My arrival into Istanbul on a Turkish Airlines flight from Chișinău marked the start of the final leg of my Meander to Moldova trip, with just the flight from Istanbul to Heathrow ahead of me. Turkish Airlines operate a number of daily flights between their Istanbul hub and London’s Heathrow airport using either narrowbody Airbus A321s or a mix of widebody aircraft. Whilst I could have taken a slightly earlier flight and gotten home sooner, I of course had to try out one of Turkish’s widebody aircraft and so booked myself on TK1971 which was advertised as being operated by one of their newest aircraft, an Airbus A350-900.

With my Meander To Moldova having successfully brought me to Moldova and its capital Chișinău, I had enjoyed a couple of days exploring the city but it was now time to head home. With my leisurely journey east from England taking me a week, I needed to head home a bit quicker, however still wanted to make the journey interesting. As such, rather than jump on a direct flight with FlyOne, HiFly or Wizz Air, I had decided to try out Turkish Airlines and fly via Istanbul. Whilst Istanbul was technically in the wrong direction, being in south-eastern Europe meant it was only a small diversion and a great opportunity to check out an airline I’ve wanted to for a while.

Having enjoyed a great long weekend exploring Munich and its multitude of Christmas markets, it was time to head home. Our return flight was back to London Heathrow, once again with British Airways (BA) in Euro Traveller and so after a 40–45-minute S-bahn ride from the city centre, we headed towards the BA check-in. We’d got to Terminal 1 just over two hours before our flight, around 1345, and I was glad we had as it was quite a walk from the S-bahn station to the check-in and bag drop in zone A, before then heading back to security in zone B.

The end of November 2025 saw us having a weekend away to visit one of the European Christmas Markets and so, after much deliberation earlier in the year, we had booked return flights from Heathrow to Munich with British Airways. Wanting to maximise our time in the German city, we had booked an evening flight and so, after Beth had finished work for the day, we met in the check-in area of Heathrow Terminal 5. Unfortunately, the journey didn’t start as smoothly as I had hoped, mainly through my own error.

After a great few days away in southern Germany exploring in and around Lindau and the Bodensee, including a lap of the lake visiting four countries in one day, it was unfortunately time to head home. As with our flight out to Germany, we’d be flying back to the UK with British Airways (BA), this time on BA921, their evening flight from Stuttgart to Heathrow.

Back at the start of August we were lucky enough to be able to enjoy a few days away in southern Germany, on the shores of the Bodensee and close to the Austrian and Swiss borders. Given we were only away for a few days, we didn’t really have time to take the ‘adventurous’ route south and so took the more direct route by flying and then hiring a car. As such our holiday started at London Heathrow, with a flight to Stuttgart with British Airways.