Home James...
“and don’t spare the horses”, as my Mum would say. (Referencing this, maybe?)
Although we’ve been home a week, I feel as though I’m only just finding my feet again and when I came to write a post about the changing season, I realised I didn’t really tie up loose ends from our trip. So, here they are, all securely finished off!
When planning this cruise, we had a choice about our journey home. Did we prefer a three hour transfer from Trieste to Venice to catch the BA direct flight to LHR or might we rather fly Lufthansa from Trieste to LHR via Frankfurt? The cinch was that the BA flight was in Economy, the Lufthansa in Business. We chose the latter. After all, whichever option we took, the journey home would still take all day so we might as well take the comfortable choice.
Trieste airport is small and rather quiet. It proved a good opportunity to catch up with my (previous) blog post since the people-watching opportunities were minimal!
The Lounge, when we finally got there, seemed to be sponsored by Illy. Unsurprising really, since we learned that 70% of European coffee is imported through Trieste.
It meant the self-serve coffee varieties were many and varied, including the white machine on the far right, which produced the most delicious iced latte/coffee soft-serve ice cream.
When our plane finally arrived, we were called to “Gate 3”, where we stood outdoors awaiting further instruction from the despatcher.
No worries that our luggage didn’t make it either - not only could we see our suitcases there on the trolley, we had been sent a text confirmation too. As we stood watching the only activity we’d seen out there on the tarmac all morning, the despatcher waved us over and boarding began.
It was what airline pilots often refer to as “a fine day for flying” and the views were splendid, especially as we approached Frankfurt airport. I always think the English landscape looks particularly recognisable as we fly over it and here, somewhere to the south east of Frankfurt, the view was similarly distinctive.
Any hopes of a quick Hefeweisse or similar were dashed though, as we discovered the length of the passport queue and the distance to the next flight. Never mind…at least our bags were checked through.
The LHR flight was similarly uneventful and enlivened by the service of “Smoked Tenderloin of Beef with Pickled Root Vegetables, Pumpkin and Spundekäs Mousse, followed by Frankfurter-Kranz Dome with Almond Brittle”. Not only that, but we shared the space above the clouds with a few other passing planes heading in the opposite direction. I wonder if the pilots acknowledged one another, as Mark Vanhoenacker describes in his book Skyfaring?
We had another one of those spectacular descents towards LHR and I took a couple of photos, thinking I’d identify the location later. (Am I the only one who misses the onboard maps?)
map rotated 180° for easier recognition!
Recognising the major estuary as the Thames, my geography of Essex wasn’t good enough to identify the land features until I got into Google maps and the distinctive shapes of Foulness Island and Shoeburyness were confirmed!
Our arrival into LHR Terminal 2 was swift, smooth and trouble free and the same was true for our luggage thankfully. The young woman standing next to me couldn’t say the same, however, as her phone pinged, alerting her to a text from her suitcase with the news that it was on the next Lufthansa flight from Munich. Receiving texts from inanimate objects isn’t so much fun when it’s not good news.
A couple of hours later, we and our luggage were home, ready to sleep in our own bed again. For me, that was for just two nights, since I’m off again after just one day at home.
Dear me…who plans my diary?! (I know…)
