Understand too that a very large aircraft (widebody) in approach configuration only travels one fuselage length per second.
So if there are no nearby points of reference (or if the reference points are moving the same direction), one gets the illusion of it almost standing still.
You generally won't get this illusion with a smaller aircraft.
About flying into a headwind: Aircraft have taken off, climbed (without turning) to the level of max. headwind, slow-flying with a negative groundspeed back across the airport, then descending and landing on the same runway without ever turning. A college roommate of mine did it in a Piper J-3, but I've heard of bigger aircraft doing it too.