Meru, which days do you plan to stay in London?
I might be showing up early too.

So far it looks like I can be there on Tuesday and Wednesday...

There has been a change of plan, so I might be able to come to London after all. What airport would be the best to arrive at in respect to the commute to London (Gatwick, Stansted or Luton)? I would have to rely on those cheap airlines.

I don't know about Luton, but Gatwick is marginally faster than Stanstead using the Gatwick express.

cheap airlines will probably only get you to luton or stansted? i think it was standsted i got to from berlin when i did it. only ever passed through standsted. i've been told its a bugger to get from standsted to london, but to be honest i can't see it being any worse than luton, and its just the nature of these types of flights that we expect some hassle.

but from luton, there is a free bus that takes you to the nearest train station. you get a train from there into london (i normally go to king's x, but i think it goes to victoria as well), it costs about £11, which isn't cheap, but does the job. if you get the train watch for the train which has less stops - from brighton i think - the other one stops at every station between luton and london.

i think there is an easybus that goes as well, which is probably cheaper, but probably takes longer and is just a mini-bus from what i've seen. i guess it doesn't stop anywhere else, and if its cheaper and gets you there it also does the trick.

in other words, it sounds like Gatwick is the best of the 3

i guess he checks the ryan/eastjet sites and sees what options he has in the cheap flight range and work from there.

Thanks. So far it looks like Stansted with Ryanair, because it's the cheapest. I have to wait for some money to come in before I can book a flight.

yeah the twice we went to berlin we flew stansted to schonenfeld (?)

Three basic options from Stansted:

• Easybus. 3 or 6 euros reserved online, 10,5 euros walk in (limited availability as the minibus fills up quickly). 75 minutes to city centre. Good price but little flexibility.
  
• Coach. 12 one way, 21 Return. Several options, with similar prices. 80-120 minutes to city centre.
  
• Stansted Express. 21 one way, 35 Return. 45 minutes (and impervious to non-terrorist related traffic jams).

There are other train options but they tend to be slow or pricy (or both).

I may fly into Edinburgh and hang out in Scotland first, then fly to London from there....but I don't know....this is looking more expensive than I thought. At the very least, I will go to London. It's a long-ass freaking flight from Korea.

Just curious, how long are people planning to stay in London? Is anyone traveling anywhere else?

Will people be around on the 31st so we can have superfun-birthday-celebration extravaganzas? If not, I can plan something else.

I won't be there on the 31st, as I have to be back in Copenhagen to give a speech at a conference (repeat of my talk about journal impact factors and research evaluation)

Damn. I so wanted you there!

Okay, I better think of another plan....

quote:

Originally posted by Meru:
Just curious, how long are people planning to stay in London? Is anyone traveling anywhere else?

If I am lucky, I will be able to stay two days
Tue & Wed is less then ideal for me.

Tell me if you plan to go to Ireland.

Wait, where do you live, Newromancer?

newro is in ireland.
i expect most folk will only be there for the couple of days.

Right. Hmm. I need to go to bed and let my brain work this out in my sleep.

quote:

Originally posted by Meru:
Wait, where do you live, Newromancer?

Hi hi ... this should be an easy question to answer ... should.

As remote said I do live in Ireland.
I also have a registered address in Austria.
There is a third address as well, but I don't really spend much time there.

I consider my self to live at both places. The next few weeks I will be living in Austria, in August I consider myself to live in Ireland. Have I confused you yet?

I'm only gonna be there till Wednesday. Flying out on Thursday.
Now my dilemma when to fly in. On Monday or Saturday? It's cheaper to fly in on Saturday, but the hotel expenses do write that off by a bit....