AndromedHa

The flight from Barcelona to London was only about 1.5 hours. We expected that Easy Jet plane was as small as the Vueling one, but we were wrong! In fact, the seats were comfortable and spacious. We arrived at Gatwick Airport at about 6 pm. We already booked First Capital Connect train ticket online prior to our arrival (£20 for 2 tickets). So, we immediately followed “Train Station” sign as soon as we exit the terminal. Once we were at the ticketing area of the station, we went to the vending machine to pick up our tickets by inserting the credit card that we used to purchase them. However, we were a bit confused on how to find the correct platform for our train, First Capital Connect. This train is an above ground train that gave us the fastest way to reach Elephant & Castle area where we stayed. However, if you stay at Central London, there’s a Gatwick Express train that will take you directly to Victoria station.

Note: London has 5 different airports around the city: Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Luton, and London City. Go here to find the transportation from & to each airport.

Gatwick Airport

So, for our case going from Gatwick to Elephant & Castle, we took First Capital Connect train at the platform showing ‘Bedford’ as its direction (platform 4). Then we got off at Blackfriars Station platform 1 and had to change to another train to platform 2 (unfortunately, there was no clear sign which platform we should wait). We later found out that we could actually take any train as long as it stops at Elephant & Castle. The lingo for British train stops is ‘calling at.’ The total trip from the airport to Elephant & Castle station was about an hour. Once we arrived at the station, our host already waited at the station to walk with us to his apartment (we booked a room via Airbnb).

First Capital Connect Train

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