Oct. 11th, 2006
The journey from Ottawa, Canada to Windhoek, Namibia sounds absolutely intimidating, doesn’t it? It involves a journey of almost two days and two nights: Ottawa-London, 7hours; London, 10 hours; London-Johannesburg, 11 hours; Johannesburg, 4 hours; and Johannesburg-Windhoek, 2 hours. Although I got window seat all the way, I couldn’t sleep much on the plane. However, the meals provided on the planes were all quite tasty. And I did enjoy the South African Airline flight from London to Johannesburg a lot. The cabin has two floors and I was seated on the second floor – the first time ever. Also, it has little storage boxes besides the windows so that for people who have window seats, it almost feels like they have a little side table to use, really nice. Moreover, there is a screen for each passenger on the back of the seat in front of them. There were quite a few movies, documentaries, songs, games to choose from. I watched three movies: The Devil Wears Prada, Break Up, and can’t remember the last one. Anyways, they were emotion or love movies that I wouldn’t get Mark to watch.
Stopping over at London for ten hours was a good bonus, although originally I didn’t plan to do anything except to wait at the airport, since I was concerned of the time and afraid of missing my plane. However, just two days before I departed, I changed my mind, who knows when the next time I would be in London, even if I would like to travel to Europe with Mark one day in the near future, hopefully. I always want to go to Europe and thought I shouldn’t waste this chance. So I spent few hours at Chapters and got a travel book with a lot of suggestions and instructions to travel in London. I felt more confident that I could go around London a bit after studying the book and having some plans ready.
My plan was to take a bus tour in London. It normally lasts approximately 3 hours and it goes to all the big figure places in London. Also, you can jump on and off the tour buses at any tour site. It also includes a cruise ride on Thames River. Based on what I had, I thought I would be perfect for me to participate in one of the tours, which could give me the big picture of London with the most famous sites in a limited time. The distance from the Heathrow International Airport to downtown London was approximately one hour by car. There are a few options to arrive there, either by tube (or subway), by bus, by train or by taxi. I chose the third option, since it is an express way of merely 15 minutes one way, connecting the airport with the Paddington station, which is a big hub conveniently connecting many other stations and locations.
Arriving in the Heathrow airport on time, the first impression London gave me was ‘old’. The building seemed old and not very clean. Well, considering the history behind this airport and the country, I guess I shouldn’t be too picky. The security at the airport was still quite tight and the rule at the time was that each passenger was only allowed one bag. So you had to squeeze everything into one bag, even if it’s half open and you would take your other bags out once getting through the security. Everything went as planned: I successfully entered the train station, purchased round-trip tickets (although I would like to take a taxi back since the London taxi driver are so famous for their distinguished characters and qualities, the time was an issue and it did cost a lot more to take a taxi back to the airport.), and boarded the train heading the towards Paddington. The view on the way was not great, again, everything seemed old, and it’s overcast, which actually matched my expectation on London.
After exiting the train station, it took me a little while before I could finally located the Big Bus Tour stop, and it started to rain before I jumped on the bus. My journey began from .
The journey from Ottawa, Canada to Windhoek, Namibia sounds absolutely intimidating, doesn’t it? It involves a journey of almost two days and two nights: Ottawa-London, 7hours; London, 10 hours; London-Johannesburg, 11 hours; Johannesburg, 4 hours; and Johannesburg-Windhoek, 2 hours. Although I got window seat all the way, I couldn’t sleep much on the plane. However, the meals provided on the planes were all quite tasty. And I did enjoy the South African Airline flight from London to Johannesburg a lot. The cabin has two floors and I was seated on the second floor – the first time ever. Also, it has little storage boxes besides the windows so that for people who have window seats, it almost feels like they have a little side table to use, really nice. Moreover, there is a screen for each passenger on the back of the seat in front of them. There were quite a few movies, documentaries, songs, games to choose from. I watched three movies: The Devil Wears Prada, Break Up, and can’t remember the last one. Anyways, they were emotion or love movies that I wouldn’t get Mark to watch.
Stopping over at London for ten hours was a good bonus, although originally I didn’t plan to do anything except to wait at the airport, since I was concerned of the time and afraid of missing my plane. However, just two days before I departed, I changed my mind, who knows when the next time I would be in London, even if I would like to travel to Europe with Mark one day in the near future, hopefully. I always want to go to Europe and thought I shouldn’t waste this chance. So I spent few hours at Chapters and got a travel book with a lot of suggestions and instructions to travel in London. I felt more confident that I could go around London a bit after studying the book and having some plans ready.
My plan was to take a bus tour in London. It normally lasts approximately 3 hours and it goes to all the big figure places in London. Also, you can jump on and off the tour buses at any tour site. It also includes a cruise ride on Thames River. Based on what I had, I thought I would be perfect for me to participate in one of the tours, which could give me the big picture of London with the most famous sites in a limited time. The distance from the Heathrow International Airport to downtown London was approximately one hour by car. There are a few options to arrive there, either by tube (or subway), by bus, by train or by taxi. I chose the third option, since it is an express way of merely 15 minutes one way, connecting the airport with the Paddington station, which is a big hub conveniently connecting many other stations and locations.
Arriving in the Heathrow airport on time, the first impression London gave me was ‘old’. The building seemed old and not very clean. Well, considering the history behind this airport and the country, I guess I shouldn’t be too picky. The security at the airport was still quite tight and the rule at the time was that each passenger was only allowed one bag. So you had to squeeze everything into one bag, even if it’s half open and you would take your other bags out once getting through the security. Everything went as planned: I successfully entered the train station, purchased round-trip tickets (although I would like to take a taxi back since the London taxi driver are so famous for their distinguished characters and qualities, the time was an issue and it did cost a lot more to take a taxi back to the airport.), and boarded the train heading the towards Paddington. The view on the way was not great, again, everything seemed old, and it’s overcast, which actually matched my expectation on London.
After exiting the train station, it took me a little while before I could finally located the Big Bus Tour stop, and it started to rain before I jumped on the bus. My journey began from .
2 comments:
Xu, its really nice to read your blog. Its very interesting and entertaining. You looked skinny in your photos. Did Mark eat most of your cooking?
Sorry to hear that you arrived in London in a bad day. I knew you were going to feel that way. It was beautiful and sunny the day before. Unlucky you! Shame that we couldnt meet up due to my busy schedule. Hopefully see you sometime in the future. Hope you have a great time in Namibia. Keep us posted.
Thanks for your comments, Bo. I hope I could finish my writing for the London Contact soon so that you can tell me what you think about London from your side ;)
Keep in touch and hope to see you sometime soon.
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