I woke up fairly early, which was good as I had to make an early start.
Turned out, however, I think I did make it a bit too early! :-)
I found it difficult to estimate how longer travel time would be needed for different things, especially in central London, and since I was a bit unsure of procedure at Stansted Airport I wanted to have a lot of time ... well I did ...
I checked out of the hotel at 7 a.m., or shortly after - no problems at all, I basically only had to leave the key! :-)
Walked up to Praed Street and got a bit worried! In the direction from where the buses were coming, there were lots of blue lights blinking, so I was afraid it had been a traffic accident, and that it would cause stops or delays in traffic.
However, traffic seemed to move fairly quickly and it didn't take that long before a no. 23 bus arrived.
And wow - what an experience to ride a bus through central London at 7.30 a.m. on a Saturday morning! For one thing, we had green lights constantly, all through Oxford Street from Marble Arch to Oxford Circus! That is not supposed to happen - it's like ... against the law or something! *LOL!!!*
The bus ride, that normally takes about 1h 10 minutes or so ... took 30 minutes!! YIKES!!
We arrived at Liverpool Street at 7.45 and there was a Stansted Express train due to leave at 7.55 - perfect timing! Basically no people on the train either, which was a pleasant change to the ride from the Airport some five days earlier ...
We arrived at Stansted Airport at about 8.40 a.m. ... and my flight wasn't due to leave until 12.25 - yikes! Still, at this point, I was glad of the extra time, actually! It gave me the opportunity to walk around the airport, and figure out what was to happen when (okay, this sounds like I have had no experience of travel at all, which is not the case, but I hadn't been abroad since the summer of 2009 and this was pretty much the first time ever I was on my own .... ), and that was good.
I had a sandwich and some water and the check-in desks for Malmö opened earlier than expected.
I had no problems checking in my bag and then it was time for the security check. For some reason it always makes me nervous and uncomfortable, even though I know I have nothing to hide or nothing that is dangerous. However, it went almost strangely smooth for me this time!
Placed my bag in the box on the band - the girls before me had to remove their shoes/boots, one of them was pulled aside for a body scan - but they just waved me through and I got my bag and that was it! Cool!
I bought a coke (to get rid of a headache that threatened to set it) and some snacks and waited for our gate to be listed. Walked around a bit, and bought some cool postcards - and waited for our gate to be listed. And waited. And waited. And waited!
Every other flight had gotten their gate, eventually even three or four flights leaving after the flight to Mamlö had a gate - but not Malmö ...
At this point I got a bit worried, thinking about delays and problems with gates and whatnot - and pretty much standing, pacing and sitting watching a monitor for about an hour was quite annoying!
Finally, around 11.50 we found out that the plane for Malmö was leaving from gate 48, so I set off ... and yes it is quite a distance to walk, that's for sure.
By the time I got to the gates, it was basically time to form into queues - which I hadn't expected ...
Things went smoothly however, although I think there were at least some minor problems - that none of the passengers were told about of course.
First of all, that the gate came up so late. Then we had to stand in line, they started to check passports and boarding cards and let people through, but we were stopped in a stairway and had to wait before being allowed to board the plane. After a while we were allowed out of the stairway and walked toward the plane, but were stopped at the stairs to the plane and weren't allowed to board ....
We ended up being about 10 minutes late from Stansted Airport, which after all, didn't feel that bad - and the flight went really well.
The touch-down in Malmö was not so pleasant though - apparently they had had stormy and rainy weather, so it was quite turbulent coming down, a bit too much so for my taste, and when we landed, the runway was soaking wet so it was quite slippery - however, no incidents.
When we got out of the plane however, we were apparently going to be shipped by bus to the main terminal - when did that happen in a tiny airport like Malmö?!?!?!
We ended up just at the Passport control, which was nice, and I was through very quickly, and had to wait for my bag.
They had, all in all, two conveyor belts at Malmö, at one of them would come bags from some Greek resorts and on the other, would be the bags from London. I went to the bathroom but they still hadn't started our belt - and then there were talks of the fact that all bags was on single conveyor belt .. so I went over to check - and within a few moments I saw my bag there!
I got it and went outside ... there were some issues with the Airport Transfer Buses which was quite annoying as I just wanted to go home, but in the end, at least, I got to Lund and were able to take a bus home! :-)
Was home about 6.30 p.m. - and it felt quite unbelievable that the whole trip, door to door, had taken almost 12 hour (yes, I know most of it was my fault because I was so darn early! *lol*)!!
