Back to Blighty

The plane left Madrid more or less on time just before 6pm, into warm, sunny and cloudless skies.

Not long after flying above the northern Spanish coast, clouds filled the sky below us. The almost total cloud cover continued all the back to the UK. The captain had warned us that it would be at least 10°C cooler in London.

Having descended through the clouds, and fast approaching our eta, I recognised that we were passing over the M25 to the southwest of London. Next I spotted Heathrow airport, which we seemed to fly past, heading roughly east. Then Epsom Racecourse slid into view and a few minutes later I could see Gatwick airport, before we banked more sharply in a long turn back to the west.

The onboard WiFi network provided live height and speed data, and rather than continuing to descend, we had levelled off at about 2,300m.

We passed over the M25 again, before Heathrow, Epsom and Gatwick came into view and disappeared once again, followed by the long turn.

On the third circle, we started to descend, and followed a slightly different route. With the landing gear down and flaps extending, this time we flew close by the rowing lake at Dorney, the M4 and then Windsor Castle, as we lined up on our final approach to finally land a little later than the stated eta but still on time.

There was a slight delay before the plane parked away from the terminal buildings. We were first told this would just be a temporary stop, but then a line of buses pulled up next to us. Eventually we were able to deplane into what felt like the freezing drizzle and wind as we ran for the shelter of the buses. It was, as the captain said, much cooler than Madrid, especially for those (like me) who were only wearing shorts and a T-shirt!

We were rapidly taken to the Terminal 5 building, where we were soon through immigration and ready to collect our luggage.

It was lovely to be met, not only by the dear friends who’d come to pick me up (who I was expecting to see), but also my favourite daughter (who I was not expecting!)Meer informatie