There is nothing quite like a 45 hour door-to-door journey to put things in perspective about how far away Australia is from the UK and how far away family is. So our Easter holiday break back to the UK was a wonderful blessing tinged with nostalgia and sadness that it was only temporary.
Before departing the UK for Australia we had decided that as return airfares from the UK to Australia aren’t much more £’s than a return, to purchase returns. This seemed like the most economical plan at the time, however in hindsight we aren’t sure this is the case because there often seem to be good return airfare deals from Australia to Europe. Getting a return flight UK to Australia, also meant to get back to Canberra again, we had to buy more flights.
Anyway, back to our journey back to the UK. This time we didn’t have an overnight in Singapore airport. So our journey saw us flying Canberra direct to Singapore, a 4hr layover in Singapore and then on to London Heathrow. As John was in his training period for his new job, this meant it was just me and our 4year old flying all that way.
The first leg was about 7 and a half hrs overnight to Singapore made slightly awkward by a grumpy businessman sitting next to us in John’s vacated seat. So I was pleased to arrive in Singapore having spent a couple of hours head nodding in my seat and drooling on myself when Little Miss finally went to sleep.
Singapore airport is a fascinating place, with all kinds of intriguing gardens and places to see if you have the time to find them and explore. Loading a trolley with all our hand luggage and my daughter we raced off to find butterflies in the butterfly garden. Arriving in the early hours of the morning it was still dark but we managed to spot a few butterflies and marvelled at how hot and steamy Singapore was.
Next we headed off in search of the swimming pool at the airport transit hotel, where as a non-guest you can pay to swim.
This involved walking quite a distance (good for stretching the legs after a long flight) and getting a tram to another terminal. Our quest paid off as we were the only ones in the swimming pool where we got to watch the sunrise over the airport.
Carrying on our journey it was another 13 hours from Singapore to London, made more painful by a delay which meant we got in about an hour and a half late.
Miss Goggle Box was very happy viewing her own personal tv on the airplane, but this meant she only slept for about 4hrs of the journey! Luckily we had a spare seat on this flight so she could stretch out.
The best thing about our journey was that on arrival at London Heathrow, feeling exhausted and not being able to find the taxi my brother said he had ordered for us, my brother and one of my nephews emerged into view. They had come to pick us up from the airport as a surprise!