I must say that Emirates is all they say & more. By far it is the most luxurious & well services airline with a compliment of pleasant staff members. The food was excellent & there was plenty of it.

As with all long flights you sit & count the hours waiting for the time when you can feel your extremities again. One of the precautions I took was to wear pressure sox that will reduce any cramping while I sat, and made sure that I stretched my legs every couple of hours.

Chosing the right seating seems to be the hardest part of the battle for a pleasant flight. Do I want the window seat where I can get a view & somewhere to rest my head? Do I want to struggle past 1-2 passengers seated next to me to get out to stretch my legs? Or do I want an aisle seat? An aisle seat will be easy to move around from, but then you suffer the endless hits in the head from passengers walking past with bags & babies. It seems there is no “good” seat unless you are willing to fork out the extra money for first or business class.

As I had a window seat I was forced to ask my neighboring passenger to move so I could get in & out. However, when they are asleep it makes it that much harder!

Finally we were an hour out of Dubai & I was gettting excited to see the enhancements that the King had made to the region. Sand, sand & more sand. There seemed to be endless sand beneath us. As we came around a coastline I craned my neck trying to get a better view, but alas nothing but sand & blue ocean.

One of the things I did like onboard was the ICE entertainment system that also allowed you forward & beneath the plane camera views. However, the cameras still weren’t of any use in seeing the palm or islands of Dubai. What it did show was a curtain of dust that even upon landing made it nearly impossible to see very far.

While Dubai has many many improvements including their airport, I have to say that have so much glass in an airport that requires a lot of walking to get from one terminal to another for very short stopover, a pain to say the least. The airport felt like a sauna & there was no reprieved until I boarded the plane again.

While I am not knocking Dubai, because I still find it a very intriguing place, the length of the walk from alighting to the transfer gate was a pain the collective butt! By the time I got to my gate after pretty much a jog from the arrivals gate, I was exhausted. The sun shining through their glass terminal did nothing to combat this.

Once on the plane I was pleasantly relieved to find that I had a seat at the back that had a little more leg room & space to spread out some. My charming neighbour passenger while providing nice conversation, also took to taking long walks providing mee with the opportunity to stretch out my legs. So all in all the final leg of the journey was the best part of that flight.

Until Heathrow!

I had been to Heathrow before & remembered it being a nightmare. However, on the previous journey I was transit & didn’t have to stand in the queue at immigration. What a nightmare. All those passengers & bugger all staff to deal with them, compounded by the incessant recordings being broadcast over the loud speaker stating that they had a full compliment of staff to cater to our needs. What a load of bull! They had less than a dozen operators dealing with thousands of people who descended upon them itching to get out the door after long flights. Heathrow … I was so not impressed!

Finally 2 hours after landing I was through the border doors & ready to get out of that place!

Walking through the arrivals door you feel heaps of eyes upon you. Everyone wating to pick up people were scrutinizing all the pickups wondering which was theirs. I kept looking around to see if I could see Paul (whom I have never met before in 6 years), then at the same time we looked at each other.

I virtually dragged Paul of out the airport eager to get out of that humid overcrowded building. I was ready to start the next leg of my journey with my dear friend!

Goodbye Heathrow airport until next time!