London London to Dubai 17 Jan 2017

Wow! The Airbus A380 is a BIG aircraft. I'm amazed so many people got on the aircraft in such a short space of time. It's probably helped by the fact the flight today isn't full, we've been told our row of three seat downstairs, in economy, will only be occupied by the two of us. Once on board, I'm impressed with both the seat width and pitch, it promises to be a comfortable journey.

We are airborne by 1210 and are told our flight time is just over 7 hours. The route is going to take us across the channel and then through Belgian, Dutch, German, Czech and Austrian airspace. After passing Vienna, we will pass through Slovakia and Hungary and on over Romania and Bulgaria to the Black Sea.

Lunch, a salad of rosemary chicken with radicchio and grains is taken as we fly over Southern Germany, my bottle of wine lasting well into the Czech Republic. It's incredible looking down, that I've driven most of this route at one time or another.

Three hours into the flight and we are just crossing the Black Sea coast at Varna. Our next country will be Turkey followed by Iran before heading down the Persian Gulf to the United Arab Emirates.

The flight arrived at 2242 and we are now 4 hours ahead of UK, temperature 22C!

The journey through Dubai airport involved a giant lift and a train journey, but passing through immigration, baggage claim and customs was hassle free. We found an ATM and drew some local currency, the Dirham, and found the taxi queue.

We were directed into one of the local taxis, ours had a female driver, and set off from the airport. Even late at night, traffic was busy, especially around the airport and the journey through the centre of the city was on a 7 lane highway. After 20 minutes we arrived at Siobhan and Aaron's flat on the fifth floor of a tower block.