A long travelling day - not over yet!

This was always going to be a long, long day with lots of waiting around, but that's all part of the travel experience. As our favourite tour company's motto reminds us, 'It's about the journey, not the destination'!! 😂

Today was not supposed to be as long as it's turned out to be, though! When I booked our flights ✈️ originally, we were due to leave Gatwick at 3pm. We planned a leisurely morning and a Premier Inn breakfast before wandering over to the terminal. We would then have had a 3-hour wait in Doha before our onward flight ✈️ to Seychelles. However, best laid plans and all that, a couple of weeks ago, we were told that our flight from Gatwick had been brought forward to 9am!! This meant a 5am wake-up call, no Premier Inn breakfast, and a whopping 9-hour layover in Doha!! Oh, well! First world problems and all that!! 😂 We're not complaining, really!

So, we were up with the alarm and were first in the queue for 6am check-in with Qatar Airways 🇶🇦. They were very efficient and we had got rid of our luggage 🧳 and were on our way to security by 6.04am!! We had a 46kg luggage allowance each, and yet the guy at the desk next to us was over!! He also had 2 cabin bags 🎒 instead of the one he was allowed! We left him arguing with the very patient member of staff! 😂

We were through security fairly quickly - even though we both failed the metal detector and had to go through the x-ray machine - goodness knows why!!

After that, it was a Spoons breakfast and the obligatory pint of cider for Mark! I have no idea how he can drink it at 6.30am, but it's been the thing he does at the start of every trip for as long as I've known him!!

We boarded without incident. My only gripe was that I'd forgotten to request a window seat! It was a completely packed flight, so we were stuck with the middle and aisle seats. Mark said, 'Welcome to my world!'. (I never let him sit by the window 😂🤣)

We were served a full lunch at 10.30am our time, but the best advice when travelling is always to adapt to the local time as soon as possible, so we ate it! 😀 Mark even managed a glass of red wine 🍷 with his! 😂 The food was excellent!! They even found time to serve savoury pastries before we landed in Doha!

On arrival in Doha, we had to pass through security to get to the transit lounges, so we had to ditch the water we had in our bags. However, we were able to refill them pretty quickly - there are drinking water fountains all over the airport 🛫.

Doha is always ranked in the top 10 airports in the world 🌎 so there was plenty to keep us occupied during our long wait. Even though we're not shoppers, there was plenty to look at. We've now found somewhere comfortable to sit and charge our phones while we wait. There is zero chance that either of us will sleep before our 2.45am flight to the Seychelles!!Read more