Showing posts with label stansted express. Show all posts
Showing posts with label stansted express. Show all posts
Tuesday, 2 October 2012
Sunday, 30 September 2012
Day 1 - September 24
I didn't have to leave home until about noon, as I had an afternoon flight to London, and that felt really good!
I wasn't in great shape as a lot had been happening just before the trip, and I didn't feel as prepared to go as I would have wanted, and so it was very nice not to be able to rush away at the crack of dawn.
I had everything packed and was on my way just before noon, took a bus to the railway station and a train to Lund. Had to wait there for about 40 minutes for the Airport transfer bus - I guess I could have taken a later train, but I felt I didn't want to take a chance in case that train was late.
Everything went well, I had bought my bus ticket (return ticket) online, and all I had to do was hold the printed code on my E-ticket against a reader in the bus and that was it.
The busride took about 40 minutes, and we arrived at Malmö Sturup almost exactly at 2 p.m. My flight was due to leave at 4.40, so I figured the check-in desks would open about 2.40. Still, I'd rather have the wait, as I was insecure on pretty much everything, than have to rush and feel totally stressed out.
I had some waiting to do, ended up sitting next to this woman who started chatting with me. At first it was rather nice, took some of the stress away from me, but as she went on and on and on, it became a bit annoying after a while. She didn't have any luggage to check in so right before 3 p.m. I went over to the check-in desks, basically the whole area was completely deserted, it felt almost spooky ... occasionally one or two people came, but I'm kind of used to airports being crowded ... Still, realizing there was no one in line (!) for the check-in, I made my way there and was through without a hitch!
After that came the security checks, and for some reason they always make me nervous ... I know I don't have anything dangerous with me and that it shouldn't be a problem, but I still get really stressed out! The lady before me "beeped" going through the scanner, and that of course made me even more nervous, but nothing happened to me, and I could just grab my bag and go - nice!
I had some waiting to do, but again it felt good to be on time, especially since it took me a great long while to actually find the gate! *lol* Apparently they had hidden away a number of gates for abroad travel behind the major passport controls, but it took me a few walks around the terminal to figure that out! :-)
The passport control was closed, but I didn't have to wait long before it opened, and from there we were sent directly to the gate for further checks on boarding cards/passports.
A bit more waiting there, but the way they organized the waiting areas with Priority Boarding and Other was very good. I have a bit of a regret here though ... I felt a bit nervous and stressed out over the whole travelling thing, since it was a long time ago since the last time and also, I pretty much have never done it on my own before - so as soon as people started lining up I joined in. However, our gate was at the very end of the terminal, and just a few meters from where we were waiting was this big room with great windows facing the runway - and there were a few planes taking off and landing as we waited. Had I kept my cool a bit I think I could have gotten some awesome photos ...
Boarding went very quickly, and I got a good seat at the window, and apparently the flight wasn't full, because nobody sat in the seat next to me - which was quite nice as the Ryanair planes are quite tight normally!
The flight went really well, though the weather in Malmö when we took off wasn't great, stormy and rainy ... it was a bit turbulent taking off and you didn't see much either as the clouds were really low. However, once we were above the clouds, the flight went well, and quick!! We landed at Stansted Airport (quite windy, though no rain) about half an hour early! Yikes!
I had actually almost forgotten how long it takes to walk from the gates at Stansted and into the mail building for the Passport control, it's quite a bit to walk, but I was quick off the plane and there weren't that many people in line for the Passport control ... and the guy there just scanned my Passport, said thank you and that was it! :-) Figured I had to wait a while for my luggage though, but after only a few minutes my flight was up on the monitors. Figured then that I probably had to wait a while for my bag ... well, bag number 3 or 4 that came was mine! Incredible!!
Took a short bathroom break before heading down to the Stansted Express platforms where I quickly found the ticket machines and was going to pick up my tickets. The first thing I had to do was put in my credit card (for verification purposes only, as I had already paid when I bought the tickets online. And the machine simply refused to take my card no matter how hard I tried. I figured that I had to try another machine before seeking assistance, and yes, the other machine happily accepted my credit card and my reference number and gave me my tickets! :-)
A train was standing on the platform, but I figured it was the 6 p.m.-train and it was basically 6 p.m. so I figured I'd take it easy and wait for the next train (they leave every 15 minutes), but all of a sudden there was this ticket controller-looking guy there, quickly checked my ticket and said that I should hurry, it was this train here and it was about to leave - so before I knew it I was on the 6 o'clock train toward London Liverpool Street!
