As I usually do when I’m about to travel I woke up early, excited for this weekend trip with Håkan and Martin. I had chosen to take the car because of the late arrival on Monday evening and the cab nowadays costs one-way the same as the indoor parking.
I called Mom on the way to check in before leaving the country and the drive to Arlanda was smooth. Parked on level 4 and went into the terminal. Bag drop is a great thing and I could quickly go to the security checkpoint. Here, however, at my station, two out of three bags were manually checked, which clogged the line (since the “inspection belt” got full) and it took quite some time. My bag was randomly selected to be swept for explosives. Finally, I could leave for the next line, passport control to enter the F-pier, for travels outside of Schengen.
While in line for passport control, I grabbed my laptop to get in another, digital, line. The tickets for Jeff Dunham’s show in Stockholm in June 2025 were scheduled to be released at 10:00, I entered the passport line at about 09:50.
I got through the control, found our gate (F58), and sat down waiting to buy the tickets. I was done just about when Håkan showed up and we had some sandwiches we had brought as a second breakfast while waiting for Martin.
It was nice to catch up with Håkan again while waiting for Martin. He hadn’t made any contact since he wrote that he hadn’t left his apartment yet, so I became a bit worried he would be late. Håkan said don’t worry, and at 10:42 he showed up (boarding was announced at 10:45).
We entered the gate through pre-boarding and said hello to a couple of guys wearing 49:ers outfits. They were also going to the game and had been to Wembley before. Martin had booked Sas plus so he got on early, Håkan and I followed a short while later. The boarding took some time, the fully booked flight caused some troubles with carry-on luggage not finding space in the overhead compartments because of smaller backpacks, handbags, jackets, and such. I had to place my backpack under the seat.
When boarding was completed at 11:25 (departure planned for 11:15) the captain announced that it was foggy at Heathrow, hence we couldn’t take off yet. He estimated the waiting time to one hour before we could depart.
At 11:50, the captain said that there was no improvement regarding our slot time, but that we had been asked to leave the gate so it could be used by someone else. So we taxied to a holding space and he estimated another 30-40 minutes before departure.
At 12:20 the cabin crew started to hand out water and ten minutes later the captain said that we should expect another 30 minutes before takeoff. The weather has slightly improved but not enough so there is still a limited amount of landings possible at Heathrow.
Finally, at 12:50 they started the safety briefing, and about 15 minutes later we left the ground. I watched a couple of episodes of TV shows during the roughly 2:15 hours flight and at 15:25 (14:25 local time) we landed.
Since Martin sat in the front of the plane he was the third man off, we caught up to him at the passport checkpoint. We had bad memories about this line from the last time we were here. However, this time there was no line and we quickly got let into the country. While waiting for our luggage I went to a small shop and bought myself a local SIM card to get access to cell data, almost a necessity today. Cost med £25 for 20GB data. I would have wanted half but this was the smallest offer available at the time. The staffer helped with the installation and it took a couple of minutes for the phone to find the cell network.
We got our bags and went for the trains, boarded the Elisabeth line just in time for departure. At Whitechapel, we changed to “Overground” and got off at Canonbury. A few minutes walk later we found our apartment on top of the pub Cellar Taps. We settled in, checked out the premises, and unpacked. It’s quite spacious even though the entrance seemed a bit suspicious.
The initial plan for the evening became going to Big Ben to get a photo with the big guy and Håkan, orders from his daughter. So we went back to the overground and headed into town. Line change in rush hour at the station with the funny name Canada Water.
Then we stepped off at Westminster, got up, and took our photos. Sort of an anticlimax occurred, what should we do now? All three had gotten hungry and we realized that one restaurant we visited last time wasn’t too far away and we were really satisfied then. So we decided to do a return visit!
Back down to the subway for a short trip and then we found ourselves once again at Stoke House Restaurant Victoria. We checked the menu for about 15 seconds before seeing Meat Feast. That’s the one! We ordered that along with drinks and both came rather quickly. We enjoyed the delicious meal. It didn’t seem to be the exact same setup as two years ago based on pictures for reference.
When we had cleared the plates and were full Martin decided to head back to the apartment while Håkan and I took an evening walk to Piccadilly Circus, continued onto Duck World, strolled through Chinatown, and then took the subway back to the apartment. It was a nice evening with clear skies and rather warm temp.
Now we are waiting for the qualifier for the weekend’s F1 Sprint race to start before heading to bed. Tomorrow we’ll start with an escape room and then we’ll see where the day takes us.
