It was nice to have a lie in and the leisurely breakfast. Weather is perfect with clear blue skies and about 0 degrees.just as well we are leaving today as bad weather due over the next few days. That Arctic wind chills you to the core. I got very good st covering almost every inch of my body in thermal layers. God bless whoever came up with hand warmers!
Back in the room for final packing and time to catch up on some more Janet Evanonich novels. I’m up to book 12 and still enjoying them. We don’t have to check out until midday and the three remaining amigos had agreed not to try and fit more sight seeing in this morning so that we would not be in any rush. So there is time to sit around in the lobby and chat with Nichole until our coach arrives. While I was packing my bag I realized that friends in NSW were on Messenger, so we were able to video chat in the lobby. Lots of laughs and much poking fun at each other.
Our coach was supposed to pick us up from 1 pm but didn’t arrive until just after 20 past 1. We then went back to the terminal which was only a few minutes away where we had to gather our luggage again and get onto a big coach to take us to the airport. It was packed so was pretty saueezywithhand luggage to manage as well.
45 minutes later we arrived at the airport where everyth8ng is sutomated. Thankfully we had checked in and downloaded boarding passes the night before, but we still were in a bit of a muddle to get baggage tags printed up and then through customs. However we managed and by then headed straight to a coffee bar for much needed coffee and light lunch. Our flight was fairly heavily booked but was a comfortable enough 3 and a bit hour flight.
I wasn’t looking forward to Heathrow airport, and my concerns were well founded. We seemed to walk miles before we got to security screening at immigration. Makes me bloody mad that Australia is part of the blasted Commonwealth but we Aussies have to queue with the great unwashed to get through Immigration, but EU locals go through quick checks. Wonder what will happen if the UK ever gets out of the EU? Anyway, morning aside, it took almost 45 minutes to get through Immigration. Bah humbug...
Our suitcases looked like they had been abandoned by the time we got to the right carousel. We then made our way to an information desk to find out how to get to our hotel for the night, the zHilton Garden Inn. Unbeknownst to us, the airport hotels are bus or taxi drives away so we purchased our return bus tickets and thought we followed the woman’s instructions but found ourselves at the Underground and wrong terminal, so we retraced our steps and finally found the correct bus stop. About a 15 minute wait fir the bus and then a 10 minute drive to the hotel. Easy book in and glad to get to our room. We started joking that it took us longer to get from the plane landing to our hotel than it did in actual flying time!
Back downstairs to checkin for the morning’s flights and print up boarding passes. That took ages as the computer kept playing up and not allowing the screens to progress. However a very determinedFoggy finally had success ( I had given up long before) and with that we duly dragged our tired butts into the bar for a much needed drink! Back in the room and straight to bed as it was well after 11.30 pm and we have an early start in the morning.
No photos taken today but there are likely to be more added when I get home and have time to pick out the highlights of our holiday.
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