After a couple of days of travelling we have made it to Shanghai airport, where we have a long layover before our connecting flight to Seoul.
The flight here was great – I feel relaxed, and I’m excited to be heading to Seoul soon – but there were some minor challenges along the route.
The start of our journey
Our journey started two days ago in London, where I met my Mum at St Pancras station. As we were flying from Gatwick this was the most convenient location to meet since she could travel there directly from her home, and we could then travel down to the airport on a single train.
The journey to the airport went smoothly and we checked into our hotel, the Premier Inn, mid afternoon as planned. We had wanted to arrive at the airport nice and early so that it was still light when we arrived, and so that we had time to relax with a nice meal and a drink before our flight the following morning.
An evening at our airport hotel
The hotel was really nice, and it was only a few minutes from the terminal building so really convenient. The restaurant was a little small so you had to pre-book a time slot which I’ve never had at other airport hotels, and it was a challenge finding a seat in the bar, but the atmosphere was great and the rooms were comfortable.
We ate right at the start of service, to maximise the amount of time we had to relax afterwards, and as it was still warm enough we decided to sit at one of the seats outside the hotel as it was less busy and a lot quieter than the seats in the bar.
This is the time where I revealed to Mum where we were going and the destinations came as a nice surprise to her. She said that she had wondered whether Dubai might be one of them, as we has talked about it a lot in the past, but she wasn’t sure – and Korea came as a total surprise to her so my plan worked.
While sitting relaxing I also used the opportunity to pick up some last-minute things that I had to order from the Amazon locker. The other Premier Inn, that’s next to the terminal, has Amazon lockers so if there are any items you need right before you travel you can easily get them ordered there – in my case, it was an extra memory card for my action camera as I expect to be taking a lot of photos and videos on this trip.
Departing from London Gatwick
Yesterday, our plan to have breakfast and then take a nice leisurely stroll to the terminal to stretch our legs before the flight didn’t really happen as it was raining extremely heavily. Luckily, a bus arrived as soon as we checked out so we got straight on it to avoid the rain – even if it did mean paying £9 to only travel a few minutes down the road.
Check in was already open when we arrived, even though it was 4 hours before the flight, so we checked our bags in and grabbed a coffee before heading through security. Check in was really quick, although he seemed confused that we only had one bag each since the allowance is two. But one is enough – I don’t need to take more stuff than I already am!
We passed the time in the terminal by having some food and just browsing around, but it was soon time for us to head to the gate to board our China Eastern flight to Seoul, via Shanghai.
Our flight to Shanghai with China Eastern
I had never flown with China Eastern before but my hairdresser has, and I was told that there would be plenty of leg room even for somebody tall like me. He was definitely telling the truth, and I was so thankful for leg room like this on a long overnight flight.
The flight today took us up over the Baltic before crossing into Russian airspace, where we spent most of our time in the air, before crossing over into Mongolia and then finally down into Shanghai. We were sat in the central section, so weren’t able to look out of the windows, and I passed my time by watching movies and listening to music.
I found China Eastern to be a great airline to fly with. It was smooth, efficient, the cabin crew were nice, the plane was comfortable, and we received great service. I wish that the same could have been said about the transit experience in Shanghai, however, which was the complete opposite.
Read about that in the next blog entry.