There was virtually no rubbish, no broken glass, no ‘loud offensive behaviour’, very little advertising…At around 3pm we’d had enough, made our way back to Tung Chung, popped inside the mall to use a bathroom (flushing was out of action at our hotel), we’re very conscious of the expensive ‘labels’ scene on the higher levels, got the S1 back to hotel. Feeling desperate for a beer, we walked thru the tunnel to the airport in search of a reasonably priced bar establishment…they apparently don’t exist in the airport! Got three 500 ml Heinekens, a packet of chips & a Peking Duck wrap in a convenience store to consume in our room- at a reasonable price: the whole bill was less than the cost of one small hotel beer (and the beer cheaper than in Australia). Airport bars seemingly don’t exist & there are virtually no cafes!

A slow afternoon waiting for the right time to walk the 5 minutes to the airport.

First hurdle was checking in. The self-serve kiosk couldn’t process D and directed us to the assisted check in counter. Bonnie took some time trying to get us both processed, eventually giving up and calling or her supervisor. Seems the system wouldn’t accept that our tickets didn’t match our passports – both tickets missing our middle names. That had’t been an issue leaving Sydney so watch this space leaving Barcelona in 3 months! First security check – via a ‘token’ was OK, but the second check using facial recognition required a manual check for D. Then a trek down several escalators to board a fast train, to then go up several escalators to arrive at our departure gate….to find out that departure was delayed, but that the Australian pilot Chad would try to make up time.

Next post – Spain.