I was delighted when Katrina from TourAbsurd asked me if I wanted to share an apartment with her this week in London. We’re both here for the World Travel Market 2012 (more about that another time), and this evening I am even more pleased. After coming down with the sniffles this afternoon it was soooo nice to come back to an apartment, make a hot drink and put my feet up, instead of hiding under the covers in a anonymous hotel room. How is this for comfy?
We have lacked for nothing. The apartment has full cooking facilities, including an oven…..if we had had the energy to cook it would have been easy – there is a Tesco Express three minutes walk away, and that’s just around the corner from the Haggerston London overground station. When I look out of the window in the morning, this is my view:
Yes, my friends, I DID run down there the other morning. The canal towpath is the perfect place! I’m hoping to do it at least once more before I move on on Thursday, but if anything has caused grumbles this week it has been the British weather. Still the apartment has been more than warm enough, so no grumbles when indoors!
We have to thank Homeaway UK for arranging the apartment…..whilst Katrina did all the booking she kept me informed and I know they were exceptionally helpful, checking on transport etc for us. It’s important how those touches improve a travel experience, especially in somewhere as potentially confusing as London!
In fact, I felt at home in no time at all. Whilst I do enjoy to be spoiled from time to time by hotels, staying in an apartment, especially when you are working is a much better experience. We both arrived on Thursday, and the apartment owner was here to meet us with keys. By Friday evening I felt like a local, shopping at Tesco, riding the Tube and the Overground to the manner born (or at least that’s how I felt!). I’ve never lived in London, so never really needed to travel in rush hour before…..quite the experience, and doubly crowded because of WTM apparently!
Our only problem was with the wifi, which was what Brits call ” a dongle” – a USB connection, which meant that only one person could use it at a time. Fortunately Katrina could connect via her phone, but when that went down over the weekend it proved a bit difficult. It’s a minor thing compared to the comfort of the apartment, its convenience for getting to Excel or into the City and that “at home” feeling, and, it goes without saying that sharing an apartment is much more economical than hotels. Though we are only two people, this apartment does sleep four, which would make it an extraordinary bargain so close to so much of London.
No doubt I will be reluctant to leave tomorrow, but I will have no hesitation in using Homeaway UK’s services in the future! And just to finish…….you know how crazy I am about sunrises? Here was this week’s……maybe not over the ocean and a tad early (it turned fiery pink a bit later) but still…..it was the lovely beginning of a great day!
Islandmomma 
November 7, 2012 at 10:13 pm
Sounds like you are having fun, Linda 🙂
Funnily enough, I discovered Katrina´s blog by accident this morning as she was featured as a link by someone doing one of my photo challenges. Small world!
November 11, 2012 at 9:42 pm
It is, indeed, until you go to WTM and keep seeing all these familiar faces and realize that it’s from their blogs! It was a very interesting experience, enjoyable, yes, fun? Not sure!……although, yes, there was loads of fun actually!
November 19, 2012 at 1:43 am
Really? Gosh! You’ll have to point me to this link. 😀
November 19, 2012 at 2:11 pm
:=)
November 7, 2012 at 10:47 pm
That looks lovely, IslandMomma! Happy and safe travels. I’ve missed so much of your blog with another blogging hiatus, but look forward to catching up!
November 11, 2012 at 9:41 pm
How nice to hear from you!!!! I had something of a hiatus too, so there isn’t an awful lot to catch up on. I don’t seem to be getting my alerts on new posts on the blogs I subscribe too so I wasn’t sure if I’d missed you or not.
November 7, 2012 at 11:39 pm
glad you have got over to u.k. and enjoyed London. are you heading North? If you photo’d the geese in this area they would be pinkfoot. we have hundreds and thousands eating rotting spuds in Pilling then flying over to the Ribble esturary to roost overnight. there is nothing like the sight and sound of wild geese to signify autumn slipping into winter.
November 11, 2012 at 9:40 pm
I agree – haunting sound – brought back memories! I had planned to come back north, but my plans got changed & I headed home early in the end……next time Christine!!!!
November 8, 2012 at 1:10 pm
Looks lovely and sounds like the perfect place to stay! 😉
November 11, 2012 at 9:38 pm
Highly recommend the apartment or the company (maybe if you’re going to London it might not be in the right area for you – but east London is definitely the happening place right now and it was handy for Excel or to get into the city center). Homeaway have apartments all over the city. I wouldn’t hesitate to use them or to recommend them based on this experience!
November 9, 2012 at 4:24 pm
Very nice Linda. It looks and sound like you had a great time.
November 11, 2012 at 9:36 pm
It was a super stay all round for lots of reasons, which I will post when I catch up! Much as I love quieter places, like the countryside or beaches, I love the energy of cities – well, some cities, I don’t think they all have it in fact, but it was great.
November 11, 2012 at 5:59 pm
I always like to hear about apartment stays in various cities as an alternative to hotels. We’ve had some very good experiences in apartments and love feeling “like a local”.
November 11, 2012 at 9:35 pm
Since I did this for a living for a while here in Tenerife (oh if only they’d had internet back then!) you really would think I would have thought of it before, but it absolutely did feel like that. Since the visit was work as well as play it felt right, and it was great that I really can say, hand on heart, that it really was that good!
November 11, 2012 at 10:06 pm
HomeAwayUK is also my go-to when I want to look for a holiday rental, anywhere in Europe. They have such an array of apartments.
November 12, 2012 at 3:16 pm
It’s good to know that they’re the same all over Europe. This is going to save me a lot of time in the future I think!
November 17, 2012 at 3:55 pm
Such a lovely place. Happy traveling!
November 18, 2012 at 1:03 am
It was indeed – wish I was still there!
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