Returning home

Possibly the ugliest building in San José.

After a morning shopping, we had lunch at the bright and airy food court on the fourth floor of the Universal on Avenida Central.

Grays Tours were prompt in picking us up by mjinibus at 2pm. It was supposed to be a shared service to the airport, but we had the minibus to ourselves.

We paid the $29 each exit tax at the airport without much queuing, but were unable to purchase any duty free rum, which was a shame. The assistants explained that if we did, as soon as we went through security at Madrid it would be confiscated as a suspicious liquid.

The Iberia flight left on time and we saw a mountain peak poking through the clouds, but alas not a volcano.

The flight was in a much more modern plane than the one in which we had arrived which let us view several recent films. Flying through the night the view over the Atlantic was magical, with small fluffy clouds being illuminated by moonlight with the starry black sky above.

Flying over East Dulwich, London

A smooth landing in Madrid and just enough time to get to the connecting BA flight to London. This was late both in departing and arrival so we were an hour behind schedule in alighting. However our bags were amongst the first off and we only had to wait 5 minutes for the RailAir coach to Reading. The coach only took 20 minutes and we then caught a cab back home.

We were pleased to find nothing major had gone wrong in our absence. A mouse had got in and chewed through a small water pipe, but as the water was switched off this had only resulted in a couple of small puddles on the floor.