On the way 11th June, 2012

Left Sydney at last. Have been looking forward to this break for a long time. Nine hours and twenty minutes to Honkers. I've read my Tele and a few Women's mags brought on by Sarah. Ate our "lunch", a bit of lukewarm beef and a some noodles, the "Beef and Blackbean Sauce with Hokkien Noodles and Asian Greens", lovely.

Watched a couple of movies, "Man on a Ledge" with Sam Worthington - not too bad, and the "Rum Diary" with Johnny Depp....

quote "human beings are the only animals that have a belief in g-d, and the only animals that act like they don't".

Landed in Hong Kong and made our way through the terminal to Transfers. Almost immediately, we needed to go to Gate 17 for our British Air flight 26 to London. It was one of the larger Boeings, a 747-400, and seemed to be absolutely packed, unlike the plane out of Sydney. Bad news though. Once in the plane we were told that the air conditioning would not work on this plane until the engines were started for take off. The next bit of bad news was that a go slow on flights leaving in that time of the morning over China was being enforced and our flight was to be delayed on the runway for one and three quarter hours. The heat in Hong Kong was oppressive, even at one in the morning and on the closed plane even more so. I was sure we would suffer some medical emergencies with one or more of the passengers succumbing to heat stroke. Everyone was removing clothing and fanning themselves. Water was offered continuously and eventually we were given the "all clear" to take off, thankfully just over 80 minutes late. After about another hour in flight the temperature finally cooled down, dinner was served once more and we settled into our 12 and a half hour flight to London. I watched the latest Mission Impossible movie with Tom Cruise but it was largely forgettable, and read an interesting novel on Amish life, "Growing up Amish" by Ira Wagler.

Finally landed in London, and just made the flight to Madrid.

The Marriot Palace dining room.

The British Air - Madrid flight was comfortable, and only 2 and a half hours thankfully. Regretably, due to the change over, my luggage was lost on route. We waited at Madrid airport for 3 hours for it to turn up,but no luck, so taxied in to our hotel sans luggage.

                 

The Hotel, Marriot Palace, in Old Madrid, is beautiful, and Sarah and I wandered through Madrid during the afternoon, passing through the Puerta del Sol with it's shops and cafes, and finally settling for a lunch in the Plaza Mayor - originally a site for bullfights, executions, pageant and trial by Inquisition.We watched the crowds and buskers, until heading back to the hotel, where I collapsed into a deep sleep,still in the afternoon, only to be awoken at 11pm by staff who had just received my luggage from the airport.