The morning didn’t start off well when we had no hot water. The staff were very apologetic. Said they had had a problem in the night and their workman had not been able to fix it. I cold shower was not what we really wanted to start the day.
The transfer to the airport had us there soon after 8:30 and booking in was straightforward. Had to take the golf clubs to a different spot to be loaded as expected.
We then went to get our VAT refund for the video camera, memory card and portable hard drive that we had purchased in London. If the queue is long we would say to others don’t bother, it’s not worth it. For the £50 we eventually got back we had to wait an hour to be processed, only to be told that they could only give us the VAT refund for the memory card and hard drive. Because the camera was more than £250 we actually had to have it sighted and stamped by customs and then take the form to another VAT return office after customs. By then we were almost ready to give it all a miss but fortunately, there was only about a 5-minute wait at customs and the further processing was straightforward.
So much for breakfast, however. By this time it was 10:30, the boarding time for the aircraft so we made our way to Gate 1. Boarding was a little delayed (so we would have had time to at least grab a coffee) and once aboard the flight we were further delayed because we were taking off at peak time and that's the way it is at Heathrow.
Eventually, we were off the ground and they bought around some much-appreciated peanuts and drinks followed by a much-appreciated lunch a bit later (about 2pm). I had fish, Jill chicken – very satisfactory.
We were in one of the new double-deck A380s again. It’s still hard to believe how an aircraft that big can get off the ground. The flight went smoothly apart from a bit of turbulence during the night where we were restricted to our seats. Watched a few movies and tried to sleep, without a lot of luck.
