The first flying leg

Our initial travels have been very smooth. Cate organised a London Cab to take us to the airport. Eric, our driver, contrived to loop through the car parks at the airport to avoid the huge line of cars going to the international terminal.

 

We arrived two hours before our flight - as required - and didn't have to queue for the Premium Economy check-in, nor really for immigration, or for security. It was unexpectedly easy and quick. And, while the main food court area was chock-a-block with folks going on holiday, there was a little cafe beside our gate that was quiet and we got a seat and food immediately. We really had a fabulous run through the departure gauntlet.

 

Then, of course, we had to wait. And wait. They started boarding 30 mins late. Cest la vie.

 

The flight was entirely uneventful. Premium economy seats are suitable for a flight that long where one stays awake the whole time. The service was good and the food was good (for airline food). We watched movies, read our books, and dozed.

 

Arrival at Hong Kong was ok too, although we have walked miles from the arrival gate to the immigration queue, which was a long snake, as they are, so more walking. We got directions from a helpful tourist person about where to find our airport hotel and she basically said, veer left it's down that end of the arrivals hall. So, we went through immigration at the "left" end of the terminal to discover that our baggage carousel was at the extreme "right" end - because of course it was.

 

Tim left Cate sitting between baggage carousels and ventured up to the other end of the huge hall to collect the bags. It seems that Tim's bag was the last one off the plane as he had to wait for forever for it and actually thought that it might not have arrived. Cathay's helpful staff located the bag in a jiffy, on the carousel! (I swear it wasn't there before the young man went to collect it!)

So, more walking, this time down to the Airport Hotel and then along an impossibly long corridor of rooms to ours. It's starting to feel like we're walking to Europe!

 

We'll have a quiet night and be asleep shortly. We have a 6:15 am start to get to our 9:10 flight.