The draw of Home

We wake up feeling decidedly tired as we have had some pretty long and exhausting days. There's no time to lie-in though as we have a 9am train to catch. Manchester seems like it was ages ago but in other ways seems like yesterday, yet somehow our holiday has sprinted by. We have our last hotel breakfast before closing up our suitcases one final time and shutting the hotel room door behind us. As we cross the lobby to check-out I think to myself that it will be around 28 hours before we reach home... a very long journey lies ahead but I think we're both excited and ready to be going home today.

It is only a short walk to the station and then the first of our two train journeys. Fortunately the transit through Lille-Flandres is only 20 minutes this time - just enough time to find the right platform and settle into our TGV carriage for the direct journey to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport. 

Watching the fields flash by from the TGV

Our flight to Doha does not depart until 4pm so we are absurdly early but we wanted to catch a direct train to the airport rather than lug suitcases around train stations in Paris. It is the right decision in the end even though we reach the airport so early that the airline counter hasn't even opened for check-in. So we find a seat in the bustling departures hall to wait. There is nothing to do for 45 minutes except watch with some bemusement while a group of Chinese tourists takes turns photographing each other (individually and in every permutation with other members of the group) on a particular flight of steps. The locals are obviously equally puzzled as they try to navigate their way past the beaming and selfie-snapping tourists on the stairs. All the more bizarre because there is nothing especially aesthetic about the staircase and the airport terminal itself is grey and featureless. 

We're happy when we can finally check-in our luggage and make the most of our Business Class perks...! Like getting fast-tracked through Immigration and wonder of wonders, sitting in the absolutely stunning and serene surrounds of the club lounge until it is time to board the plane. When we arrive in the lounge, we are the only passengers there so we get spoilt with personal service in the rooftop restaurant ... including a lunch buffet just for us. 

Enjoying the airy lightness of the Qatar Airways Business Class Lounge at CDG Airport

When boarding time does eventually roll around, we settle into our seats for the 6.5 hour flight to Doha and look forward to peace and quiet... until the large group of unaccompanied children rolls into the cabin higgledy-piggledy. Not really unaccompanied as they have with them several nannies and also male minders (Security? Valets?). Maybe their parents are sitting in the very pointy end of the plane in the peace of their own suites but it takes an age for the kids to finally settle and it is only after tears and lots of shouting, including stern words from various adults, before they are sufficiently secured in their seats for take-off. Ross and I look silently at each other with fear in our eyes for the hours ahead, but fortunately the kids are reasonably well behaved during the flight. They only start getting fidgety again and excitedly stomp up and down the aisles a little while before we land.

Settling in for the long journey

The 2.5 hour transit in Doha in the middle of the night is testing as we desperately try to stay awake until the Perth flight at 2am but soon we're on the last leg of our journey home. The hours pass in a haze of broken sleep, movies, and lots of food... We are looked after extremely well but it is nonetheless a welcome feeling to finally commence our descent and feel the enticing calm and familiarity of home getting ever closer.

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When we do finally collapse through our front door, tired and unsure whether it's night or day, it's with a happy sigh. My stomach is as unhappy on arriving home as it was when we left, but we're home. Home! After a very fulfilling and wonderful, wonderful trip, we are Home.