We had a little bit of a sleep-in today and didn’t get downstairs to breakfast until about 8:45am. We had a leisurely breakfast since all we had to do this morning was get our suitcases closed and be ready to leave the hotel by 11:45am on the Porsche bus to the Kittilä airport.

We got to the airport with plenty of time to spare. When we checked in, our flight was on time. But shortly after we cleared security, our flight was pushed back by 15 minutes. And shortly after that, it was pushed back another 15 minutes. By the time we departed, we were far enough behind schedule that making our London connection in Helsinki was going to be touch and go. About 30 minutes out from landing in Helsinki, we were advised that we would be rescheduled onto a later London flight. Ordinarily this would be fine but we had arranged to have dinner with our friends Simon and Mags and we didn’t want to miss that.

When we landed in Helsinki we were looked after by a very nice lady from Finnair. She advised that the next business class seats available were on a flight that got into London around 9:00pm, far too late for us to get to the restaurant for dinner. There was only one other option, and it wasn’t a pretty one: take the 5:20pm flight from Helsinki in economy class! Stoically, we signed up for the three hours in economy. But, at the last minute, two business class seats freed up and we were able to grab those. We felt good that we had demonstrated to ourselves that we could fly economy in an emergency but, thankfully, we didn’t have to!

After we cleared immigration in Helsinki we headed to the gate. We needn’t have rushed because the London flight was also now delayed. In the end we boarded about 30 minutes behind schedule.

Our plane getting de-iced before our flight to London.
Our plane getting de-iced before our flight to London.

As we were about to push back, the captain advised that Heathrow air traffic control had asked for us to delay take-off by another 15 minutes because of congestion. The flight seemed to pass quite quickly and it looked like we might still get in around 6:45pm but air traffic control directed the captain to circle outside of London for another 20 minutes! It was 7:15pm by the time we landed, cleared immigration, picked up our bags, and met our chauffeur. We sent a message to Simon and Mags to let them know that we were on our way. Our driver got us to the hotel (the beautiful Claridge’s) in good time and we raced inside, checked in, went to our room, got changed, and headed back out again to find Bellamy’s restaurant in Mayfair.

It was after 8:30pm by the time we got to the restaurant we felt terrible for being so late. But we had a lovely dinner with Simon and Mags and two of their lovely daughters: Eleanor and Milly. We had met Eleanor in Melbourne just before Christmas and it was nice to see her again. We had not met Milly before and we thrilled to meet another one of Simon’s and Mags’s daughters. (We’ve met three now, just one still left to meet!)

Dinner was over all too quickly. It seemed that there was much conversation still to share but that will all have to wait until next time. Unless we all meet up again somewhere prior, it looks like we’ll next be catching up in a few months for Ascot and Wimbledon if we can all get ourselves organised!

After dinner we said our goodbyes and went our separate ways. We had a nice walk back to the hotel.

Andrea in the elevator at Claridge's.
Andrea in the elevator at Claridge's.

It’s about midnight here in London but it’s 2:00 am in Finland, so we’re starting to hit the wall a bit now!