London & South East England

August 18, 2009 in My Photos, Photography, Travels

Hey folks, after my Trip to Egypt a few weeks ago, I just got back from my (actual) trip to London. You can find some saving tips for London on the bottom of the post. If you just want to see the pics you can find the Set or the Slideshow on Flickr.

On this trip I also played around with the video function of my D90 for the first time.

My journey started on Friday the 7th of August at 5:30am. I took a train to Frankfurt Central Station where I had to catch an ICE heading towards Chemnitz with a change to a local train in Nuremberg. I arrived in Chemnitz at 12pm where a friend picked me up. We headed towards Altenburg Airfield (Yes, that’s field. Not port!) at about 6pm and took a RyanAir flight to London Stanstead for just 10€ incl. all taxes.

At about 21:45 London time we arrived in Stanstead and passed security after another 60 minutes. We took a bus to Victoria Station and headed towards Heathrow Airport using the District and Piccadilly Lines… Arrived at the Heathrow Terminal 1-2-3 Station at about 1am the next day… There were no busses operating at that time, so we first wanted to walk(!) to our Hotel – the Sheraton Heathrow Airport hotel. But we abandoned that idea very quickly, took a taxi and arrived at the Hotel at about 2am after 23h of being awake. “2 Adults, 1 Child. Is that correct?” Errrrr, nope!!! …

The night was short, we already got back up at 7am, because we had less than 36h for sightseeing in London. My travel buddy did such a great job (she’s already been to London several times), that even though there was a lot of maintenance work going on on the Underground, she managed to get us to all the important sights on the first day.

underground-maintenance-notice.mp3

Jubilee Line: Completely suspended.

District Line: Part suspended.

Circle Line: Completely suspended.

Victoria Line: Part suspended.

All other lines were operating in good service. (Heck yes and they were crowded!)

In daylight we managed to see

Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, Chinatown, Covent Garden, St. Paul’s Cathedral, the Tower of London, the Tower Bridge and the harbor. During sunset we went over to Westminster Abbey, the Parliament with it’s impressive Big Ben and the London Eye before we got back to our hotel after 15h of power sightseeing.

The second day should actually be a bit more relaxing, but it came different. We wanted to go to the coast, but the bus to the Heathrow Airport Underground Station was stuck in a traffic jam. We missed our train, had to take the next one and arrived in Eastbourne at 1pm.

Eastbourne is a cute “little” town, with a very nice pier and the impressive Beachy Head.

We walked along the coast towards Beachy Head with it’s lighthouse. It was a nice walk of about 90mins, I think. Starting at the pier you just walk along the coast and through beautiful green up to Beachy Head. There is a very nice pub at Beachy Head, where we wanted to eat something. But we’d have had to wait for an hour or so to get our lunch so we just had a drink and relaxed in the green at the impressive cliffs of Beachy Head. With 27°C and no clouds the weather was that great that I even got a sunburn.

When we got back to Eastbourne we bought some Fish & Chips, took the train back to London and arrived at Victoria Station at 9pm. Then we decided to take the (still suspended) Underground and watched the Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly Circus at night. The Tower Bridge even opened up for us!

We hurried back to the Subway at 11pm and I was that thirsty! So I went to the McDonalds next to our Hotel, but the restaurant was already closed. The drive-through was still opened, but that 16 year old jerk told me he couldn’t service me without a car!

On the last day we got up at 7am… again. We stored our luggage at the Victoria Station for a whopping 8£ per piece. Without much to carry, we walked through Regent’s Park, went to Princess Dianna’s Palace and even managed to make a short shopping tour through Harrods until we had to catch the bus to Stanstead Airport. As a bonus I lost my 14£ Underground ticket…

Trip is over Back in Altenburg at 8:15pm. It was a great trip and I really got to love London and the British folks. (Well, except the two female bus drivers I got to know)

I actually planned to drive back home the next day, but that’s the topic for my next post

Weelll… saving money on a London trip: If you live in Germany and don’t mind a long journey, you should take a RyanAir flight from Altenburg Airfield in Thuringia. You can get them for 20€ return incl. all taxes! You will arrive in Stanstead, so you need to drive about 50km to Downtown London. I’d use the Terravision Bus for just 9£ single or 13£ return.

The most expensive thing in London is the Hotel. We choose the Sheraton Heathrow Airport Hotel for 35£ per night for a Queen-size Bed. It’s directly at the Heathrow Airport, so you’ll have to take the Piccadilly line and drive for about an to Central London. You should also note that the last bus from Heathrow Airport to the Hotel (that’s Sheraton Heathrow Airport Hotel, I can’t say that often enough, because we accidentally took a bus to another Sheraton at the other side of the airport!) goes at 0:15, so you can’t do much sightseeing at night.

If you want to stay longer downtown longer than 11pm, you can take a taxi from the Airport’s Station to the Hotel which costs about 13£. The bus would be free. An Underground day pass for zones 1-6 is 7.50£ at the weekend or 15£ on workdays. If you want to stay closer to the city’s center, the Hotels will be way more expensive and the standard will be waaaay lower! But you wouldn’t have to drive 1h to the city.

Eating… well, that’s easy and as long as you don’t have high demands even pretty cheap. There’s a McDonald’s next to the Sheraton Heathrow Airport Hotel.

You also have to go to Marcs & Spencer’s and get some of their great sandwiches and cheap drinks. Also buy some of the cookies I’m currently eating!

Take the train if you want to go to the coast. We paid 22£ return to Eastbourne.

www.ryanair.com

www.terravision.eu

www.tfl.gov.uk

www.southernrailway.com

Have fun! See you on the next trip.

Tags: Eastbourne, England, Flickr, Holidays, London, UK