London Challenge in 8 Hours
As I told you this is my shortest trip to Europe ever and I was staying in a town called Reading which is about one hour away from London, I was unsure whether visiting London is worth it or not but on the last day of the trip myself and my friends decided to challenge ourselves and prove that we can still enjoy many things in London even within 8 hours time frame. We finished our business meeting around 10:30 AM and we were supposed to be at Heathrow Airport at 8:00 PM because our return flight is at 9:45 pm. To achieve our goal we compared the time needed to reach London from Reading Town via Taxi vs. Train, at first we tried the train because it takes about 30 minutes but we didn’t know where exactly is the stations to we decided to use Taxi which is more costly but it will save us precious time.
We asked the Taxi to take us first to Heathrow Airport so we can make early check-in for our luggage, then we took another Taxi from the airport to London, we paid £60.
Breakfast at Pret A Manger: We arrived to London at 12 pm roughly and quickly headed to Pret A Manger at Oxford Street and grabbed sandwiches to eat, I like it because their fast and serve quality and organic foods.
A Quick Hike in Hyde Park: To help refresh our mood we had a quick picnic at Hyde Park, then we had a quick tour at Oxford Street and did some express shopping at Selfridges, M&S, and Primark (no girls otherwise it’ll take long hours). Also we picked some cookies from Ben’s Cookies at Oxford street, I tried their milk chocolate praline which was tasty, good news that it’s opening at the Avenues.
Madame Tussauds: At 2:15 PM we headed to the popular wax museum Madame Tussauds which displays many historical and royal characters, movie stars, even famous murderers. at Baker Street but sadly the line was long and we had to wait to buy tickets so we left. I visited the museum before and it’s certainly one of the great attractions that I recommend when ever you visit London.
London Eye: We then headed to London Eye located n the banks of the River Thames, it’s a giant Ferris wheel and takes you up to 135 meters high in the sky where you can see an amazing view of London.
M&M World: At around 4:30 PM we arrived at M&M World, I’ve been hearing nice stuff about it from several friends that made me decide to see it in person. It’s located at Leicester Square and it’s a big candy store with total area of 3,250 sq. meter and built on 4 levels. Inside you get to see the history of M&M candies, actually everything inside was about M&M and the design and decorations were both magnificent. I’ll make a dedicated post about M&M World soon so stay tuned.
Their airport counter said that the allowed luggage per person is 32KGs and maximum bag size shall be no more than 190cm x 75cm x 65cm plus 10KGs briefcase, I think for economy class it’s 23KGs. Our aircraft was Boeing 747 (AKA Jumbo Jet), I love Boeing 747 and I was impressed with how spacious it was on the inside and there were two levels. The business class seats were quite comfortable with a blanket and back mattress and legs rest in front, I liked how the seats can be adjusted to give you the most relaxing position, also there was a divider between the seats to give passengers more privacy and a movable light with a dimmer switch for reading and other purposes. The Flight Entertainment System consisted of screen that can be operated with either touch-feature or a remote control, however the touch feature was kinda insensitive so I needed to press a little harder. However, I wished if the display resolution was higher for even more enjoyable movie-experience but generally it was fine.
The headsets were of a good quality either, I checked the screen menu and saw TV channels, movies, audio, games, journey info… etc. There were a good variety of selected movies and new releases though I wish if they had more movies diversity. The part that ruined my flight experience was the in-flight service, I felt the hosts/hostesses were not that friendly and had an enforced smile, asking for a particular thing/service felt unwelcome in a way, I asked for a Cappuccino and guess what was their reply? It’s only served for first class, wth! Guess I’ve to book for first class next time if I ever want a Cappuccino!
Another thing that sucked was food experience, our flight duration was around 7 hours but we were not served with proper meals, actually I don’t know if I can even call scrambled eggs with bacon or spinach masala and fruit a meal, they were more like light snacks. I’m surprised they didn’t serve us a proper lunch meal even though it was already lunch time (1:00 pm), budget cutting or what?
Timing-wise, they met the planned flight schedule, ok there was a slight delay but that was due to Heathrow Airport and not British Airways. So was I satisfied with British Airways? Frankly no I wasn’t satisfied with their service level, the cheap meals and unfriendly hostesses. I’ll give them another try on my return flight to find out whether that bad experience was a one time thing or British Airways is simply overrated.
I’ve been to Dubai numerous times and I always seek fancy restaurants for seafood but one of my friends suggested we try the Golden Fork restaurant, it’s an old-timer and popular restaurant in Dubai with many branches but for some reason I never tried it before, it’s like Mughal Mahal in Kuwait. Frankly, I didn’t feel so encouraged until they said that they serve tasty sea food and lobster. Luckily we stay in JBR and there’s one recently opened at “The Walk” street in JBR so we headed there today for lunch.
We picked two fresh lobsters and requested them to have them served with molten cheese, we also ordered their fried hammour fillet and special seafood mix grill platter which comes with grilled hammour, shrimps, crabs, scallops, and steamed rice. As for starters we picked their sea food and bouillabaise soups. The food all tasted good, lobster was tasty but dense so make sure you eat it on empty tummy, service level was great and the total check came Dhs458.60 (around KD35) including soda and water bottle which is reasonable for three guys. Most seafood restaurants in Kuwait serve the Omanian lobster alone for KD12 or more.
