Ireland day 1464. Wednesday 01 October 2025- Back to UK

Today’s summary	Had breakfast at the hotel then were collected at 11am and taken by car to the airport for our 1405 flight. The aircraft was pretty full but left more or less on time. The 4 hour flight was smooth and actually arrived in the UK 20 minutes early. A swift transit through Gatwick, bought some dinner at Marks & Spencer’s then were on a Thameslink train about 30 minutes after the wheels touched the tarmac. Staying in London for the next few days.
Today’s weather	Warm dry and sunny in Gran Canaria. Moderate north easterly wind. Appx 26c. Dry, bright and quite pleasant at around 17c in London.

Today’s overview location (The blue mark shows our location)		Close-up location (The blue line shows where we walked) (No GPX today)

Commentary

It’s been a brilliant holiday in Gran Canaria and I think we were both genuinely sorry to have been leaving after just a week. It felt like we had of a lot of unwinding to do when we arrived, and although I for one certainly feel significantly more relaxed than a week ago, another week would definitely have not gone amiss. Ah well, ¡hasta la próxima!

But on with the present. We had contemplated going for a sea swim before breakfast – it is such a wonderful experience, after all. But it would have turned the morning into a rush, and rushing was one of the things we were trying hard not to do. So we elected to have a cup of tea on the balcony instead, and finish off our packing, before heading down to the restaurant to get something to eat.

After breakfast, we checked out, gathered our equipaje and jumped into our 11am transfer car. The car actually arrived 15 minutes early so we, as seems to be our habit, were at the airport a full three hours before our flight. But the wait seemed to go quite quickly and the airport was quiet and well organised, so it wasn’t a hardship.

Our BA Airbus A320 had arrived early on its inbound flight so we were able to board quickly and set off promptly for our 1405 departure.

The plane was much smaller than the one coming here, and today it seemed to be completely full. We apparently had “favourable flying conditions” which meant that we arrived at Gatwick at 6pm on the dot, a full twenty minutes ahead of our scheduled time.

Yet again, we were glad to be travelling hand-baggage only, as we were off the plane, through the e-gates and on a Thameslink train in just half an hour after landing. We even had time to collect some salads for dinner (the diets start tonight) at Marks and Spencer on the way through the south terminal.

As we are spending the next few days in London, catching up with family and friends, we took a Thameslink train direct from Gatwick to town, to start the next stage of our break. We reached our destination by about 8pm, so now it’s time to enjoy our calorie-free salads and to sit back and reflect on what has been a truly outstanding week away.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Breakfast al fresco – as all our meals have been this week. Just so relaxing!	View from the front door of our hotel.

BA2709 ready to leave Las Palmas airport, Gran Canaria	And at the other end of our four hour flight. Sunshine all the way!



A throwback to last night – an evening on the balcony. Brilliant