Hotel near Heathrow - In the ghetto

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The holiday starts here.  In order to be in good form for tomorrow's travel I decided to stay in a hotel near Heathrow.  Readers that are familiar with the area around Heathrow will know that it can be a bit hit and miss. For readers that are unfamiliar I would recommend keeping it that way.

That said experienced travellers like me know that with careful research you can find a reasonable hotel in even the roughest of neighbourhoods.  The method I usually use is find an online review site like hotels.com then book the cheapest possible hotel, so far this approach has worked well for me, apart from that time I got stabbed.

Anyway the cheapest hotel on this occasion was the Heathrow / M4 junction Novotel.  Frankly its name is only 50% accurate, it is indeed very handy for the M4 but Heathrow, not so much.  But its OK they have a shuttle bus.  Or at least they should.  They don't.  Luckily Alistair has volunteered his dad to collect me in the morning (like being in sixth form all over again), his dad is not aware of this yet so it will be a nice surprise for him.

The hotel room has one very innovative feature, specifically there are two doors between the toilet and the bed.  Whilst this is not so important this evening (everyone likes his own brand) I suspect it is something I will be wishing for the next few nights when three or four of us will be sharing a room.  The other good feature is the sink is quite cool but not cool enough for a photo'.

The downside of the room (and sadly many others) is it does not have a clock.  I am not sure what kind of pervert is able to sleep without a clock being visible but I pity them and hope I never have to meet them.  Still they do serve in room beer.



I arrived at the hotel in time to go for a meal at a local pub (the Pheasant) which is notable for being shaped like a Pheasant (really) and for the majority of the clientele looking like extras from Eastenders.   The main sensible thing I did was recognise that the USA has a paucity of decent cheese so to stock up I had a splendid cheese board to chase down the evening's steak.  Currently enjoying a few of aforementioned in room beers before sleep.

Tomorrow is John Denver day and hopefully a bit more to blog about.

Follow me on Twitter www.twitter.com/bigbensbike, after all Kenny Rogers is a fan.....













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