Prague; Friday, 16 December, 2016

Normally the journey to Heathrow takes around 90 minutes to two hours. Today it was going to be quite a bit longer, though I was very thankful that I’d taken the decision to stay overnight in Heathrow the night before my flight.

The Southern drivers were on strike and not a single train was running. Whilst I had plenty of options for getting to the airport they all involved a significant bus journey through the end of the school home time and rush hour.

My boss had very kindly let me finish a bit early, so I was already at the bus stop a little after 15:30 but still had to let three buses go past before I could get on one. I got to Croydon with time to spare before the airport bus, which then didn’t show because the traffic was so bad. It had been turned around a couple of stops earlier to get it back on time.

Eventually the next bus turned up half an hour later and everyone crowded on – though clearly only three of us with luggage were actually going to the airport – everyone else was using it as a way of bypassing the lack of trains

The bus crawled through the traffic of South and West London eventually making it to the airport just after 19:00. After a quick pit stop (I had been sat on a bus for nearly two hours), I picked up the final bus of the evening to go the couple of stops up to my hotel for the evening.

I’d booked the trip back in April, and at the time the hotel I was staying in wasn’t open (it didn’t open until late June). Consequently, the booking was a bit hidden in their computer system and it did take some time for it to be tracked down so I could be checked in.

I had a quick dinner in the hotel restaurant and then turned in for an early night.