The Ham Nomads

14 Apr 2014. <AE> Dubai International Airport; <GB-ENG> Earls Court, London —

5:30am Dubai time landed in Dubai (11:30am Brisbane time). The terminal is HUGE! We disembarked, walked around to the connections area, went through another security check and then into the departure area! It's divided int A through F sections, and each section is bigger than Brisbane's international airport! Wandered through the huge duty-free area just in the A area, and then found a Paul Patisserie — Paul was the food outlet we discovered in France last time, and were raving so much over. Pity we ate so much on the plane — and will be doing much the same on the leg to London. We only had room for a cup of coffee each — Susie with her perennial Skinny decaf flat white with a small pot of hot water on the side, Warren finding it easier to order an Americano, which is pretty-much what a long black is at home. And we shared a croissant aux pistaches, which was sheer luxury!!

7.00am we started boarding the flight for London. Take-off was scheduled for 7:45am, but because of a few cretins who neglected to follow their checked-in baggage on board, we had about a 45-minute delay while their baggage was removed from the plane. All's well, and I'm typing this in the plane about half an hour out of Dubai. Heathrow in about 6 more hours!

12:30pm London time (3:30pm Dubai time, 9:30pm Brisbane time) arrived at Heathrow. The pilot this time was most unkind to Susie, giving her a bumpy ride which had her feeling very nauseous — she didn't throw up, but it was a near thing. For this reason, we were some of the last off the plane — and hence last in the queue to get through passport checks. The queue ran quickly — they've obviously done this thing a few times before. Warren was a little concerned that we might have some trouble because we didn't have a return ticket, but the lady was most charming, interested in our travel plans (and not purely from a professional viewpoint). She agreed with the philosophy that, after so many years of putting family first, it was about time we treated ourselves to an adventure. Slipped through the "nothing to declare" line at customs, and we were loose in London.

Went to the Heathrow Underground station, being slightly slowed down by our very substantial luggage — tip to anyone else, pack light! It wasn't really an option in our case, as there were quite a few things we needed to bring along for our extended trip! Bought an Oyster Card from a vending machine — £5 deposit per card — and we opted to put £10 onto each. Anything left over at the end v including the deposit — is refundable when you finally surrender the cards. Don't leave too much on them, however, as anything over about £10 might be repaid by cheque, which could be a pain to cash if you're outside the UK. And note that the Oyster Card is only for the Underground — the Tube — so for other forms of transport there are other options, which we will tell you about when and if we decide to use them.

Heathrow is at one end of the Piccadilly Line and, coincidentally, Earls Court, the closest tube station to Londonears Hostel, happens also to be on the Piccadilly Line. Heathrow is in Zone 6, and Earl's Court is on the border of Zones 1 and 2, so our 5-Zone journey cost us each £1.50. Not expensive at all.

Now Londonears Hostel. What can I say. If you think of what in Australian we would class as basic accommodation, and then reduce what's offered by about 50%, your probably getting near it. The room is ... a room. It has a double bed, which is made up. There is a toilet, washbasin and shower unit that have obviously been added late in the room's history — they're good, well designed as far as they go, but a mirror would not go far astray, and a toilet roll holder for the toilet paper -- oh yes, that's another thing that wasn't there. Similarly, there's no towel rail — draw your own conclusions!

But the room is clean, the location is marvellous, with plenty of eating places and pubs just round the corner, as are the station, buses, and shops. And the view from the room is of a lovely park, and there's an Edwardian mews-style street just around the corner. So, although we are not uncritical of our accommodation, it has a lot in its favour, and just adds to the colour of our adventure.