Innsbruck airport

A last view of mountains from the terrace at Innsbruck airport. We left the hotel at 6.15am, arriving in Innsbruck two hours later leaving plenty of time to kick around the airport until our flight left at 12.05.

There were excellent views as we ascended through the snow covered mountains. Leaving the Alps behind we crossed the Rhine Rift Valley between the Vosges and the Black Forest with the river itself clearly visible between the two uplands.

After that visibility worsened so that by the time we landed at Gatwick it was raining hard and it felt much colder than in the Dolomites.

All went well getting back into the UK apart from an error we’d made in Susan’s locator form. This was rectified by passing through the manual passport gates.

Pleased and relieved to have successfully and safely concluded our first major expedition negotiating all the hurdles and getting home safely. Thank you all for your kind comments over the past week. As you can tell, we enjoyed the Dolomites immensely.