To have flown, To Wait – The Journey Home
Summer adventures to Singapore and Kuala Lumpur
Contents
- Seriously – Take a holiday!
- Morning Manoeuvres in the dark, Terminal 5 and Galleries South
- BA776 London Heathrow to Stockholm Arlanda (Club Europe)
- Exploring Stockholm on the cheap (Travel Plus!)
- Back to Arlanda, Stockholm Arlanda Lounge
- QR168 Stockholm Arlanda to Doha (Hamad International Airport) – (Business Class)
- Six Hours in at Al Mourjan Doha’s Lounge
- QR944 Doha – Singapore Changi International (Business Class)
- Intercontinental Singapore
- Exploring Singapore by boat
- From the Top of the Marina Sands
- Back to Changi T2, SATS Lounge
- MH624 Singapore to Kuala Lumpur International Airport
- Into KL, Holiday Inn Express KLCC, Kuala Lumpur
- Adventures in KL
- KL Tower (or yes, Kevin is in yet another tall building)
- Back to KLIA
- MH611 Kuala Lumpur International Airport to Singapore Changi
- Exploring Singapore again with a tweep
- Back to Premium, dnata lounge, Singapore T3
- QR947 Singapore Changi to Doha (Business Class)
- A Dash through Doha…
- QR169 Doha – Stockholm Arlanda (Business Class)
- From Premium to Economy
- BA777 Stockholm Arlanda to London Heathrow
- To have flown, To Wait.
- I need another break…
Heading off the plane, it was a short walk to the UK Border, hoping that I would have a quick exit and make home in a reasonable time.
Ah… Back into the land of discs.
I cleared the UK Border using the e-Passport Gates (which work a lot better with a new passport), and was soon heading down to luggage collection – only to be confronted with the omnishambles from hell.
Luggage delivery – to put it bluntly was running late. And when I say late…. there were two other flights queued up in front of our flight.
Apparently, Heathrow airport didn’t expect this any people through the airport that day – the people travelling and volume of bags was causing an epic slowdown.
Which wasn’t impressive.
It took 45 minutes post landing to get that message out. My bags finally spat out after 48 minutes in total.
Ridiculous. I might have even written about it whilst waiting for my luggage.
With my bags all together, I cleared UK Customs, and re-entered the United Kingdom.
Back into Brexitania.
I had a pre-booked ticket on the Heathrow Express – so I headed downstairs to the train station to wait for the ride back to Paddington station.
A short wait – and a train appeared.
Since the train was only made up of five carriages, there was a hike to meet the train (when the staff were expecting an 8 or 9 car train).
After security checks were completed – it was time for everyone to board.
All aboard!
The Heathrow Express did its thing – firstly heading to the Central Terminal Area, and then express to London Paddington.
For train nerds, there are a few points of interest – mainly Old Oak Common (home to many a fleet) on the left-hand side as you approach London, and North Pole (the old Eurostar Depot – now one of the commissioning bases for the new Hitachi Intercity Express Trains.
No IET’s out on display today however.
Seating in Express class is in a 2-2 formation… and that did fine for the 18-minute ride to Paddington
Timing was getting critical as I was approaching London. If I had timed it right – I would be able to use a cheap ticket to Birmingham. If I had messed it up thanks to British Airways, I would be paying a LOT more to go home on a semi-peak ticket.
As the train pulled into Paddington, I bolted for it – rucksacks and all – down through the station, and towards the Bakerloo Line
Paddington. The Terminus of Isambard Kingdom Brunel‘s Great Way Round Gods Wonderful Railway Great Western Railway
Stand on the right. Normality returned.
Heading down to the platform, the Bakerloo line was doing its thing – and a service turned up.
Whilst I could had done a taxi for the short ride – this was easier to go up and down (and also cheaper when paying with a contactless payment card)
I popped up at Marylebone station and headed for the ticket machine – and thankfully, it sold me a cheap ticket to Birmingham
For buying a long distance train ticket on the day, this is cheap…
With a ticket in hand, I headed down the platform, and the long hike to Platform 5. I’ve talked about Marleybone Station many a time on this blog, and it is one of my favourite terminals in London – not least because of the natural light, but also how simple it is to use.
With me at the top of the expansion platforms, I headed for the waiting Chiltern Clubman on the right
Top of the shop 168001 would be taking me the 100 miles or so home that afternoon.
One of the things I love about the Chiltern Main Line, is that delays are minimal on it – so the train departed on time, and arrived on time at Birmingham Snow Hill.
At least on Clubmans there’s plenty of room – even heading into the peak period.
With the train approaching Birmingham, I gathered my stuff together for one last time for the short journey home.
Arriving into the black pit that is Birmingham Snow Hill, I headed up the escalator and out of the station…. and straight into a black cab.
A short ride, and I was deposited outside my block of flats. After fumbling into the block of flats, I was at my front door – ending this adventure.
Finally: I need another holiday…
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