Pretty amazing considering we were supposed to land at Stansted Airport at 5.30 (we landed about 5 though, but still...)!!
There were a lot of people on the train, I had to stand all the way to Tottenham Hale and I was quite tired, but the last stretch was kind of nice - it was nice to sit down (!) and the weather had cleared up so I watched a beautiful sunset as we were coming in toward London!
We arrived at Liverpool Street at 6.50 and I was really happy to already have my Travel Card, as all I had to do was make my way up to the buses, and within five minutes came a bus 23! The bus trip wasn't so great though ... a lot of people on the bus, it was getting really dark, and was a bit stressed out about my hotel. As you may have read here in a previous post, there was a bit of drama regarding my booking, and I felt that I really needed the hotel to work out as I was going to stay for so long ...
I managed to get off at the right bus stop (Sussex Gardens) and after a little bit of looking around it turned out that the hotel was only about 100 meters from the bus stop - amazing!!
Checking in went supersmooth, I just filled in a form, paid for the room and got my keycard, and that was it. Took the elevator to the second floor and found room 201 just around the corner from the elevator. And realized there was no slot to put your keycard in .... Panicked a little bit, until I realized that it was a touch-keycard, so all you had to do was hold the card against the lock on the handle of the door, a green light blinked and you were in! :-)
The room was really really small, which I was quite prepared for, but it was so nice and clean and fresh and had everything I needed! The view from the windows wasn't very exciting (lol!) - see photos for that - but hey, I didn't go to London to sit in my hotel room and look out the window, right?!
I was completely exhausted but it felt amazing and absolutely fantastic that the entire day had gone without a hitch! Marvellous!!
I wasn't in great shape as a lot had been happening just before the trip, and I didn't feel as prepared to go as I would have wanted, and so it was very nice not to be able to rush away at the crack of dawn.
I had everything packed and was on my way just before noon, took a bus to the railway station and a train to Lund. Had to wait there for about 40 minutes for the Airport transfer bus - I guess I could have taken a later train, but I felt I didn't want to take a chance in case that train was late.
Everything went well, I had bought my bus ticket (return ticket) online, and all I had to do was hold the printed code on my E-ticket against a reader in the bus and that was it.
The busride took about 40 minutes, and we arrived at Malmö Sturup almost exactly at 2 p.m. My flight was due to leave at 4.40, so I figured the check-in desks would open about 2.40. Still, I'd rather have the wait, as I was insecure on pretty much everything, than have to rush and feel totally stressed out.
I had some waiting to do, ended up sitting next to this woman who started chatting with me. At first it was rather nice, took some of the stress away from me, but as she went on and on and on, it became a bit annoying after a while. She didn't have any luggage to check in so right before 3 p.m. I went over to the check-in desks, basically the whole area was completely deserted, it felt almost spooky ... occasionally one or two people came, but I'm kind of used to airports being crowded ... Still, realizing there was no one in line (!) for the check-in, I made my way there and was through without a hitch!
After that came the security checks, and for some reason they always make me nervous ... I know I don't have anything dangerous with me and that it shouldn't be a problem, but I still get really stressed out! The lady before me "beeped" going through the scanner, and that of course made me even more nervous, but nothing happened to me, and I could just grab my bag and go - nice!
I had some waiting to do, but again it felt good to be on time, especially since it took me a great long while to actually find the gate! *lol* Apparently they had hidden away a number of gates for abroad travel behind the major passport controls, but it took me a few walks around the terminal to figure that out! :-)
The passport control was closed, but I didn't have to wait long before it opened, and from there we were sent directly to the gate for further checks on boarding cards/passports.
A bit more waiting there, but the way they organized the waiting areas with Priority Boarding and Other was very good. I have a bit of a regret here though ... I felt a bit nervous and stressed out over the whole travelling thing, since it was a long time ago since the last time and also, I pretty much have never done it on my own before - so as soon as people started lining up I joined in. However, our gate was at the very end of the terminal, and just a few meters from where we were waiting was this big room with great windows facing the runway - and there were a few planes taking off and landing as we waited. Had I kept my cool a bit I think I could have gotten some awesome photos ...
Boarding went very quickly, and I got a good seat at the window, and apparently the flight wasn't full, because nobody sat in the seat next to me - which was quite nice as the Ryanair planes are quite tight normally!
The flight went really well, though the weather in Malmö when we took off wasn't great, stormy and rainy ... it was a bit turbulent taking off and you didn't see much either as the clouds were really low. However, once we were above the clouds, the flight went well, and quick!! We landed at Stansted Airport (quite windy, though no rain) about half an hour early! Yikes!
