At last - we are here!
I needed a medicinal champagne or three in the Emirates Business Lounge after negotiating the chaos and shambles that is Heathrow.
We flew to Cochin via Dubai and the London Dubai leg was on a new A380. We were in the upstairs bit. We had mucked up the on-line seat choice and had misread the seating plans which were a bit twirly and vague. We ended up sitting in single seats which flank each window, one behind the other, a la tandem bike! So beware, the seating plan on an A380 is one-two-one. We'll have to alter our reservations already made for the homebound journey in March as we missed yelling at each other with our headphones on about some inane bit in the film! There were lots of silly points in the one I watched - Facebook, very underwhelming, can't think why I stuck with it!
Can't you tell I've not had much sleep in the last 30 hours? Moan, moan, moan! However all is not doom and gloom, there was one excellent discovery. In the Emirates vast in flight music entertainment they do a time line of musical development and there was a great section on Renaissance music. Really appropriate as I am lugging a lot of heavy art books around India with me as I have just started an Open University course, Renaissance Art Reconsidered.
Dubai airport was heaving at 2.00am - no night flight problems here! To connect to our flight to Cochin we had to negotiate our way from one side of the airport to the other - it had doubled or even tripled in size from when we were here last.
Cochin airport was a paragon of decorum after Heathrow and we arrived at our lovely hotel after a hair raising taxi drive. We were picked up by a white cab, an old Ambassador car, specially for the tourists I expect, solid, comfortable and picturesque. A lot of the way into town we were on the main dual carriageway, this dual carriageway becomes three or four lanes at times, particularly behind lorries or buses when two cars seem to have a pact that they are the same width as one lorry and vie for pole position while hurtling along, drivers on mobiles, avoiding the horde of motorbikes weaving in and out at will. In a brief jam our driver had a chat to an adjacent taxi driver while we nodded greetings to the occupants in the back! What a relief to arrive in one piece!
The hotel is an oasis of cool charm. We've sort of settled in and we've had a look around the immediate vicinity. We know its going to be good.
3 comments:
HI Ann and keith,flights can always be a bit of a drama,the Emirates A380 upstairs has a different layout to that on Qantas from your desciption,but a good way to travel over a long distance.
Enjoy your first location.
Flooding here very grim,water now receeding in brisbane,rockhampton and other east coast towns,but northern nsw also hit and our friends nr yamba have been isolated.Parts of Victoria and Tasmania have also been seriously flooded.
16 deaths in outer area's from Brisbane with over 40 people missing since Tuesday.
our part of nsw is ok,but cannot escape the reality of the situation as it is 24/7 on all tv channels.
gerry and carole
Glad you are there safely! Sounds like a James Bond film journey!! lol
Enjoy your adventure, and don't study too hard.
Gerry and Carole if you read this, my heart goes out to all those stuck in floods all over the world. There is such devastation this year, it's just awful. Hope you are safe and dry. x
From our web news feed I think there is heavy rain forecast this coming weekend in the west of England and you will see that news of the floods in Australia is all over the world. I can't get over how much stuff, either snow or rain can fall out of the sky.
We have no TV here and it is to be recommended. Pictures of devastation are far more lasting than reports. Take care xx
Philippa - I had to cut a lot of this first blog - it had turned into a rant about airports, pat downs and full body scans! Not a lot of James Bond in that scabby scenario !!
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