Gary picked me up at 3 and just 30 minutes later I was at the airport. As I had a connecting flight that wasn’t Qantas based I had to check in manually, almost a novel experience nowadays.
Boarding was a little delayed, at 18.15, but the plane was full. Had a nice man sitting next to me in the centre seat, he was going back to Wales as his elderly mother wasn’t doing well.
Flight was only 16 hours and 22 minutes, according to my logbook, and basically they kept the lights low or off the whole time. We had dinner a couple of hours after take-off and then came the trying to sleep bit. Managed some probably 4-5 hours all up. Played lots of games and read a bit. We breakfasted a couple of hours before landing, which was early, so I had plenty of time to get over to terminal 2 (only person on the bus) and found Heathrow is very quiet that time of the morning. Had to get a boarding pass and I was departing from Gate A26, which of course was at the end of the wing for gates 19-26.
Hour & 20-minute flight and once again trying to find ones way around another airport. Finally got to the baggage carousel and waited for the bags to start appearing, and amazingly, mine was the first off, I assume that means it was the last on, lol.
Jesse was waiting for me at the exit, easy to recognise him. He works at the airport, so that was rather nice. We then walked out to the pickup point and I waited for him to collect his car. I got in and started trying to find the steering wheel to help straighten myself up, just as I do at home, but of course the steering wheel was on the wrong side, LOL.
Everything is so green, it’s lovely. Jesse took the long way around to my hotel, which is opposite a square in front of the Town Hall, complete with chiming clock. It also has Tivoli on the other side of the square. I’m getting picked up again later and going to meet the rest of the family and have dinner. In the meantime, I got into my room super-early as check-in is 3 pm and I got here about 11 am. So, have had a shower and a change and feel much more human. A bit sleepy, but going to try and not do any napping until bed-time. Now that the blog is written I’m going outside for a wander around and to get some photos, so watch this space, lol.