Check-in is at 2:00

The staff here is spectacularly unhelpful, continually reaching new lows in service. Okay, that might be a bit harsh, but at 7:00am in the morning after a long flight and little sleep, the last thing you want to hear is “Check-in is at 2:00.” Yet that is exactly what the receptionist said—and that is about all she said. No suggestions of where to go for the next 7 hours, no offers to try to get housekeeping to speed it up so I could check in early, no nothing. I’ll skip the gory details, but the next few hours my life were not a lot of fun.

When I finally got to my room, I was relieved to discover it was not a box. The lone picture of the bed on the website had made me very nervous. But my “flat” is nice-size one-bedroom, with a decent bathroom, living area, and kitchenette. There’s a mini-fridge but no freezer. And in true UK fashion there is no air conditioning. Fortunately it’s quite cool at the moment (more on the weather later) so the temp in the room is comfortable.
The room is equipped with broadband internet, but you have to pay extra for that. A lot extra. You can buy a one hour pass (£3.00), a 3-hour pass (£5.00), or a 24-hour pass (£10.00). I found a better deal at Starbucks: £40.00 unlimited access for the month. There are nearly as many Starbucks here as there are at home, so I think my internet pass has been my smartest purchase so far.