Some time ago I was lucky enough to win some IVHE (www.ivhe.com) home swap credits from Silver Travel Advisor and had the brilliant idea of taking a 3-bedroom flat in Canary Wharf over Christmas with the fantasy that all of my family would follow me down there and stay for at least some of the holiday!
IVHE do home swaps all over the world and some of the properties look amazing. I was tempted by a studio on Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and also by a beautiful cottage in Brittany before plumping for this lovely apartment.
The journey was uneventful apart from a traffic queue on the Newham expressway and we arrived only 15 minutes late (a record for me!).
The flat owner welcomed us to the apartment, coming out onto the street to guide us into the underground car park and our allotted space. She gave us a tour of the apartment, including important information about the little eccentricities of the microwave, fan oven, dripping tap in the bath (don’t let your toes drift into its path, it’s hot!) and, manna to my ears, invited us to ‘use up anything in the cupboards’. To someone more accustomed to renting holiday villas or apartments this was the main advantage of a house swap; it was just like being in your own house but better. We had all of the advantages of home; Wi-Fi, Satellite TV (although the signal was down for a lot of the time; presumably because of Storm Eva) and all the comforts of a fully stocked kitchen, together with all of the novelty of a holiday place; new restaurants to visit, good transport links to Central London and a view.
