August 9 - Dubai to London

Dubai Airport

After hopping off the plane, we joined the throng of people heading towards the connections area. I was surprised at how quick and efficient it was. We didn’t stop at all from that point and then tried to work out where to go next to get to the lounge. The airport was huge, but even more so the lounge.

I checked out what was around and found the cigar bar I had heard about. I walked in, looked around and headed out directly again after taking a photo. It was too much to bear, even though there were only a few people in there.

There is a boarding area for each gate directly in the lounge. Next to each of those is quite a large lounge area with a bar and snacks. Given it was around 1am and we were heading off at 2am, we decided to just go with water and a soft drink.

We did get the chance to connect to wifi and check in on the world and family. They don’t make boarding calls in the lounge, so we needed to keep an eye on what time they told us we would be boarding. You can hear boarding calls from down below, but that was for economy rows.

After what seemed to be a very short lay-over, our flight was ready to board. It’s interesting taking a lift from the lounge straight down to the boarding section.

Dubai to London

The Dubai to London flight is about 7 hours in duration. Enough time to have something to eat, some sleep and then more to eat before arriving in Heathrow.

Due to the timing, they only have a supper menu and a breakfast menu. Ros had the steak sandwich whilst I opted for just a chocolate brownie with berries and cream. Ros joined me in my suite this time to experience the other side of the table.

Shortly after dinner our beds were made up. I got about 3 hours sleep (midnight to 3am London time) while Ros managed a bit more. I did go up to the lounge (just a bench seat) and have a snack and drink while everybody else was sleeping.

About 2 hours before the scheduled landing time, the cabin started to awaken (all apart from the grizzly bear in 1A – he kept going snoring until 45 minutes prior to landing). We both had French toast with berries and macadamia nuts. Another good way to start the day.

Compared to when we went overseas in 2012, I think this timing of the flights worked better for our body clocks.

Our flight was put into a holding pattern for about 15 minutes due to traffic at Heathrow, but apart from that it was smooth sailing. The holding pattern spelt out ‘50’, just for Ros.

Waiting for the flight to Edinburgh

Now to wait for the final flight to Edinburgh.