Getting to Heathrow

Once we'd climbed up Blunsdon Hill on the new bypass, we got out of the Thames valley mists and into some lovely bright spring sunshine, but all too soon met the typical morning rush-hour along the M4 en-route to Heathrow.

Although it was a bit stop-start in places, we still made good time and got to Heathrow at about 9am as planned, where Aurian left us to drive via Nottingham to Sheffield, to watch the big snooker tournament.

Here we are, heading for the departures area at Terminal 4:

We had a few problems checking in: first, we found that we needed visas for Australia and had to spend £50 on getting them at the KLM desk, and then I had to dispose of all my deodorants etc at security, because they were over 100 ml in size, only to find as soon as we'd checked in that one could buy all the same things in Boots, in 200ml sizes, and at inflated prices.

Soon enough though, we found our magnificent A380 and were reassured to see that the pilots can open their windows, should the windscreen wipers fail and they need to stick a hand out to wipe the flies off the screen!

Looking at the A380 from the comfort of the departure lounge, it didn't look all that big:

Until you see a person in comparison with the engines, for instance, and then you start to get an idea of the scale:

The umbilicals were positively daunting: pipes and tubes attached all over the aircraft, not to mention the multiple gangways attached like big suckers to the side:

And in due course, we were boarded and safely strapped in (strapped down in Barbara's case) and ready for the off at 12:15, but the appointed time came and went and we were still firmly (all 560 tons of us) attached to the ground. The captain, in his broad Australian accent, assured us that all was well and that we were just waiting for some cargo to be loaded – probably my 15' pole: Barbara said it would cause problems if I tried to bring it with us, and it did indeed have to be detached from my bag and sent as a separate item. We took off eventually some 45 minutes late, but we were told that despite the delays, we should still be landing on time at Changi (Singapore), which at least meant that we wouldn't spend quite so long in the air (though just as long in our confinement!).

The take-off was interesting as one of the many options on the in-flight entertainment system, was a view looking forward from the top of the tailplane. As this some 24 metres (about 75 ft) off the ground, the view was quite spectacular as we accelerated down the runway. Here's a view from the tail-cam, somewhere over Kuala-Lumpur: