Day 23
When we got up that morning, the realisation struck that this amazing trip had really come to an end. We had to get up at silly o'clock. We had another 8:30 flight and with this being classified as an international flight even though we were only going as far as Philadelphia on this leg. The latest pick up time I could choose was between 4:30 and 4:45. We got up at 4:00 and got dressed and ready. I packed the last odds and ends and we double-checked that we had not forgotten anything. We then headed to the front of the hotel. We needed to check out, but the door to reception on the hotel side was locked. I decided to walk around to the door on the carpark side and that was open. We quickly checked out and then went over to the pick up area. Supershuttle arrived right at the beginning of our pick up window. We were the last people to be picked up so we headed straight to the freeway.
Traffic was very light at that hour so we got to the airport in plenty of time. Check in was quick and painless as was security. So we found ourselves at the gate with 3 hours to spare. I had hoped that we would get some breakfast, but this area was just a huge building site and there was nothing in the vicinity that was open. So we just found some seats near the gate and relaxed. There was a socket near where we were sitting so I could plug in my iPad and catch up online without worrying that I would not have enough charge to see me through the flight.
Time did go quite quickly and soon it was time to board. The usual thing happened that tends to happen on most domestic flights in the USA. They had called everybody with priority boarding and the first two groups and then they were asking people to gate check their hand luggage. Shortly afterwards there was announcement that the overhead bins were full. I wonder if they used to have the same problems before they started to charge for checked luggage. In any case, it is ridiculous what goes through as hand luggage. Some of the said hand luggage I would describe as a medium sized suitcase. They either need to drastically increase storage space or they need to enforce maximum sizes for hand luggage like most other airlines do.
Once everybody was on the plane and all the hand luggage stowed, the flight was smooth. I alternated reading and napping and we soon arrived in Philadelphia. I had not really appreciated on the outbound just how big Philadelphia airport is. It also became obvious that the airport is organized in a very strange way. We arrived in Terminal 1 East and our onward flight was from Terminal 1 West. This was actually further than our gates were on the outbound where we arrived in Terminal 1 West and departed from Terminal C. Of course, what did not help either is that our gate was the last gate in Terminal 1 West. Still, we had plenty of time and it was actually nice to stretch our legs as we had spent most of the day sitting down for one reason or another. We also came across something really interesting. They had a scale model of the Liberty Bell made from
Lego on display in the area between the two parts of Terminal 1. I was very glad that we came across this.
By that stage we were both hungry. Unfortunately given the size of the airport and the fact that this is a major hub, there were surprisingly few food options. There were a couple of restaurants in Terminal 1 West, but they were really small and absolutely packed. In the end we retraced our steps as we had seen a small food court as we were walking towards our departure gate. We both opted for a combination plate at Maki of Japan. I had a double serving of Bourbon Chicken with fried rice and Graham went with the orange chicken and the spicy chicken with fried rice. I had one last orange soda and Graham had a Coke. Once we finished our meal, we headed back towards our gate.
Graham spotted some massage chairs on the way and decided that he rather fancied this. I left my hand luggage with him and went exploring. I quite often see Ghirardelli chocolate in duty free shops in the USA and wanted to check if I could find the Peppermint Bark squares. Between the various duty free shops, they had a good selection of Ghirardelli chocolate, but there were no Peppermint Bark squares to be found anywhere. I did not have any more luck with the dark chocolate version of Patron XO Café either. On my travels, I did however pass a Starbucks and I decided to get an Americano for Graham and a Chestnut Praline Latte for myself. While I was waiting for my coffee, I quickly checked Facebook and I saw some rather disturbing news. Apparently there was a loud bang on the Disney Magic followed by thick black smoke and there were some reports that the Magic had lost power. I was quite sad about this as the Magic will always have a special place in my heart. Fortunately whatever it was seems to have resolved itself quickly as by the time we got on our flight, power had been restored and the Magic was back underway.
When I got back, Graham’s massage had finished and he was actually helping somebody trying to get online using the free Wi-Fi. They managed to get it sorted. We picked up our stuff and headed over to the gate. We found seats with a socket nearby so I was able to recharge my iPad. Once I had finished my coffee, I decided to have one more look at the closest duty free shop. They did not have the dark chocolate version of the Patron XO Café, but they did have the normal version and I was starting to run low on this. So I decided to buy a bottle. I then went back and went online until it was time to get on the plane.
This time there was no issue with the hand luggage. I suppose the fact that this was an international flight and people could check in one bag free of charge had something to do with as did the fact that we had a larger plane with more storage space. There was a short delay while we were waiting for clearance to leave the position. Once we were at cruising altitude, they offered dinner, but I was not hungry and just had something to drink. I spent that part of the flight reading. Once everything had been cleared away, I decided to get some sleep. This was a wise decision as this must have been the shortest transatlantic flight I have ever been on. It took 5 hours and 10 minutes. We must have had one heck of a tailwind. I pretty much slept the whole time. When we got to Manchester, we were so early that there was still another aircraft on the gate we were supposed to be at so we had to wait for a while until the other aircraft moved off.
Even with this delay, we managed to be on our way home before we were even supposed to land. Passport control was not too busy and we did not have long to wait for our luggage. As we started our journey home during the middle of rush hour, we decided to take to the trains as we did not fancy getting stuck in a traffic jam. We were lucky and there was a train leaving shortly after we got to the station. We then decided to take the tram for the last part of the way and did not have to wait long for this either. When we got home, we quickly checked if the damage done by the leaks before our holiday had been fixed, which it had. We then put our luggage in the living room and went to get some sleep.