Home, sweet home

We made it back to our apartment in Dubai yesterday morning at 3am after experiencing delays in both our flights yesterday due to the imminent security threats in the UK.

We spent the last few days of our holiday in Amsterdam, however we had to fly home to Dubai from London. On the bright side, it was London Gatwick and not London Heathrow.

Having disembarked an hour later than scheduled from our flight into London, we raced through the Gatwick airport to find queues everywhere. It seemed that overnight, new arrival forms had been introduced (when there were none previously), and immigration personnel and check-in staff were also interrogating each passenger with many questions.

The mood was sombre as we weaved our way through queues of passengers holding only their clear plastic bags. We were only allowed to take our passports, boarding passes, wallets and keys in these bags. No iPod, lip balm, cellphone, and forget about that Evian brumisateur! We ended up checking a whole suitcase in as fragile as it contained both our cameras, and some easily breakable items we'd picked up on our trip that we'd planned to take as cabin luggage.

It was a little comical as every single person had to take off their shoes and wait to be handsearched. It was also a little scary getting to the end of the line and seeing police with machine guns.

Although travelling under these conditions were challenging and restrictive, it was also strangely liberating in some respects! Once we were through with the security checks, it was a breeze not having to worry about hand luggage and embarking and disembarking has never been simpler or quicker! What an experience to end our trip with.