QF9 from Melbourne to London stops at Dubai, essentially to replenish supplies, do a quick clean and presumably to take on fuel.

While this is happening any passengers going on to London have to leave the aircraft, go through security control and then loop back to the departure lounge to wait for re-boarding.  After our shenanigans with security at Melbourne, Dubai was a breeze.  Liquids in a bag we forgot, no need to remove computers or iPads – in fact they didn’t really seem to care about our luggage at all.  There must be something dodgy about Megan though – i did not mention that coming through Melbourne we were tagged for “random” bomb residue scanning and then at Dubai, Megan was pulled aside to be x-rayed.

The flight to London seemed to go quickly and our excitement was building even though we were tired.  Hamish and Anthony struck up a fun conversation with a flight attendant who I think was quite taken with Hamish, and surprised by the nature and complexity of questions that Hamish kept asking me about the aircraft.  As the flight neared the end we once again got chatting with the attendant (she sat facing us in a crew seat for take off and landing).  It was during this conversation that the delayed flight in Melbourne actually started to bite.  The attendant offered to arrange for Hamish to visit the cockpit to see the pilots once we had landed – unfortunately we were pressed for time and needed to change terminals for the flight to Copenhagen and so had to politely decline.  I’m not sure who was more disappointed – Hamish or me.

Arriving at Heathrow heralded the arrival of an endless grin on Megan’s face.  With a bounce in her step we breezed through the terminal with Megan pointing out all of the familiar brands from her time in the UK 18 years ago.

Imagine Megan’s horror when the children insisted on getting a hot chocolate from Starbucks because Starbucks is “cool”.

Boarding the Airbus A320 to Copenhagen felt light getting into a light aircraft after being on the A380. The flight time was barely more than a hop from Melbourne to Sydney and after nearly 30 hours since leaving Melbourne we arrived in Copenhagen.  Unlike our previous airport adventures, Copenhagen was easy.  We only had to wait for one person in the line ahead of us at passport control and Hamish (an old hand at this now) lead the way.  Next was customs which any Australian will know can be a challenge.  Not in Denmark though.  2 simple choices – something to declare or nothing to declare.  We chose nothing to declare, but still expecting to speak with a customs official it came as a shock we we realised that we had exited the international terminal to a fantastic surprise …

Megan writes on!
Being surprised to be out I (Megan) started to look for signs to the Train station, when I heard my name.  Tine, Bjarne, Christian and Sofie had travelled out to the airport to meet us.  It was such a lovely surprise.  One thing that I felt keenly during my backpacking days was arriving at new places, walking out to a see of expectant faces none of which were there for you.  Instead of figuring out the ticket system, Bjarne took care of tickets and we were on our way to the central station in Kobenhaven.  Our accomodation at Urban House was only around the corner.  We dropped off our bags and settled in downstairs for a quick dinner.  Anthony and I had a 1/2 litre of the famous Christmas Beer while the kids indulged in burgers.  Amelia ordered a cheese burger and she got a cheese burger.  A cheese round, crumb deep fried in a burger bun.  Welcome to the beginning of new experiences.