On our way

So, the morning has arrived and we are on our way. 

Getting up

Drew got up at 5.30am and had the puzzle of a kettle without a heating element. It was working fine last night, it is defunct this morning! He improvised and used a saucepan to heat water for his tea, probably not the most eco-friendly method of heating water, but it did the job. Note to self, order a new kettle for delivery when we get home!!

I got up at 6.15am and had my breakfast while Drew brushed his teeth, the electric toothbrush always being the last thing to go in the case, and got ready to depart.

The journey begins - Part 1

With the bags packed we took our traditional photo of the luggage with our old travel companion Captain Jack ready for all boarders!

As we drank our tea and I ate my oatbran, raspberries, red peanuts and homemade sauerkraut, so the SAS app notified up that online check-in was now available.

It took a couple of minutes to be all sorted:

It was a positive thing to note that there is no sign of flight delays, given the NATS problems which occurred across UK airspace yesterday. Let's hope it means everything will be fine tomorrow.

Drew then heads off for work, with his luggage with him, to catch the 132 into town and spend the morning working before taking flexitime this afternoon, to enable us to get to the airport the evening before our flight, a nice relaxed approach.

The journey begins - Part 2

 

While Drew is at work I wash the clothes left in the laundry basket and the towels we have used in the last few days, then go through the house turning off all the electricity and making sure all the windows and closed and locked.

I have fruit for lunch and leave the house at 12.55pm heading for the 132 bus stop and the 1.04am bus.

The bus is running four minutes late when I arrive at the bus stop at 1pm, but I had left plenty of time for this leg of the journey. The 132 arrives just before a heavy rain storm - you can see the cloud in the background below:

It is a comfortable journey on a quietish bus to Blackweir which is the stop where I get off at 1.35pm to walk through Bute Park to the National Express Coach Station.

A rainstorm of tropical proportions began as I enter the park, I thought this would pass quickly, but it became more not less intense, so my trusty mac-in-a-sac came to the rescue. 

Three minutes after putting it on the shower had passed!! So that by the time I crossed the River Taff the sky looked delightful.

I arrived at the bus station at 1.50pm only 45 minutes before the bus. I think this is some kind of record for me. I'm normally arriving an hour or more in advance, being on time is an obsession of mine.

Drew walks up from his office, which is opposite the park gate, and he arrived at 2.15pm. he had also been caught by the rain.

The rain returned as we headed to the bus, so we got wet all over again!!

National Express

The coach left 10 minutes late due to the crazy rain. That is at 2.45pm, rather than 2.35pm. This coach only stops at Cardiff Gate and Newport and then is straight on to Heathrow Central Bus Station, our stop. There were no particular incidents on the journey and we arrived at the Bus Station in Heathrow at 5.50pm only 15 minutes late, even though the traffic on the M4 was very busy. 

Heathrow

We have had different ways of getting to Heathrow over the years. Once or twice my brother, when he still lived in the UK, acted as driver for us, on other times we travelled via a Car Hire and once or twice by train (which doesn't really help as the Reading to Heathrow leg of the journey is still by bus. But in recent years we have settled on National Express as the easiest means of getting here. Also in recent years we have booked a airport hotel the night before. Initially in the hotels (often Premier Inns) out near the M4 with hoppa bus taking you back and forth. But last year, as we were looking for IHG hotels, we found out that internal travel between parts of the airport are free, so a underground (Elizabeth line) train takes you directly from the Central Bus Station to the Crowne Plaza at Terminal 4. This worked smoothly again this year. 

We got on the Elizabeth line train at 6.07pm 

arriving at Terminal 4 at 6.10pm, then along the covered walkway to the Crowne Plaza where we arrived at 6.20pm and checked in, getting up to our room, 4501 by 6.25pm.

Not only is this a lovely comfortable hotel but by using our IHG points earned on previous booking, we were able to book this night's stay for free. 

More photos

A reminder to readers that if you want to see more photos of the journey or the hotel room all the holiday photos are shared via Flickr, click this link to see them all.