Airports x 3

A long, long travel day. After my experience two years ago at the Munich airport, I made sure I arrived three hours ahead of time. Fortunately it went a lot more quickly this time, and I was at my gate within 45 minutes of arriving. (No Covid-document checks this year, and my overall route through the airport was much shorter, possibly because my itinerary went through London, rather than having a direct flight to the US.)

I had ample time to relax in what looked like some sort of popup lounge in Terminal H:

Water fountains are a bit harder to find here than at US airports. I checked near the restrooms I walked past on the way to my gate, but didn't see any. I decided to Google, and of course there's an entire website devoted to finding drinking fountains in airports! Turns out I only had to go one gate further to fill my bottle — thank you www.wateratairports.com !

About 45 minutes before our departure from gate 34, they announced yhat we all had to have our passports checked at gate 33. For those of us with mobile boarding passes, they put the sticker on the backs of our phones.

At Heathrow, we had to go through security again. I think this was the first airport of this trip where I had to go through the whole remove-your-laptop-and-liquids routine, but at least we get to keep our shoes on now.

Since I had three hours to get to my gate, I decided to have a sit-down lunch (I had a light breakfast at my hotel many hours earlier.) Google Maps said the best place near me was a Chinese restaurant, so I settled in for dim sum and a Diet Coke. The dim sum was very pretty.

It was a long hike to my gate (the very last B gate). Along the way there were murals, ample drinking fountains (near each restroom as expected), and Ben & Jerry's vending machines.

During my London layover, I took the time to look at my flight info in the United app, and I clicked on the "change your seat" button out of curiosity. It was a good move: I was able to change my seat to one in another row in which only the window seat was already occupied, and the middle seat remained empty.

The last leg of the trip was long but uneventful. Arrived safely at home, 22 hours after leaving my hotel.