Arrived at Heathrow at 5:30am, after 16.5 hours. Anne thought the Airbus 380 was quieter, and the food was better. I liked the 787 OK. Higher ceilings, 3-3-3 cabin layout. We freshened up, spent 30 minutes inserting Vodafone SIMs, selecting plans and topping up. Everything worked perfectly and we are +353 899726974 and 7. Then we found the rental car buses outside Terminal 3, went to Hertz and got upsold from the petrol Astra we booked to a diesel Qashqai, so we have SatNav and a 4 cylinder engine. All the petrol engines are now 3 cylinders. I don’t like the thrum of 3 cylinder car engines. The lady in the GPS sounds exactly like the British Prime Minister, so we dubbed her Theresa. Continue reading “Day 02, Saturday, Great Malvern UK”
Day 01, Friday, Melbourne
It was hundreds cheaper to fly to Perth on Qantas domestic flight 475 and join London bound QF 9 in Perth than leaving Melbourne on QF9, so here we are. I missed that we should have boarded the plane via the stairs at the rear, so we went the full length of the 737-800 to get to the rearmost seats 30a and 30b, against a tide of passengers going the other way. We made it in the end, and eventually landed in Perth to learn that we had a new Prime Minister, the sixth in 10 years, counting Kevin twice. Qantas sent us to the business lounge in both Melbourne and Perth, without me having to wave my new lifetime Gold card. It took me almost a lifetime to earn it, and it seems I don’t need it now. Continue reading “Day 01, Friday, Melbourne”
Day 33, Friday, Melbourne
Day 32, Thursday, Dubai
Last day. In Dubai now.
I had discovered that the 109 bus to Tegel Airport went past my front door, the stop was 100m away. For €1.70 I was at the airport in 30 minutes, at 8:45am, 2 hours before boarding Air Berlin flight AB6191 to Munich.
There was a potential problem though. The plane was loaded, ready to push back from the gate, but didn’t. The door to the flight deck was open, and there were 2 guys with Air Berlin Technik reflective jackets on, one in the left seat where the pilot would sit. The pilot was standing, lots of conversation going on. The chief flight attendant closed the door from the outside. The main door of the plane had not been closed. A while later the pilot emerged, made a statement on the PA, in German, then went back into the flight deck. I was thinking that if I missed my Emirates flight in Munich it would not be a disaster, but it would spoil my day, and my weekend. The door stayed open and we watched them talking and manipulating controls. Eventually the Techniks left, with a smile and a handshake with the pilot, he resumed the left seat, the main door was closed and we took off, about half an hour late.