New Day, New Continent!

And we are off today to England, our final country before we return to the United States! We left beautiful, balmy Dubai early this afternoon to… this. 😵‍💫😬🥶

As most of our four months of travel has been in warm/tropical places, we knew this leg would be the hardest from a packing perspective. In Melbourne, we dumped a few of the warm things we could do without, leaving space in our small suitcases for a bit more, and we each got a few cold weather things, just enough for our first day or two in London. When we get to London, we plan to buy or thrift an extra suitcase (winter clothes are bulky!) and bring it with us for the remaining part of the trip. We go from London to Southhampton, and then we sail to NYC from Southhampton and fly home. Delta (from NYC to Orlando) is the only airline we can bring two bags on without paying, so adding the extra bag at this point won’t be a problem. We had committed to bringing only one carry on and one small/medium suitcase each on this trip, and it has been a blessing so many times that we packed light. I hated that it meant no space for souvenirs or gifts in all these cool places we visited, but lugging our things so many different places across so many paths and cobblestones and stairs reminded me why this was important. In a pinch, it also meant we could cover for each other and one of us could hold all the bags if the other needed to check in somewhere or use the restroom or whatever. Handy. In truth we overflowed into an extra tote bag more than once this trip, but always managed to whittle it back down.

Anyway… our final flight before the US was “only” eight hours, which wasn’t too bad. On the way to the airport we passed Dubai’s Museum of the future. This place was on my list of “If we had one more day in Dubai…”, so I was happy that I at least got to see this incredible building! I fell in love with the building while watching the Amazing Race (it was a stop for one of the races) and knew I wanted to see it. And I did! 😊

It is very easy to forget you are in the desert in Dubai. It is such a thriving and well developed city that it was almost funny to see little reminders (pic one below). The airport security process was pretty lengthy leaving, but we were plenty early and made our flight no problem.

8 hours in a middle seat with a kid kicking behind me- still beats working! 😂 Our plane had more kids and babies on it than we have ever had in all our years of travel! We were shocked (and disgusted) with the amount of trash some people left at their seats and floors. We felt bad for those who had to come in and clean the plan afterwards.

We arrived at Heathrow airport at just after 5 pm in London. It was already dark, and there was about a -40 degree temperature difference! Getting through London’s immigration was easy with their new ETA requirement (we had applied for and gotten all our visas and ETAs last summer), but baggage claim was verrry slow. The trains were also slow due to some electrical problems, so we didn’t arrive at our Air BnB until after 8:00 pm. Our place is meh- seems clean enough, but certainly not inviting. We wanted a place in central London and we needed a washer and dryer to prep for the cruise, and this place fit our budget and our needs. The location, with an easy walk to the British Museum, is excellent!