From Heat to Heat

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Geo: 51.5002, -0.126236

Though we did have "Economy Plus" seats -- which at least saved my knees -- neither of us got too much sleep on the flight. As we started our descent for landing, the captain announced that we were arriving in the midst of a heatwave, adding that London had reported it's hottest July temperature "ever" the day before, at 98 degrees. Ugh. While we never planned to leave the airport, we agreed that it was a good time to NOT be visiting England, as very few places even bother installing air conditioning.

We arrived at the new Queens Terminal, which opened last year, which helped immensely, as our connecting flight was leaving from the same place, saving us from going through immigration and any of Heathrow's nasty transfer buses. We visited the Lufthansa Lounge and had an excellent breakfast, while we chatted briefly with Anna, who was still in Hamburg. Her classmates were to fly home via Copenhagen, and their flight left around 9:00am. Anna's flight did not leave until almost noon. We had thought she'd check in with everyone else, wait with them until they left, and then wait at her gate. First Murphy sighting -- when they got the airport, the TAP Airlines counter was not open, and would not open for a couple of hours. Thankfully the dean of the school Anna had attended in Lueneberg, who had accompanied the girls to the airport, took Anna under his wing. He loaded her back up in the van and took her on a private impromptu tour of Hamburg, before bringing her back to check-in.

We boarded our TAP flight soon after, and had to assume all would go smoothly in Hamburg and we'd seen Anna on the other side.

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