The Ups and Downs of Rio de Janeiro

The is the last blip in this series covering three cities in three countries and three continents in three days.

The up and down from Barcelona to Madrid went very smoothly this morning. The up to Rio was also fine. I love walking round these big jets mid-flight when the blinds are closed and people are sleeping or reading or watching the film. It's almost like an army encamped on the eve of battle; people pressed together and somehow finding a way to cope with the waiting. I'm no King Harry, but one could almost imagine him (or at least Kenneth Brannagh!), walking round and quietly giving words of encouragement to his troops: don't worry, you'll be fine, we'll complete the flight and you'll soon be reunited with your family, rest while you can, you'll need all your strength for tomorrow.

And these days there's the new coping mechanism of playing games on tablets! I could see the games being played, over the passengers' shoulders, as I returned to my seat; people stamping on ants, connecting complex plumbing systems, moving flower pots around terracotta terraces, or blasting icing off trapped sweets! It is the new addiction, and I confess to having been caught up recently in 'Candy Crush' or whatever it's called, but I've put it behind me. I don't do 'electronic' on planes not even Kindles, just newspapers (today it was The Daily Record, The Daily Telegraph, The International New York Times, El Mundo and La Vanguardia), and magazines (Car, Hola, Architectural Digest, and the Economist). Oh, and some sleeping too!

The down into Rio was going smoothly. All 345 pairs of eyes on board were glued to the images on screen from the external camera set high on the airplane's tail as we banked, and banked again to line up for the final approach as the sun prepared to set. The flaps went down, then the undercarriage was deployed, and first the fields then the houses and then the water of the bay came clearly into view beneath the wings. Rio is one of those teeth-enamel-chipping approaches over water when you fear you're going to make a big splash just short of the runway.

We all held our breaths and just as we saw the tarmac appear a hundred yards ahead and a hundred yards below, all four huge engines went into full forward thrust and we were pressed back into our seats as the plane first dipped, then surged and finally pulled up strongly into the air.

It took quite a few minutes before the Captain came on the intercom, saying he had spotted another plane in the middle of the runway and had aborted our landing at the last minute. Whether this was true, or his first officer had screwed up the approach angle who knows, but there were 345 pairs of sweaty palms as we came in for the second attempt.

I was convinced those in the cockpit were so keen to get the angle right that they had forgotten to put the wheels down, as it was only much later than the first time round that we heard the thud of undercarriage doors opening and the visual evidence on camera of the wheels swinging into position! But all went well! Latin people often applaud on landing but if it hadn't been for the seat belts this would have been a standing ovation worthy of La Scala, Milan!

After that squeaky 'down', the final 'up' of the day in keeping with the high vantage points of this short series was to go up to the roof terrace of the Pestana Hotel and take a long exposure of the sweep of Copacabana, looking towards Sugar Loaf. Dd has a similar shot for one of her blip milestones, but I couldn't think of a better (or more convenient) way to end the series. Hope you have enjoyed it!

Try LARGE!

Barcelona yesterday here.

Cairo the day before here.