FLIGHT TO BEIJING WITH STOPOVER IN LONDON

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Day 1: Barcelona - London - Beijing

The alarm sounds at 4:50 in the morning. Something strange if we stop to think that today is Good Friday, a holiday in Catalonia. But not so rare if we remember that today begins one of our long trips of the year: we go on a trip to China in 25 days for free! Start our # China12Trip with a flight to Beijing with stopover in London that we will take in a few hours.
Several months ago, as we said in the preparations for a trip to China, we found a flight "multi-destination"with which we could enter China with a flight to Beijing with stopover in London and leave for Hong Kong, something that will allow us to make a route from north to south through China, without losing a day returning to Beijing, to return home at the end of the trip.

This time we flew with British Airways as we did on the trip to the West Coast of the United States, leaving at 10.15 from Barcelona, making a stopover in London of almost 5 hours and leaving for Beijing on another flight with a duration of 10 hours that leaves at 16:30 from London.
We leave home at 6:20 in the morning and after an hour and a quarter of a car we arrive at T1 where we are already waiting for Park and Vola to pick up our car and store it until our return. Its Premium service is the best invention and since we discovered it we have hooked to this that we come to find and bring the car and more at these hours in which the minutes are worth money.

Leaving the car to our friend of Aparca i Vola

More practical information to prepare your trip to Beijing
- 50 things to see and do in Beijing
- 10 essential places to visit in China
- 10 essential tips for traveling to China

The first thing we do is check the bags and that is that on this trip we will make a small change with respect to the rest of the long trips that we usually do and this is to travel with bags instead of doing backpacks, as we usually do in this type of travel .
We hope not to be mistaken and more telling that we carry medium suitcases, which weigh very little and on top are 4 wheels, something that greatly facilitates their transfer. With them we want to forget the back pain that we sometimes suffered with the backpacks after walking a few kilometers and the discomfort of carrying a couple of backpacks each, the large one of clothes and the small one of electronics.

About to check our Gladiator bags heading to Beijing

After checking and passing the security checks, today is one of the days with more air traffic because it is Easter and we have to take up the cables and batteries of the small backpacks, we have coffee and a couple of pastries and nothing time we are already at the boarding gate ready to catch the first flight of the trip to China for free.
On this occasion we take off on time, having as a flight partner to Recio, from here there is no one who lives and the flight of 2 hours passes, never better flying.

We landed in London at 11:40 in the morning on T3 and as our next flight leaves from T5 we have to make a Terminal change in Heathrow, first taking the bus, which leaves every 7 minutes and makes the transfer between different terminals.
The Transfer between terminals in London Heathrow is about 15 minutes or so, but the company stipulates that the minimum time between flights is 90 minutes to ensure that it gives time to make the transfer plus pass the security check.
It takes us from the moment we land until we arrive at terminal 5, passing the security check, about 45 minutes, so there is enough time to make the transfer.
The first thing we do is go find a machine to get a couple of sodas, paying them with a credit card since we have forgotten the pounds we had at home the last time we came to the United Kingdom, on the trip to Bath, Bristol , Salisbury and Stonehenge and when it's time to eat, we go to Wagamama where we order some duck gyozas, a yakisoba and a Pad Thai, plus a Tiger beer and a coke for £ 30.45 that we also pay by credit card.

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It's 3 in the afternoon when we leave the restaurant, from where we had incredible views of the airport, and we go in search of our boarding gate.

Heathrow views from the restaurant

They have not yet set the door since it is early, but they confirm that it will leave from section B, so it is time to go down to the ground floor and take a train to take us to that area of the airport.
In the end between one thing and another, it really takes a few minutes to get to the boarding gate, while still in the same terminal.
We embark on time in our 747 Jet, that is a two-story plane, type "beluga", which outwardly may seem very large and modern, but once inside, you realize that there is nothing further from reality.
Minimum space between seats, small and old entertainment screens and a plane that at least has the same years as us.

Plane that will take us to Beijing

But what will be done, will take us to Beijing, the entrance door of our Trip to china, so you still have to thank him.
And so we spent the first part of the trip, between reading and food (in the end we have lost count of the times we have eaten since we took the first flight to Beijing with stopover in London), and the desperation to want to sleep, something almost impossible with the talk of 10 hours that our neighbors have behind, who do not stop at 10 hours of the flight, literally as we say ...
We can only wait a few more hours and we will be landing in Beijing.