Flight from Singapore to London, and first day in London: Saturday 9 July and Sunday 10 July

We arrived in Singapore on time and moving into the Transit area was simple. We queued up to get some of the free Changi dollars, which we used to have a snack and drinks at Burger King. David used another one to buy a book. Then we sat and charged our devices.

It turned out that the plane left almost an hour late, because an air conditioning unit wasn't functioning properly and temperatures on the plane were too hot. It didn't get completely sorted but it didn't seem to be an issue during the flight. Because of the lateness when we left, meals were swiftly handed out and we were eating a dinner/supper around 1am Singapore time, and feeling totally shattered from lack of sleep.

Mine was a nice piece of fish, again in a tomato sauce and with veges. I didn't eat most of the entree as it had two slices of what looked like very rare meat that may have been duck - certainly not recognisable to me. And I couldn't face the rice cracker. Dessert was the best thing and rather a novelty for me - some sort of sticky rice pudding with orange pieces in it, and a berry sauce. It was lovely.

I was now desperate to get the CPAP set up and get to sleep. That was a bit of a rigmarole with the squashed up seating - disappointingly worse than our earlier flight (even though we'd found our previous flights on the Emirates A380s relatively spacious). Anyway, I managed to fall asleep instantly and get a good 1.5 hour sleep cycle in. Then another three hours or so of partial sleep - we both felt it was a bit cold to be comfortable. We both think we would go back to Emirates or try Air New Zealand for any future trips because we felt so jammed into our seats.

Breakfast was served two hours before landing. Mine was a salmon omelette, mushrooms and potatoes. Also fruit salad, and (sigh) rice cakes with Australian butter, and jam. 

I don't know why there was no yoghurt (David's yoghurt was GF and was a raspberry yoghurt, containing beetroot concentrate); he had a bread roll in place of my rice cakes. Mind you, I couldn't have eaten yoghurt anyway - I was full, and I only mentioned it because it does seem strange how these airlines seem to work out what goes on (or doesn't) a gluten free meal tray. David's tray had juice, mine had water (not sure how that all balances out in terms of cost equity...).

We ended up circling London for 20 minutes, landing around 6:30am, and began the long walk along corridors to immigration. I managed this really well with my walking stick for balance. What a relief! Once we were queuing, there was a lovely fellow passenger who was obviously concerned by the walking stick and suggested we get a wheelchair. No need, and my ankle managed fine. We were through immigration in 25 minutes, and got our bags fairly quickly. Then began another long walk to catch the Heathrow Express fast train into Paddington Station. I sat next to a Sydney girl carrying a big Kathmandu backpack. 15 minutes later we had arrived and nabbed one of the many black taxi cabs (fascinating for us to note that these don't have boots in the back, and the cases sit on the floor in the back with us). In a few minutes we arrived at our hotel.

Finally, after 38 hours travelling, we had arrived at our hotel and were able to check in at the amazing time of 9am (check-in is normally 3pm)! We laughed when we heard our room number - 322. It was the same as our Singapore Airlines flight number. We had a choice of rooms - quiet and overlooking a boring courtyard, or more noisy but looking over busy Oxford St. We had free, unlimited, and extremely fast internet, too.

Our room overlooked Oxford St, and in the mini-bar (gluten free foodies, take note!) was a gluten free flapjack! How often do we ever see something GF on offer in any regular situation. Michelle, the listing of gluten free oats in the ingredients was intriguing (perhaps the different standard in the UK?). Nothing healthy in this fridge, but we enjoyed a Coke and the flapjack regardless. All items in the mini-bar were free and re-stocked daily.

I managed to nod off for around 50 minutes of deep sleep, but was eventually awoken by a strange sound on the street below our third floor room. A protest march, in support of black lives. What a racket there was as this peaceful rally marched up and down from the US Embassy, past out hotel to Marble Arch!

Eventually we ventured out into the crowd to find something for lunch, carefully avoiding the protesters. Lunch was at a very crowded Pret a Manger, opposite Marble Arch - a lovely salmon and rice salad for me! Then out again into the bedlam outside...

First impressions on the busy street... were WE walking on the wrong side of the footpath (there didn't seem to be any pattern), multiple different languages heard (and very few speaking English), people walking on the footpaths the way WE thought they drove in Palmerston North (Michelle - ie no regard for other people on the footpath), more people smoking than we're used to. The area was SO busy, with the protest march AND crowds of people arriving to hear Stevie Wonder singing at a Summertime concert in Hyde Park.

We wandered through Hyde Park (Henry VIII's old hunting ground), enjoying the sights (having only seen the area with the Diana Memorial back in 2009 on our first and only other visit to London). Much of the area south from Speaker's Corner had been taken over by big fences, blocking views of where the Summertime concerts were held - rather an eye-sore. So we skirted across the park towards the man-made lake. We had a pleasant time viewing the Serpentine lake and people-watching, and wandering the paths that so many have walked along through history. Hyde Park is vast, but I think Hagley Park is a beautiful comparison that we are lucky to enjoy. We enjoyed sitting in the Rose Garden area and then found our way back towards Hyde Park corner and the Wellington Arch. 

To avoid the crowds heading to the Hyde Park concert, we walked back via Park Lane with its flash car sale show rooms (BMW, Aston Martin) and hotels (real ones, not monopoly ones). We stopped for a coffee and to rest our legs at a Starbucks. Marks and Spencer had a store on Oxford St right near our hotel so we headed there to get some supplies to make our own breakfast in our hotel room - fresh strawberries and yoghurt. David took an interest in the NZ wines they supplied.

Back at the hotel, my iPhone told me I'd walked 5km this afternoon and around 9km for the day - not bad considering my ankle is in a splint! My new ECCO shoes are a blessing. I had another sleep (all these daytime naps are really rare for me, and unheard of at home where I couldn't nap if I tried). We had a lovely dinner in the hotel's Grill restaurant, but I struggled to eat it. Still, it was nice to enjoy a steak with a lovely béarnaise sauce (unseen in Christchurch in my experience) and GF fries cooked in a separate fryer. David ordered glasses of Pinot Grigio wine (a type he remembered trying and buying when on our wine-tasting tour out of Civitavecchia near Rome in 2013). Jet lag meant we had the lights out at 8:30pm.