Our son wanted to see London and some of its sights and museums, in particular the RAF airplane museum. Me too I was curious. My husband had spent 5-6 weeks in London and Windsor in the past, so for him it wasn't that special probably. I had started looking for tickets for a while. I did look in previous years too, but there were always something happening in London, some big events, and I wanted to avoid big crowds, high prices. I finally was able to book a reasonable air fare with British Airways to London and out of Marseille.
Then I starter planing our 4 days in London and became quickly overwhelmed with all information on Oyster cards, 2for1 offers. Not by the things to see themselves. I booked our Eurostar connection to Paris as soon as they opened reservations and got the tickets for a minimal price. They still were expensive as our Canadian dollar sunk. I was reading forums and discouraged at times as the hotel prices were high and the reviews just scary.
I first thought to stay in vicinity of Victoria station, but numerous works and and construction labyrinths were rather discouraging. I found some budget hotels, but really that was scary, with rooms in the basements, where breakfast rooms are, dodgy views to dirty backyards and even mice in the rooms. Tiny bathrooms with glass doors and showers and narrow rooms with no standing up and about 50 cm left on a side of the bed to move. We are not claustrophobic, but we are tall people. I couldn't believe I had to trade off a central location to get a decent, non luxurious room. This didn't help much for me to be excited about London. I finally booked a room at a Premier Inn in Kings Cross for our early departure by Eurostar.
Then all people I knew telling me London was no where as nice as Paris and rather like Montreal. Great, I had spent a small fortune to visit my home city! I still did a detailed preparation for our visit not to waste a moment of this expensive trip.
We were booked on a late flight, since not many BA flights are available out of Montreal. I could complete the online checkout 24h in advance and get our seats together. I had also reserved a child meal for our son. On the day of our departure and after browsing through duty free stores we went to Montreal NBC VIP lounge. NBC had exchanged our cards to World. After clearing security we went there and were admitted. It is a nice place, although rather small and with no view on planes, not sure why. They had food like sandwiches cookies and cake, but also soup, and most importantly an open bar including plenty of drinks and sparkling wine. Our son enjoyed free WIFI, we could watch news and relax. The bar and food were constantly refilled. The only downside were the toilets, small and dirty. Really? The public toilets across the airport were rather clean. This is something to work on I guess.
On our direct flight to London the seats were so narrow, I exclaimed when we entered the plane. A family in the front row from us also found really small the seats, especially as compared to Air France and Air Canada. For a Transatlantic flight this is really too tight (I reviewed the flights back home).
The flight was otherwise quiet and the service was good, with as much drinks as we wanted. No champagne, so Air France is superior. Delicious meal for our son with nuggets and mashed potatoes. Ok food for us, at least we had a first choice for some chicken.
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