bacon, he was quick to tell me that it was luscious and juicy - he is so kind making sure I feel what I am missing in my Friday fast!

Even better from his point of view was the fact that thirty minutes later the bacon was replaced by sausages, so he had to have some so I would know what I was missing 😂

After breakfast I sat and wrote this blog post, so I can post it before getting on the plane at 10.35am. [Co-pilot's note: They were indeed a very fatty and herby sausage! yum, yum, yum.]

See you on the other side, as they say.