At breakfast we talked to Gerry and Barbara, who went on the Bran Castle trip yesterday. They said it was great, despite the long day and they had a terrific guide which helped a lot. After breakfast, we were put on a mini-bus with four other fellow passengers and we headed to the Bucharest airport. It was raining a bit and that didn't help with the traffic. Our bus driver skilfully negotiated his way through the horrendous traffic to the airport. There don't seem to be any road rules here!! We boarded our British Airways plane and flew to London.
We were then late to the shuttle bus I had booked with dot2dot. But we didn't have to wait long and then we had a long drive in to London city. We finally arrived at the Mayflower Hotel, which looked very nice from the outside. However, when they told us our room number was B2 (B as in basement), my heart sank. Sure enough, just like in Amsterdam, we are in the basement in a small room (though not quite as small as Amsterdam). There are Eastern European workmen outside our window that looks up on to a courtyard. They're yelling and talking as they work. They finished about 5 o'clock, but what time will they start in the morning! Terry enquired about a larger room and was told that there are smaller rooms available at the moment but no larger ones – maybe tomorrow. One redeeming feature is they have free wireless – and it works with my computer!! So we're a bit disappointed, especially as we'll be here a while.
It's ironic really. We've just come from a most luxurious hotel in one of Europe's poorest countries to a substandard room in a rich country. I wasn't expecting luxury here, but room to move would be nice.
After a rest, we went for a walk down Earls Court Road and had dinner in a lovely family Italian restaurant. We'll have to work out what to do here as there is so much.
We were then late to the shuttle bus I had booked with dot2dot. But we didn't have to wait long and then we had a long drive in to London city. We finally arrived at the Mayflower Hotel, which looked very nice from the outside. However, when they told us our room number was B2 (B as in basement), my heart sank. Sure enough, just like in Amsterdam, we are in the basement in a small room (though not quite as small as Amsterdam). There are Eastern European workmen outside our window that looks up on to a courtyard. They're yelling and talking as they work. They finished about 5 o'clock, but what time will they start in the morning! Terry enquired about a larger room and was told that there are smaller rooms available at the moment but no larger ones – maybe tomorrow. One redeeming feature is they have free wireless – and it works with my computer!! So we're a bit disappointed, especially as we'll be here a while.
It's ironic really. We've just come from a most luxurious hotel in one of Europe's poorest countries to a substandard room in a rich country. I wasn't expecting luxury here, but room to move would be nice.
After a rest, we went for a walk down Earls Court Road and had dinner in a lovely family Italian restaurant. We'll have to work out what to do here as there is so much.
No comments:
Post a Comment