To the gates
Walking to the gates we spent quite a bit of time looking at all the shops and looked enviously at the other restaurants – definitely next time.
We sat and watched the snow fall and the airport tractors clearing the apron beneath us.
Gate 13
Gate 13 was through Immigration and when we arrived it was quite empty. I walked around the whole area trying to find wall plugs that were live – no joy. The Duty Free was being re-modelled so this may have been the reason for no power.
Through the windows we could see the stand for our aircraft when it arrived covered in a fine dusting of snow. The airport was very busy with tractors clearing the aprons and 5 large snow ploughs clearing the aprons and the runway.
Past the DHL 757 I could see four Boeing 737 white tails. We watched as small jets and propellor aircraft were landing and taking off from the gates behind us.
We moved away Gate 13 and went into the cafe at the tip of the terminal and ordered tea and coffee. There were four wall sockets that worked underneath the bench seats. When a couple of travellers left we quickly moved to plug-in our phones into their socket for one last sip of power. We were approached to do a survey for the tourist board about visiting Tallinn. This passed 15 minutes and resulted in Linda receiving a reflective tab for her efforts.
On the opposite side of the terminal I watched a Norweigian 737 being de-iced. I did not expect the de-icer to be such a colour.
Our plane landed at 2.55 pm, a little late, and made its way to the gate.
The snow ploughs went back out onto the runway.
We went through to the desk and joined the queue of passengers. No group loading just one queue for everyone – first come first board. The airport staff were walking up and down the queue trying and sometimes telling travellers to check their carry-on bags. The best indication that was going to be a full flight.
We had checked in with the same seats as the outbound flight and with only a camera bag and handbag we had no issues with the overhard locker space. Once the plane had been re-fuelled and all the passengers were onboard the de-icing started on the snow covered plane.
After take-off we waited for the M&S trolley to make its way from the front of the plane so we could have a cup of tea. The flight being so full it was taking so long that the other cabin staff were coming from the rear galley without a trolley to serve us at the rear of the cabin.
After the plane climbed through the clouds we had some great views and this is the one I captured (after some Lightroom and Photoshop editing on my phone.)
Heathrow
There were no delays at Heathrow and we descended through the clouds over central London for our approach.
We were only 20 minutes later than scheduled when we landed. We were at the T5-A so no trains needed to get to the terminal. Immigration was empty, a good job as 50% of the self-scan booths were broken. Then it was downstairs for the long wait for our suitcase.
Once through we jumped straight onto the coach for the Long Term car park – another trip over with lots of memories of Tallinn and of snowy cityscapes.
