The first word that pops into our minds when we were in St. Albans, is ‘Medieval‘.
St. Albans is a beautiful Cathedral City decorated with medieval architecture. We had only 2 hours to spend in St. Albans before our flight back to Singapore. But we’ll take it anyway, given the fact that Linda misses her old friend, Khai Khalid. The next 2 hours in St. Albans was like a crazy episode from Amazing Race.
Getting to St. Albans (on a budget)
By Car
St. Albans is a 50 minute drive North from London Heathrow, the largest/busiest airport in the United Kingdom, with Internal, European and International flights leaving every day.
By Bus
Duration: 1hr38mins
From Heathrow Airport’s Terminal 5 you have to navigate yourself to catch the free bus or Heathrow Connect train (Heathrow Express) to the Heathrow Central bus station. We would recommend just taking the Heathrow Express.
Bus number 724 (Greenline) buses depart at 9:15am, 10:15am or 11:15am from Heathrow Central bus station. It took us 1hr 38mins to get from Victoria Coach Station to St. Albans. Since this is our first time in London, we assumed that we could use the Oyster Card to board the bus at Victoria Coach Station. But turns out that Oyster Card can only be used within nearby London area and St. Albans is at the outskirts of it. So, we had to buy the bus ticket inside the main square of the bus station. (You’ll have to ask around for this part because it was a mad rush for us. We were running everywhere to ensure we caught the bus in-time. We didn’t have time to take any photos.
You might want to check out the Greenline website to know more on the bus schedules and fares.
1 Hour And 38 Mins Later…
Where’s Khai Khalid?! Despite being briefed by Khai on which stop to alight, us being us, we alighted at the wrong stop. We were walking hastily around this BEAUTIFUL town of St. Albans to find Khai. This town is really gorgeous and we wished that we could spend a longer time here.
From the mad rush in St. Albans to find Khai, we chanced upon really quaint-looking shops, famous landmarks, and the weekend market. That weekend market. Oh that weekend market was splendid! All sorts of fruits, breads…FOOD! We need FOOD!
And finally we found Khai Khalid! She was like our Pit Stop in Amazing Race. What a relief!
We were glad that we got the chance to see her neighbourhood and be her guests. But most importantly, we were delighted when we smell that Nasi Ayam (Chicken Rice) which she has graciously prepared for us. FOOD!
And this is our first time, meeting Khai’s husband, Pagi Asmara and baby Andika Putra. A pure carbon copy of his dad, I must say.
Khai’s house is really comfy. I remember wanting to just skip that flight back to Singapore and stay one more night. If only.
Shah’s tan line on his face. I just can’t.
And that concludes our adventure in London and St. Albans. An absolute crazy 11 hours of fun!
Eudaimoniacs Singapore 