Day 5

Readers get a bit of a break today as day 5 was just a travel day. After a great final breakfast in the hotel we made our way back to the train station. Navigating the train station was still a bit stressful, but less so having been there once already. The interesting thing we found is that they do not post the departure platform until about 20 minutes before you leave, so if you’re an early traveler you have to find a central place to hang out until you know where you’re going.

The train ride was uneventful, and we made it back to London about 20 minutes late. Our scheduled driver was waiting at the same spot he dropped us off at on Tuesday. Luckily Jeff is very aware of his surroundings and navigated us right there. I probably would have taken much longer, as I wasn’t really paying super close attention to exactly where he dropped us off!!

Our 3.5 hour wait was made very bearable by once again finding our way to the British Airways Club Lounge. This lounge was enormous, but didn’t feel super crowded. The food and drink selections were great, and since we skipped lunch we took full advantage of it! Due to the size of our plane and the number of passengers boarding, we were told to be at the gate 1 hour ahead of time. When we got to the gate we had a fun surprise…..it was an A380 with TWO FLOORS!!! We weren’t lucky enough to sit on the top floor, but it was pretty cool nonetheless!

The “pod” configuration in this airline is a bit different….you and your seat mate are sitting across the from each other on the other side of a moveable half-wall. I was on the inside by the window and Jeff was on the aisle. The numerous amenities were the same as on the American flight, but there was one major drawback! The passenger seated behind Jeff had a footrest that extended to the back of Jeff’s chair, so when I needed to get out to use the restroom I had to climb over his feet while he was sleeping, which was not convenient and pretty clumsy. I had read about this configuration in my research, and it is definitely a big drawback. Overall I felt more cramped and less comfortable than I did on the American flight. A huge bonus, however, was that on the 10.5 flight I managed to sleep for about 6 hours, which was GLORIOUS!

After a yummy breakfast of blueberry pancakes it was time to land in Johannesburg. I’ll save the next part of the journey for day 6!