sheilasview.com

We had spent the night at the Dublin Airport and flew out at 8:15. We landed in London, Gatwick at 9:15. We thought there was a direct shuttle to Heathrow but it was a very expensive bus ride on the National Bus Service. We found out there are four terminals at Heathrow and we did not know where we should get off. We stopped first at terminal 4. We decided to stay on the bus. The next stop (several miles away) was for terminals 1,2, and 3.

We tried calling our hotel to find out about their shuttle from the outside telephone but could not make it work.  We went inside and were able to reach the hotel and learned there is not a shuttle. The clerk said she could send a cheap “cop”. I suggested we could go out to the taxi stand but she insisted I should use her driver who would arrive within 30 minutes. We waited TWO(!) hours and Trista called her many times. She would not tell Trista which underground station. Eventually a young man did show up to get us. He was not a tazi driver but we went with him. It was about an hours drive to our hotel.

We learned from the clerk that were was no booking for us. It took me getting quite angry but we were given a room. It is an awful hotel. It is very old and stinky! The room is so hot and they could not turn the heat down. The room is very small for three beds. The bedspeads are stained. The bathtub is broken. There are holes in the wall in the bathroom stuffed with stainless steel which I believe is used to keep rodents from coming through. It smells of urine and natural gas throughout. It is really our worst accomadations on the whole trip.

We were glad to go out to eat and explore the area. It is a nice quiet neighborhood very close to the high street and the underground station. That will be helpful.