Finally, after almost of eleven months of planning, the day we were due to leave was finally here.  Our original itinerary had us travelling in March and we were intending to spend time in Bath and Cornwall, but due to work commitments we needed to change dates to January.  Most of what we wanted to see and do in Cornwall would have been closed, so we decided to change to Paris, which is our favourite city, and to visit another couple of French cities as well as Barcelona.

After a busy Christmas and a few days break over New Year to watch the fireworks, we were finally ready to go.

A driver collected us for the drive to the airport – we find that if we are travelling for more than three weeks it is cheaper to use a driver than pay for parking, plus it is so much more relaxing.

We checked in at Tullamarine early and instead of our usual pre-trip meal at PJ O’Brien’s, we decided to eat sliders at Air Stream café.  Very enjoyable feed, followed by a glass of wine at Movida before our night flight to London.

As usual, Emirates was excellent – only problem was a crying baby who did not seem to stop crying the whole way.  Thank goodness for the noise cancelling headphones that G bought for me!