Slow Bus To London Heathrow Airport Saved Me 52 Quid

I have been meaning to write about this for a couple of weeks, but for some strange reason it slipped my mind. Just over 2 weeks ago, my African Princess was heading home for a family visit to Botswana. The flight time was at an unearthly hour of the morning, which meant taking the tube to get to Heathrow airport wasn’t an option. We needed to be there for 5am…Painful!

The easy option would have been to just call a taxi, which suddenly became a not so good option, when the price was over 54 quid – fuck that was my answer to that. Thankfully London has a fairly decent bus service that runs through the night and into the early hours.

If all went according to plan it was only going to take 95 minutes, 2 buses and we would be at Heathrow Terminal 4 in plenty of time to check in her not so light bags! I have complete faith and trust in London Transport not running on schedule, so I made sure we left an hour earlier than required! Never trust the tube system or buses to run on time in London that’s my motto, especially when your catching a flight!

At around 2.05am we headed to Kilburn High Road to catch the 2.18am N16. It wasn’t a good start to the day, it was lashing down with rain. However at least the bus turned up bang on time. I was shocked, it must have been a miracle. The bus was empty apart from a couple of Polish girls. I don’t mind travelling on buses quite so much when they are empty and there is no traffic on the road.

For some strange reason, just when it looked like it was going to be a straight forward Journey to Heathrow, the bus driver stopped at a stop on Edgeware Road for 10 minutes. Just sat there twiddling his fucking thumbs or whatever it is they do. We arrived at the Hyde Park Corner behind schedule, which meant we had missed the N9 bus, or we should have missed it. But from talking to some people at the bus stop it hadn’t turned up, it was late…of course it was, how could I have expected it to turn up on time!

I have taken a night bus to Heathrow before so I knew the bus was gonna be packed full of people heading to work, going on holiday and party animals heading home. What is it with those young Yanks who have had 3 pints of beer? They talk so fucking loud and obnoxiously. Everyone on the bus knows your American, we don’t need you to tell us…who cares…who wants to hear you!

The bus stayed pretty much rammed until it reached Heathrow Central Bus Station, we fortunately managed to grab a seat by pushing some old people out the way. I’m of course having a wee laugh! I don’t know about you lot, but for me packed bus journeys are a nightmare, they just seem to drag on and on.

The N9 got us to Heathrow at least 30 minutes behind schedule. In fact at one stage I was cussing myself for not leaving more than an hour earlier than required. Getting off the bus was like a mass brawl, but less fun. I was carrying a suit a huge suitcase that weighed 30 kilos trying to force my way through the United Nations, it was no fun I will tell you.

We eventually found our way to Terminal 4 in plenty of time and even better my African Princesses bags weighed what they were meant to and she passed through check-in without any problems. The KLM staff deserve a mention for doing a great job. I couldn’t help notice some of the girlie’s that were going to be on the flight, they were dressed in rather revealing clothes…boobs and legs everywhere!

It had been a bit of nightmare getting to Heathrow so early in the morning. But at the end of the day I had saved £52. Would I do it again, dam right I would. When I got back to Kilburn via the tube  I headed straight to Roses Café on Kilburn High Road for their builders breakfast with lashing of tea and orange juice, which would have been twice as good and a hell of lot cheaper than anything on offer at Heathrow…

And the moral to this story?  Fuck taking a taxi to Heathrow Airport!

Related posts:

1. London Airport Parking At Heathrow and Stansted