2023 - La Loire à Vélo: 07/29/23

Saturday, July 29, 2023

Day 65: Thu 27 Jul - Brisbane to Home, 277km, 4h

We landed at Brisbane pretty much on time (6:25am). We then waited what seemed like an eternity for the doors to open. It was probably to let the very special (first class) people at the front of the top deck to leave. Re-entry to Australia has been made so much easier and faster. On the way to immigration we stopped by a machine, answered some questions, retrieved our ticket, complete with a most unattractive photo, and proceeded directly to the automated gate. Scanned our tickets whilst standing on the footmarks, and we were done.

Wendy waited for the panniers to come off from the normal luggage carousel and Greg went to the oversize area to collect the bikes. A little while later, Wendy received a call from Greg saying he had all the luggage. With the Emirates app, we could see our three items of checked luggage were at the connecting airport. We forgot to check if they were onboard when we boarded, but in Brisbane, Wendy could see they had arrived. And, that's without an Apple tag. Now through to Customs; we had a new guy, and all he asked was "are these mountain bikes or road bikes?". "Road bikes," we replied, and he pointed to the exit. We were out of the airport by 6:15am, waiting for the Andrews Parking bus to pick us up. By 7:15am we were driving out onto the Sunshine Motorway, on our way home.

We stopped at Maccas Caboolture for an eye-opening coffee and again just North of Gympie to change drivers. We arrived at a beautiful-looking Hippo Farm about 11:15am and then began the unpacking process. We tried to stay awake as long as we could, but just had to have a nana nap before having lunch. After that, we did not stop until we went to bed at 9:45pm.

Total transit time from leaving the hotel at Lyon to arriving at HF: 38h25m. Bring on the supersonic jet!!

We’ll do a wrap up of the tour when we get time, but overall the whole thing went well and we wouldn’t change much if we had the chance.

Cloudy day in Brisbane for our arrival

Descending through the clouds

Nice sparkly runway

Day 64: Wed 26 Jul - Dubai to Brisbane, 24h10m

34-41 (Dubai) - 13 (Brisbane on arrival) degC, tropical in Dubai (although we didn’t go outside) to very fresh (for us anyway), with a light drizzle every so often in Brisbane

Walk: 8km: total: 479km

We arrived at Dubai a few minutes late at 12:22am, and so began the long trek, after the obligatory security screening, through the concourses to the Emirates B Lounge. We moved spots twice during the first 90 minutes and eventually found a nice quiet area where we could snooze without too much interruption. We took it in turns to watch the bags while the other walked. When we received our boarding passes in Lyon, they said we would be departing from a B gate, so that's why we were in the B Lounge. However, we have been through Dubai many times and knew this could change. When we arrived at the B Lounge, the departures board showed us departing from an A Gate. We did not immediately rush to the A Lounge as we knew it may change. Wendy was in no hurry to leave the B lounge as that is where the Moёt & Chandon bar is, and we were sitting adjacent it. It was only 2:44am (7:44am in Aus), so thought it a bit early to be indulging. At the 3.5 hr to go to boarding mark, the board still said A lounge, so after a glass of Rosé, (they only have the imperial brut at all other bars), off we went. The walk was a lot more pleasant as we could only take the underground driverless tram. It still involved a little walk, but not too much.

Once inside the A Lounge, we found a suitable spot that was a bit noisy from the bar underneath the lounge, but relatively free of foot traffic and other human noise. Greg managed to have another nana nap, whilst Wendy walked the almost 1km long lounge a few times. Boarding was delayed about 30 minutes, and take-off by another 30 minutes. The A380 Business Class seats is really spacious and our heads were trying to fall off our shoulders but we managed to stay awake until dinner was served, eaten, and trays removed. Wendy had not slept since leaving the hotel in Lyon and managed four hours of interrupted sleep, and Greg managed a few less. We then watched the box, until Wendy could find nothing better, so watched Top Gun: Maverick for the 4th time, tragic, but you do pick up on little things on every re-run.

During the 13h50m flight they provide drinks (including tea and coffee) and snacks from a bar and snack area at the back of the top deck. Wraps, cakes, muffins, nuts, chips, fresh fruit and other items are laid out and you help yourself. However we mostly waited for them to serve a lovely hot breakfast a couple of hours before we landed in Brisbane. Thankfully the flight was very smooth, quiet and uneventful.