Travelling to England

Applying visa for UK is made simple by filling out the online application form and scheduling the date & time of appointment. All short time visa (upto 6 months), we will get it in 10 working days. We need to go in person to give our thumb imprints, photo and signature; the good thing is we don't have to visit only the British consulate for this, we can visit the nearest VFS Global office for this. In Bangalore we don't have the consulate, so scheduled my appointment to VFS office.

I started from Bangalore airport heading towards London. I couldn't find a best airfare deal to London from Bangalore airport; so I booked it via Mumbai in Jet Airways. The choices of food is limited only to Veg & Non-Veg but the AV entertainment contains full desi choices.

In CS International Airport, Mumbai,
waiting to board the flight
1:15 AM IST

The flight running time from Mumbai to London is 9 hours approximately. It is good to land London in day time because the aircraft will start flying in low altitude when we are 100 miles to London. We can enjoy the spectacular view of the country side, areal view of Thames river with its twist, turn and sailing ships on it. We will get the clear view of London Tower Bridge, most of the historical buildings, modern high raised buildings and much more.

Reached London Heathrow Airport
6:45 AM GMT

We say following sentences in synonymous 'Travelling to Britain', 'Travelling to England', 'Travelling to UK', 'Travelling to London'. In this blog I wanted to write a little about its differences.

Britain: Britain was the name made popular by the Romans when they came to the British islands. Great Britain refer to the separate kingdoms of England and Scotland on the same landmass, that were ruled over by the same monarch.

England: England used to be known as Engla land, meaning the land of the Angles, people from continental Germany, who began to invade Britain in the late 5th century, along with the Saxons and Jute. 

UK: refers to the union of what were once four separate nations: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. 

London: It is the capital of both England and UK.

From London Heathrow airport, we would find plenty of commutation options to the city like private taxi, city buses and inter-city buses. I booked my apartment in Southampton city; on my way to the city, I witnessed the beauty of Winchester city and Southampton University.

Inter city bus

City Taxi service

City Bus

Winchester City - On my way to Southampton

We selected and booked the apartment prior to our arrival from the below link

http://www.silverdoor.co.uk/

On arrival we collected the key from the office to check-in, the apartment which we booked is self check-in type. We spent nearly 20 mins inside the apartment to find the flat, it was like a maze but was fun going around the property to find it.

General Information:

(1) Buying SIM card is very easy and they are not asking for any proof also. Lycamobile is popular among people who make frequent international calls. In Lycamobile, the call to local UK number is costlier than calling an international number.  We can also order SIM card online at free of cost.

http://www.lycamobile.co.uk/en/

(2) Tap water is good for drinking. Packaged drinking water priced 4 times the price of a soft drinks.

(3) City is very clean, filled with green trees but breathing is not pleasant always. People keeps smocking in public which causes inconveniences to others.

(4) If we step out from apartment, there is a 99.99 % chance we will meet an Indian.

(5) For inter-city travel, travelling by bus is cheaper than travelling by train

(6) In the era of mobile telephone, we could still see telephone booth in many parts of the city