Today we were booked to fly from Edinburgh to Lyon in France via London Heathrow with British Airways. The first flight was due to depart at 11:15am.
There was a severe weather forecast for today. They were predicting heavy rain but when we woke up it was just light drizzle. The airport terminal is about "5 minutes walk" from our hotel.
British Airways had sent a message saying flights might be delayed because of the bad weather.
We checked out of the hotel at 8:30 and set off to walk to the airport terminal. Although it was only light rain, there was a strong wind blowing. We reached the terminal at 8:45.
At the airport check-in, my bag weighed 22kg (within the 23kg limit) and Suzy's was only 21.6kg.
It was a different layout to most airports because after checking in, you need to cart your bags to the conveyor belts behind the check-in counters. Mine sat there for 5 minutes before it eventually disappeared, leaving me wondering about whether it would turn up in Lyon safely.
After going through the hassles of a crowded security, we found a cafe to sit and wait for our flight.
All passengers were on board at 11:15am but the flight didn't depart until 12:05pm. The captain said the delay was caused by the weather and delays with loading luggage onto the plane.
Although we were travelling in economy class, we had aisle seats near the front of the plane just behind business class. Luckily, there was an empty seat next to me. In fact, in quite a few rows the middle seat was empty.
The captain managed to make up some of the lost time and we landed at Heathrow Terminal 5 at 1:20pm. The plane parked on the tarmac a long way from the terminal and so we had to cart our carry-on luggage sown the stairs from the plane and then get a bus to the terminal.
The terminal was very busy and we couldn't find a table in the cafes and so we bought takeaway sandwiches from Pret a Manger.
The plane we were going to catch was running late - no doubt because of the weather. Interestingly it came from Edinburgh.
By the time we reached the departure gate, I was limping and Suzy asked a staff member whether I could board early with the people who "need special assistance". The answer was yes.
While we waited near the airbridge, I chatted to a man who was flying home to Belgium. He said all the direct flights had been cancelled because of the weather and the only way he could get there was in multiple legs via Lyon.
Once again, we had aisle seats just behind business class. This flight was very full and they'd made multiple announcements saying there wouldn't be enough room on board for everyone's carry-on luggage. They needed some people to put theirs in the checked luggage. We were OK.
The flight left half an hour late at 3:45pm and landed in Lyon just after 6pm Lyon time (5pm London time). We waited ages for our bags but they did turn up eventually.
Scenic had organised a driver to take us to our hotel. He was waiting for us when we emerged from the terminal at 6:45pm. The traffic in Lyon was very heavy and we reached our hotel, Hotel de L'Abbaye, at 7:45pm.
This hotel has lots of character and the staff were very good. It's the kind of hotel where you sit down at a reception desk when you arrive. A pretty young girl then organises all the paperwork. Most of the staff were French but one girl was English.
They'd upgraded us to a better room on the third floor. It had a king size bed, lounge, table with two chairs, safe, wardrobe.
The bathroom had a large walk-in shower which should have been safer than a shower in a bath but, when we had a shower before dinner, the floor was very slippery. Quite dangerous. Later I asked for a non-slip mat. They could find one and instead gave us two extra towels to lie on the shower floor.
For dinner, we went to the hotel restaurant which was an elegant upmarket restaurant. For main course, I ordered deer which I'd never had before. We shared a delicious chocolate dessert.
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