Wednesday 10 April 2013.
We packed our cases in the morning, then
after lunch we went for a last walk on the open space. It has been
very hot these last two days, in the region of 37c. After dinner we
said our goodbyes to the boys, then Ruth and Hannah took us to the
airport for 7:30 when the check in desk opened. We had previously
checked in online so we only had to get our bags weighed in and show
our passports and boarding tickets. After, we went to Dome for a hot
chocolate. About 8:15 we went through security, then bought two
bottles of water for the journey and waited for our flight to be
called. The plane left at about 10:30 pm. and we said goodbye to Perth WA.
At Dubai things seemed at first quite
straightforward, we arrived at Terminal A, and were departing from
Terminal A. However when we got to our departure gate we found we had
to get on a bus to be taken to the other side of the airport where our
plane was parked. I came a cropper, falling as I climbed onto the bus.
The step was rather high and with nothing but my stick to help me up,
my leg gave way before I could straiten it and I fell my length. I
felt such a fool, but at least I got a seat. It was one of those
buses designed for mostly standing passengers, but someone gave me
their seat after helping me up. It took so long to load the plane
transporting everyone what seemed like 5 miles around the airfield to
the plane parked up far away from the terminals, we were half an hour
late leaving Dubai.
Because we were late leaving Dubai we
arrived late into Birmingham. It takes longer returning to the UK
anyway, because we are flying against the prevailing weather systems.
At one stage we were flying against a head wind of 144 Km Hr. On
arrival at Birmingham we passed through the DIY passport control, if you have the
latest passport the machine scans your passport details, then takes a
picture to compare with the passport picture and that's it, finished, and
we walk out to collect our cases. We had just got our cases when the
carousel stopped working, tough on the other travelers still waiting for
bags. Still being late, it did mean the Taxi was waiting for us just
a short distance away and we were soon on the road home.
1 comment:
Ouch!
We had those long bus rides at Munich airport arriving from and then leaving for Birmingham. They are building a second terminal, which isn't finished yet (and even if it was, we'd still have had to make our way to the other terminal for the onward flight).
We did queue for passports, mine is the old version, and the children are under 18. Worse they've stopped permanent residents joining the UK/EU queue (if they ever allowed it in Birmingham - they did the last time we all went from Heathrow), so Yoshi had to join the long queue, and they were really grumpy about our waiting for him before going through to the baggage hall, which has never ever been a problem at any other airport I've been to. Really put me off Birmingham!
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