As with all our travel adventures, eventually we must come home. Our return however wasn't exactly straight and boring; a further small adventure still awaited us. A couple days before our departure from Maldives, Z was reading the news and read about a strike planned for London's Heathrow airport. Why this caught our eye or was of any significance to us, it because we were flying home through London. The strike was to start 2 days before our arrival and last for a full 10 days. Of course, this created some uncertainty for us and made me wonder if we should look into redirecting our way home. As we read more about it, it appeared to be concentrated more specifically at a particular terminal at Heathrow, and thankfully we were not scheduled to land or fly out of that terminal. Rather than waste our last precious time in Maldives or even Abu Dhabi (part of our return route), we decided to stay the course and see what happens when we get to London. If anything our flight could be delayed, or cancelled and we get home later than expected.
So after spending another day in Abu Dhabi, we boarded our 7 hour flight direct to London. We arrived mid afternoon and weren't quite sure what to expect after deplaning. We were pleasantly surprised to see at our arrival terminal that with our passport we could get through immigration electronically just by scanning our passport; no need to queue to see an immigration officer. How fantastic!! We breezed through immigration with such ease. Next test was to see how long it would take for our luggage to arrive and here too we were pleasantly surprised when our luggage showed up on the carousel after only about a 10 minute wait. On arrival, we felt no impact from the ongoing strike. We quickly jumped into a taxi and made our way to the hotel. We had purchased tickets to go see a show that evening, so we didn't have much time before we needed to head out for dinner. Heathrow is located quite far from the city centre and so we caught an Uber to the train station and took a 45 minute train ride to the London Bridge area. Z found a cool pub along the River Thames called The Horniman which is located in a former tea warehouse. We had a great dinner before heading to the show Guys and Dolls at the Bridge Theatre. This was a fantastic, funny, and interactive show, at least interactive for the folks who bought floor standing only tickets and needed to move around as the show progressed and needed to elevate the different stage components. This was a great way to spend our time in London and to cap off such an amazing and memorable trip. And any of my concerns about the strike impact were wasted energy in the end because everything was smooth sailing for our departure as well.... now was it because it was so darn early in the morning and not a lot of flights were leaving, or was it because the terminal we flew out of was not impacted, I'll never know. But what I do know is that I should listen to Z more who is regularly saying "worry less my dear, enjoy the moment!"
This trip was certainly one for the trips of a lifetime record books. We got to both explore two new countries in a part of the world that neither of us had really travelled to before. We were so impressed by the sights, the food, the higher standard of most everything, and all the unique first-time ever experiences. Dubai and Abu Dhabi, as developed as they both are, are beautiful in their own right. Each skyscraper has unique architectural features and with many that leave you awestruck with its design and/or height. There is definitely luxury and money here, that's quite obvious. It is such a melting pot of people and while it is in many ways a tolerant society, there are strict laws that you want to be aware of and I'd say outside of purely tourist areas and "international" beaches, it's best to dress more on the conservative side.
The sheer magnitude of the beauty of Maldives is so incredibly hard to describe with words. It brought such joy, contentment, and peace to me. The picturesque scenery was such a great environment for me to reflect and think...and it really reinforced that the beach is my happy place where I best can collect my thoughts.
On this trip, we flew over 35,000 kms on 8 different flights. We got to experience Etihad Airlines for the first time and have to say were quite impressed with their in flight service; very hospitable and gracious flight attendants. We booked this trip on points and used those points to fly business class. The seats were quite spacious as was the surrounding space and we experienced for the first time lay-flat pods that had privacy sliding doors; that provided an extra little bit of comfort when trying to sleep and not being disrupted by people walking up and down the aisle. Our flights were all mostly on time, no major delays and everything was quite efficient particularly on the Etihad flights.
As I reflect on how blessed we are to travel and explore the world through our own eyes, I came across some beautiful quotes that ring so true to how I feel:
"Of all the books in the world, the best stories are found between the pages of a passport" (author unknown). We've been extremely fortunate to write a lot of stories. And "once the travel bug bites, there is no known antidote, and I know that I shall be happily infected until the end of my life" (Michael Palin).
To travel is to live.... life is good.
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