Many thanks to the always lovely Ellora for delivering us to the Perth International Airport. As we sat for a while to collect ourselves (it's been a crazy few weeks) we realised that this would be the first time we walked through the "Departures" entrance together from Perth, and in fact, the first time I had walked through them at all. Bizarre.
We departed Perth on Emirates on time (around 2:45pm) on August 18. We were lucky enough to have a spare seat next to us so we had plenty of room enroute to Dubai. Watching the maps on Emirates inflight entertainment, Alice pointed out this would be my first time in the northern hemisphere. More firsts. :)
Knowing that was happening I had to stay awake and alert enough to take a picture of the map at the equator & had a little Samwise moment to myself (one more step & this is the fartherest from home I've even been). Such a nerd.
Dubai Airport was large and rather dark after about 10:30pm but otherwise just an airport. At least it had chairs with leg rests so we could put our feet up for a bit... well 5 hours actually.
The second leg of our travels was less eventful... by which I mean I (Malcolm) fell asleep before we took off and surfaced only occasionally during the 7 hour flight. Handy, really, given it helped reset my body clock.
We eventually staggered off the plane at Gattwick, cleared customs, collected our luggage and got on an express train to London. It was during this train trip it finally sank in that we were here. Between the miles of train tracks & tagged retaining walls (that reminded me a lot of Sydney) small clusters of terrace housing and old churches would appear. Definitely not in Australia any more.
Outside Victoria Station we jumped in a black cab (we were glad the couple in front of us got the yellow one). Our cabby was lovely and we chatted about the disappointing performance of the Australian cricket team (something I think will become a theme throughout this trip) all the way to the hotel.
Oh My God. How good does a decent bed feel when you've been sleeping on planes or in airport chairs?!?!?
There's more to come. We spent yesterday afternoon wandering around the area near our hotel. Took some lovely pictures & just generally started enjoying the holiday. More on that after we get back from the Tower of London. :)
MAlice.
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