An interesting start to the journey! Having arrived safely at Gatwick in plenty of time for the flight we left the car and went up the first escalator. We turned onto a second, sleeper escalator and somehow I fell over my bag and ended up travelling upside down towards the top!  I was fine but a bit embarrassed as a woman had spotted my predicament and had come up the escalator to rescue me.  Christine was unable to help as she was surrounded by bags at the bottom of the escalator. I eventually sorted myself out and left the escalator at the top, the right way up.  I was unhurt, but my pride was injured.

After that the two flights, the first to Dubai and then onward to Kolkata were pretty uneventful. The flight was late into Dubai, so we had to walk pretty swiftly to get to our departure gate for Kolkata. It was a long way, but we were glad to stretch our legs.

We were met at the airport and an air conditioned car drove us through the rush hour traffic (our guide called it rush day!) to our very pleasant hotel in the city centre. We are allowed 3 hours rest before we are taken on a sightseeing tour. I think a nap is called for……………