The last part of our adventure to the Antarctic was a long flight from Montevideo to Madrid airport.
Then after a long wait yet another flight to Gatwick to pick up a taxi to take us home after 24 days away.
Our expedition voyage on Hurtigruten’s MS Fram would take us from Ushuaia to Antarctica, to South Georgia, around the Falklands and then onto Montevideo.
Day 24 Madrid and Gatwick 17th March
Madrid airport
The plane landed at 4.20 am at Madrid airport. Deplaning took an extended time mainly due to the amount of hand luggage that had to be sorted from around the cabin.
Our cases were routed through to Gatwick. Unfortunately we had to go into Madrid airport. We went up to the same security checkpoint for transfers that we passed through on our way to Buenos Aires. This time in the morning it was closed!
When eventually it did open after over 30 minutes of waiting the randomness of the instructions and searches was disconcerting. Being shouted at in Spanish with no effort to accommodate tired passengers was not the way to endear anyone. A couple of fellow ex-Falm passengers were on the receiving end of this capricious behaviour even down to being forced to empty their bags before going thorough the x-ray machine.
Our flight to Gatwick didn’t have a gate allocated so we retired for a drink at the only venue open – Starbucks. It was all a bit deja vu with our flight out to Buenos Aires a few weeks ago.
We waited until 6.10 am for a gate then until 7.10 am to board. Queuing again was the norm as per normal as there was no boarding by row number. As per our last flight out of Madrid we were driven around the airport on a bus.
This flight was Boeing 737-800 and we hoped that it would be in better shape than the Airbus that we had just flown on from Montevideo.
The last flight
Air Europa’s system AGAIN placed us at the back of the plane and to cap it all we had 30+ Spanish teenagers for company. They ignored the stewards and ran amok for most of the flight out of their seats and shouting to each other down the aisles.
Chatting to the post master
The lady in the aisle seat, next to us, was managing to sleep through all this noise and chaos and it was only after we crossed over the Isle of Wight did she wake up to have a chat.
She had flown into Madrid from Buenos Aires after a flight from Ushaia. She was the post master from the “Penguin Post Office” and had spent almost a week in Ushaia balancing the books from the post office before setting off for home in Finland!
We were pleased to hear that our travelling companion out to Buenos Aires had managed to meet up with his partner and had elected to stay at the base until the final pickup. They were now somewhere in Patagonia enjoying a holiday together.
Next year she would be back at the Antarctica’s famous post office and we asked her to make sure our postcards get their stamps next season!
Welcome to Gatwick
De-planing was another long wait as the teenagers were desperate to leave and frankly we just sat and waited until the plane was empty before standing up to leave.
Welcome to Gatwick with all the automatic passport checking gates broken.
The end of our Antarctic adventure was an anti-climax, now to process the 4,500+ images …..