More big letters

We left just after 10:30 a.m. and took a Waterloo-bound train, a Jubilee Line to Canning Town, and a DLR to London City Airport. We arrived in about an hour, which was much faster than I had thought it would be. Therefore, we had time to kill.

Our baggage allowance for the flights to Edinburgh seemed remarkably generous. I’d packed with the idea that the biggest of the suitcases would go in the hold, but the other could be taken as cabin baggage because it was of the right size, and it would be safer to be sure some of the Christmas presents landed with me. At the last minute, we decided to check them both in and only have our hand baggage. I am glad we did. It was a lot less hassle to have just a small bag each. As I’d planned the Christmas presents, knowing we’d be travelling, the biggest ones had been delivered directly. Only two were in the big cases, and one of those had a blade, so I would never have made it onto the plane. What I was doing buying my brother the food chopper he wanted, in full knowledge I’d be flying, is anybody’s guess.

We waited at the airport with a snack and a coffee. London City Airport has changed a lot since I last took a flight: there are a lot of places to sit and eat. The corridor with many of the gates seems to have been expanded to accommodate passengers who want to sit and eat. The time passed quickly, and when our gate was called, we walked to the other side of the airport. The only odd thing about the gate was that it was down some stairs and seemed a little hidden. It was also small: the BA CityFlyer Embraer 190 aircraft scheduled on the route has a capacity of fewer than 100 people, but the gate area could barely handle that number. Fortunately, we were not there too long, although long enough for the staff to ask people to check some of the more oversized bags, and again, I was thankful we’d given ours over at check-in.

The flight was less than an hour. We were served drinks, and we opted for the BA champagne. Clearly, there was a need to use up the bottle as, before landing, we were given ‘landing booze’ – another drink to empty the bottle that we held onto while approaching Edinburgh.

Dad wanted to pick us up from the airport, and we let him know when we’d landed and collected our luggage. We made our way to the pick-up area: we were welcomed to the city by large, glorious letters spelling out the city’s name. Mum and Dad pulled up within a few minutes, and we headed to Portobello. I was surprised that the sat nav-suggested route was through the city centre. 

We had a lovely evening with a delicious spaghetti meal (more spaghetti than I’ve seen before). M made some very large espresso martinis, which everybody enjoyed.  The renovations on the house have worked really well: there’s a lovely open kitchen-diner (which seems to have had the floor issues fixed), and everywhere is tastefully decorated to a very high standard. We had a very comfortable bed in the spare room/study. We ended the day watching Death in Paradise, which brings all the family together.