To combat jetlag, we planned to sleep in as long as possible. I didn't rise until around 930, just short of my 10am goal, but Addy was up rather early. We had to check out by 11 so once we were up we packed our bags and headed down to reception. There wasn't enough time to leave our bags at the hotel, so we took them with us (back down the 4 flights of stairs) to a cafe down on the waterfront where we stopped for a coffee and a pastrie for breakfast. In usual form they were okay. I did some last minute souvenir shopping.
Getting to the airport wasn't a problem, we only needed to catch one S-Train around 10 stops. There was a little initial confusion on how to get a ticket as we were nearly out of all cash, and the machines wouldn't take card, but we scrounged around our pockets and scrapped together enough of our last euros.
Arriving at the airport, we found our check-in counter quickly, and lined up as the check-in hadn't opened. We only had to wait around 30 minutes before it did. We had a family of 6 in front of us (kill me - don't know how they could travel). With check in done in a breeze, I thought we were trending pretty well for time. Allowing for an excursion up to the McDonalds on the top floor which we thought was the security, we soon found it, marked by the massive queues.
Hamburg Airport were scanning every single person in the nudie-scanners (the ones that look through you close), which took far longer than the normal metal detectors. Safe and secure I'm sure, but it meant that the whole security process took far longer. The longest I think I've had at an airport. Thankfully we had arrived with so much spare time, I would hate to have been short on time; we even saw a few people sheepishly try and push to the front. The priority queue wasn't much better either.
Scanned and searched and with that all over, we went and found our gate, then got seated upstairs near the restaurants and got some lunch. Addy got us two pizzas which, while exxy (as they always are), were pretty good for an airport. We were a bit confused as to why no one was sitting upstairs near the restaurants. There were hundreds of empty seats around - although no charging spots...
Once we had our dinner, we headed back to the gate and checked in into it. The airport is used by both international and domestic flights, so passport control was before we got into the gate area. A bit different but I found it was clever.
It was a gloomy day on the ground, but once we boarded our plane and were off the ground we quickly were over the clouds and had a lovely view over all of Germany (most of the country had that low lying cloud). As it was so cold out, you could easily make out the jet trails of other aircraft, and at one point I counted 7 or 8 planes off in the distance - I'm sure there were more on the otherside!
Addy and I settled in for our flight back to Dubai (only 6 hrs long), and after dinner we watched the new Avengers. It quickly got dark, and as we moved further south the cloud over the ground disappeared, and was replaced with the lights of cities we passed over. Around an hour or two out from Dubai we started to see the big flames from oil wells in Iraq which I thought was pretty cool. On our descent into Dubai we took a big sweeping turn over the city.
Once we were off the plane we quickly found a transit board and saw that the gate for our next flight, C10, was apparently 26 minutes away! Uhoh! We hit the ground briskly walking, and kept following signs for C Gates. Eventually it took us all the way to the basement level to a small bus station and we were lucky to snag a bus ready to leave. I can only hypothesise that the train between terminals wasn't built yet or was being fixed? I'm not sure. The bus took us along the tarmac in front of countless A380s and B777s. At one point, we passed at Aston Martin which was strapped to a palate, ready to be loaded into an A380. Fancy! Between terminals we had to go underground and we we emerged on the other side at the next building I was quite relieved to see more Emirates planes.
I was worried we'd boarded the wrong bus or headed the wrong direction, so a quick check of the transit board once we arrived alleviated my worries - we had gone the right way. Checking through security again, we then went up to the gate and found it was quite nearby to where we'd been dropped. Excellent. We had around an hour to kill before the flight boarded so we headed down the end of the building and stopped at the Starbucks for the worlds most expensive coffee and two donuts. I think it was like $18AUD? Still, it was the last decent food we'd have for the next 14hrs!
We returned to our gate and got ready to do a passport check and yet another security check. Security wouldn't let us take our waterbottles in so we surrendered them, although I realise we could have may emptied them and tried to fill them up. Addy was not happy! It just put a damper on the upcoming flight because we knew we'd have to keep asking for water. At least put a vending machine on the other side. Once inside the gate area, we realised we may have been early, it was packed and there was no where to sit, so we got setup in front of the wall.
It wasn't that long till we boarded, thankfully. Once we were on the plane and found our seats, we found a middle aged couple sitting in the middle and aisle. Addy and I had the window and the middle so we had to awkwardly figure out what had happened. Our boarding passes were right. Sounds like they got split up, with one of them on the aisle, and the other over the other side of the plane, whoops! They split and we got seated. After we took off, the man sitting in the aisle moved over to be with his wife, which freed up our aisle seat - SCORE! Addy and I could lounge out for the rest of the flight.
It was a relatively smooth flight, filled with lots of TV, Movies and a few games and some meals. (You know what it's like). Leaving Dubai at 2am, only a few hours into our flight we hit dawn. The flight attendants asked us to leave the window shades down, which I get; but after 8 hours people started opening them so we could get properly acclimatised to Brisbane time. We flew over India and just south of Indonesia before crossing the coast west of Darwin and arching down across Australia towards Brisbane.
Night descended once more (< 8 hours of daylight, woo!) and we were soon on the descent into Brisbane. We had to circle west of Toowoomba while we lost height, and we had to fly through some of the storms out there which was.... fun. But that only lasted around 10-15 minutes. Not long after that, we were on the ground - hooray! Back in Australia.
Europe has been an amazingly fun and interesting trip for us both. It's left us wanting so much more, and to explore more of each of the places we've been. Addy and I loved everywhere we went, and think we planned it very well. It's now time to exchange the four thick woolly layers for some boardies and a bikini and enjoy a week of rest in Brisbane for Christmas.
Thank you for reading. Until our next adventure...
Dylan and Adelaide
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