Hehe we are here. Hooray...I can't tell you how excited I am. At last...
Our flight arrived at Terminal 3 and it is serviced by a Tube station and Central Bus Terminal. The buses which depart can take you throughout England, in to London and suburbs and to nearby Windsor.
Getting though immigration was super quick because Australians can now use Smart Gate terminals instead of going to a staff member for a stamp in their passport. Then we collected our bags, through Customs and off to find our bus to the hotel.
Our hotel, Hyatt Place, is on Bath Road West and is serviced by local double decker buses. Because the hotel is in the Free Zone we don't need to pay, so for us it acts as a shuttle bus to/from Tube and Airport Terminal.
A pilot Ben knows has stayed at Hyatt Place and said it was the best hotel he had ever stayed in. Staying at Heathrow and travelling by the Tube to London each day meant we could afford to stay several more nights.
So we headed off to the hotel to leave our bags, get changed and come back this afternoon for checkin. But it turns out that they had our rooms available so we could have a shower and a cuppa before heading out. Today will be a matter of keeping busy to stay awake as long as we can to help reset our body clock.
First job is to go to one of the only Citibank ATMs in London. Canary Wharf has one but when we got there it was like a ghost town. Being a public holiday the streets were deserted. This is a business/banking/corporate centre and the only person we could see was the security guard at the bank. Even the Marks and Spencer food outlet was shut.
But that didn't matter as we could take some great wintery photos and pinch ourselves that we were here!!
From Canary Wharf we headed into Oxford St via the Tube. Oxford St is the best shopping strip in London as far as I am concerned. The Boxing Day sales are on today but it isn't too busy. We bought something to eat at Marks and Spencer and headed to Marble Arch for our surprise destination.......
Winter Wonderland. The kids had no idea we were coming to this wintery event. It starts in November and includes Alpine style eateries and bars, exciting rides, ticketed shows- including Paddington on Ice. The crowds were small as it was early in the day and maybe because Santa had left to deliver his parcels.
Afterwards we caught the train to Kensington High Street for food at the supermarket and then to the hotel again. Unpacking, showering, eating and watching TV ( Ben & I saw the Dambusters movie) til we fell fell asleep.
No comments:
Post a Comment