I had actually almost forgotten how long it takes to walk from the gates at Stansted and into the mail building for the Passport control, it's quite a bit to walk, but I was quick off the plane and there weren't that many people in line for the Passport control ... and the guy there just scanned my Passport, said thank you and that was it! :-) Figured I had to wait a while for my luggage though, but after only a few minutes my flight was up on the monitors. Figured then that I probably had to wait a while for my bag ... well, bag number 3 or 4 that came was mine! Incredible!!
Took a short bathroom break before heading down to the Stansted Express platforms where I quickly found the ticket machines and was going to pick up my tickets. The first thing I had to do was put in my credit card (for verification purposes only, as I had already paid when I bought the tickets online. And the machine simply refused to take my card no matter how hard I tried. I figured that I had to try another machine before seeking assistance, and yes, the other machine happily accepted my credit card and my reference number and gave me my tickets! :-)
A train was standing on the platform, but I figured it was the 6 p.m.-train and it was basically 6 p.m. so I figured I'd take it easy and wait for the next train (they leave every 15 minutes), but all of a sudden there was this ticket controller-looking guy there, quickly checked my ticket and said that I should hurry, it was this train here and it was about to leave - so before I knew it I was on the 6 o'clock train toward London Liverpool Street!
Pretty amazing considering we were supposed to land at Stansted Airport at 5.30 (we landed about 5 though, but still...)!!
There were a lot of people on the train, I had to stand all the way to Tottenham Hale and I was quite tired, but the last stretch was kind of nice - it was nice to sit down (!) and the weather had cleared up so I watched a beautiful sunset as we were coming in toward London!
We arrived at Liverpool Street at 6.50 and I was really happy to already have my Travel Card, as all I had to do was make my way up to the buses, and within five minutes came a bus 23! The bus trip wasn't so great though ... a lot of people on the bus, it was getting really dark, and was a bit stressed out about my hotel. As you may have read here in a previous post, there was a bit of drama regarding my booking, and I felt that I really needed the hotel to work out as I was going to stay for so long ...
I managed to get off at the right bus stop (Sussex Gardens) and after a little bit of looking around it turned out that the hotel was only about 100 meters from the bus stop - amazing!!
Checking in went supersmooth, I just filled in a form, paid for the room and got my keycard, and that was it. Took the elevator to the second floor and found room 201 just around the corner from the elevator. And realized there was no slot to put your keycard in .... Panicked a little bit, until I realized that it was a touch-keycard, so all you had to do was hold the card against the lock on the handle of the door, a green light blinked and you were in! :-)
The room was really really small, which I was quite prepared for, but it was so nice and clean and fresh and had everything I needed! The view from the windows wasn't very exciting (lol!) - see photos for that - but hey, I didn't go to London to sit in my hotel room and look out the window, right?!
I was completely exhausted but it felt amazing and absolutely fantastic that the entire day had gone without a hitch! Marvellous!!
Friday, 21 September 2012
Aiport Transfers
Things are actually insanely hectic right now, so unfortunately I'm not quite sure what I'm doing regarding London - and I'm not updating much here either.
This entry to to say, though, that I now have booked all my airport transfer tickets. I'll go with Swedish "Flygbussarna" from Lund to Malmö Sturup, have a return ticket there, valid from September 19 and three months on - so no worries on that!
I have also booked Stansted Express tickets for my English Airport Transfer - return ticket, valid from September 24 and 30 days on. I need to collect the Stansted Express tickets upon arriving at Stansted Airport but that shouldn't be a problem, basically you enter in a booking number in a machine and it gives you your ticket ... so I'm hoping I won't have any problems there! :-)
Still have a few things to fix regarding the London trip, and now I'll be away for two days - so yes, things are pretty stressed out right now!!
This entry to to say, though, that I now have booked all my airport transfer tickets. I'll go with Swedish "Flygbussarna" from Lund to Malmö Sturup, have a return ticket there, valid from September 19 and three months on - so no worries on that!
I have also booked Stansted Express tickets for my English Airport Transfer - return ticket, valid from September 24 and 30 days on. I need to collect the Stansted Express tickets upon arriving at Stansted Airport but that shouldn't be a problem, basically you enter in a booking number in a machine and it gives you your ticket ... so I'm hoping I won't have any problems there! :-)
Still have a few things to fix regarding the London trip, and now I'll be away for two days - so yes, things are pretty stressed out right now!!
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