Bye Bye Blighty

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From "the road"
I'm sitting in Madrid airport (Terminal 4S - it's pretty impressive...see photos!). Just as we landed, it began to snow here. It seems as though my flight is delayed for about 30 minutes at least so I thought that I'd take the opportunity to write a quick update.

Heathrow at 3.45am
So I don't know how many of you have seen Heathrow Terminal 3 at 3.45 am. It looked really pretty. I thought I'd take a photo. But that was the entrance for Virgin customers - mine was more the tradesman's entrance.

I had to wait until 4.30 for the quick bag drop to open...well, I say 4.30, I mean 4.30 was the advertised time - I guess that I'm going to have to get used to the Hispanic concept of timekeeping fairly quickly if I'm to keep my sanity.

Heathrow itself was really quiet - unsurprisingly at such an ungodly hour. It has its advantages - no queues at security etc etc. But also, drawbacks - no shopping to be done. Well, it's probably a good thing.

The flight from Heathrow was about 50 minutes late leaving - not sure that I can blame Hispanic timekeeping for that - seems to be the case with every carrier from Heathrow.
It seems that (on short haul flights at least) Iberia is the Ryanair of Espana. I wasn't really expecting to be charged for food or drinks - would have been nice to have a breakfast. Never mind. At least they allocate seating so I didn't have to fight small children for an aisle seat!

The interior of the plane was amazingly drab. A horrible combination of grey plastic seating and light brown curtains. It gave the plane a 1970s feel - reminiscent of the flight to Kaochiung in Taiwan - but not that bad...but only just!
Any way, I'm hoping that I get fed and watered for free on the long-haul leg of the flight.

Stupidly I didn't bring any Euros with me - it never occurred to me that I might want to buy something in Madrid. So I got £20 changed up and that's enough for a coffee and a sandwich.

The airport terminal here is REALLY impressive - sort of reminds me of Bangkok (I think). Anyway, photo attached so if you have any other ideas as to which airport it reminds me of, let me know!

Ah, just to mention, watching the sunrise as we climbed above the clouds over heathrow was amazing. So beautiful - which I'd taken a photo. But I didn't. There seemed to be a sea of oranges and pinks below me - cascading waves frozen in time...delicious.

Speaking of delicious, I'm going to try to get a sandwich while I've got the chance.

Byeeee
C

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Photos

Heathrow Terminal 3
3.45 am....ain't it pretty?

Trandeman's entrance
The Virgin entrance looks OK though, right?

First flight out
Guess you won't be able to see it - but honestly, mine is the first flight out of Heathrow this morning - kind of explains why no shops are open!

Madrid Terminal 4S
Mighty impressive.

My Chariot Awaits
And awaits and awaits. Guess there's somebody out there with a shovel clearing the runway

Pret a Madrid
This one's for you Monica

Comments

[Neil Stemp]

Bye Bye Williams
Have a splendiferous trip, yon man. Enjoy Bogota and the rest.....