A smooth start, airport price shocks, a delayed flight, and a lucky connection on the way to Peru.
Leaving London.
Today I flew from Heathrow in London to Lima in Peru, with a connection in Madrid. Getting to the airport was easy; my friend Tony drove me, and with a clear run, we arrived an hour early.
I had to wait an hour before checking in, so I sat in the terminal pondering one of life’s great travel mysteries: how a £0.50 bottle of water magically becomes £2.50 the moment it crosses into airport territory. Airports everywhere seem to operate under the same rule: inflate the price and hope tired travellers won’t complain.
Checking In.
Iberia Airlines flies from Terminal Five at Heathrow because British Airways owns Iberia, so I was checked in by BA staff for both flights. The woman who checked me in was excellent; she even phoned ahead to confirm my luggage would be checked all the way through to Peru. That small detail would prove very fortunate later.
Unfortunately, the flight to Madrid was delayed by two hours.
Madrid Connection.
When we landed in Madrid, a garbled announcement told passengers to disembark from either the front or back of the plane, depending on their connections. I couldn’t make out the message, but since I was seated at the back, I slipped out through the rear door and boarded a waiting bus.
Luck was on my side, I ended up on the correct bus and even met another traveller who would be on my Peru tour. Despite the delay, we still had enough time between flights to grab a sandwich before boarding the connecting flight to Lima at 00:30 on day two of my adventure.
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