Airports - Palaces for the Damned
I remember Croydon Aerodrome back in the thirties. One arrived in one's chauffered motor car and reclined in comfort in the departure lounge while the mighty Heracles 42 was prepared for one's journey. For some reason I seemed to spend a lot of time in Egypt in those days and the Heracles was the fastest and most comfortable means of getting there.
Once in the air the whole experience was rather like being on my yacht, a certain motion that made some travellers queasy but which I rather relished. dinner was served in comfort on proper dinner ware and the whole experience left you relaxed and ready for business. Of course the overnight stops meant jet lag as such was not going to be a problem. Incidentally, Imperial Airways never once crashed a Heracles, mainly because it was so slow that you could probably have jumped off one with no more hazard than departing from a moving London Omnibus.
But to the matter at hand - airports and their departure lounges. There was once a time when as you may gather from the foregoing, I thought they were wonderful places, veritable palaces for the travelling man. But now. Oh the curse of modern travel. Reducing the fare price means someone has to make money somewhere and once you have "checked in" as they call it, you are a trapped soul in a purgatory of over priced cafes, bars and shops.
It can be more expensive to buy something in "duty free" than to purchase it over the wonderous Internet and pay local taxes. The cafes sell coffee in a plethora of flavours, all of which are vaguely similar and equally unsatisfying and served in bucket sized cups. At my age they are an absolute threat to the state of my bladder.
Of course some aerodromes are worse than others or maybe better. I have an especial fondness for Singapore Changi, despite some less pleasent memories of Changi prison. The food is actually rather good (in the aerodrome not the prison) and reasonably priced and you can actually buy a bargain in the shops. I always remember, some time in 2000 eating a rather fine waffle while listening to a chap in white tails playing the grand piano. Now that was a touch of old fashioned style.
Perhaps my worst experiences of aerodromes are those connected with my employment. Bagdad in the early 1970s left something to be desired and I once spent eleven hours in the departure lounge there while the Israelis shot the Syrian airforce out of the sky (again). I had no Iraqi cash left and there was not much in the way of refreshments to be had anyway. We stumbled onto the Inshallah Airlines plane completely exhausted. I spent the flight sat next to some kind of holy man who reeked of garlic and prayed none stop from take off to landing. It evidently worked as we landed at Heathrow in one piece and on time - and that is saying something for I.A.
Once in the air the whole experience was rather like being on my yacht, a certain motion that made some travellers queasy but which I rather relished. dinner was served in comfort on proper dinner ware and the whole experience left you relaxed and ready for business. Of course the overnight stops meant jet lag as such was not going to be a problem. Incidentally, Imperial Airways never once crashed a Heracles, mainly because it was so slow that you could probably have jumped off one with no more hazard than departing from a moving London Omnibus.
But to the matter at hand - airports and their departure lounges. There was once a time when as you may gather from the foregoing, I thought they were wonderful places, veritable palaces for the travelling man. But now. Oh the curse of modern travel. Reducing the fare price means someone has to make money somewhere and once you have "checked in" as they call it, you are a trapped soul in a purgatory of over priced cafes, bars and shops.
It can be more expensive to buy something in "duty free" than to purchase it over the wonderous Internet and pay local taxes. The cafes sell coffee in a plethora of flavours, all of which are vaguely similar and equally unsatisfying and served in bucket sized cups. At my age they are an absolute threat to the state of my bladder.
Of course some aerodromes are worse than others or maybe better. I have an especial fondness for Singapore Changi, despite some less pleasent memories of Changi prison. The food is actually rather good (in the aerodrome not the prison) and reasonably priced and you can actually buy a bargain in the shops. I always remember, some time in 2000 eating a rather fine waffle while listening to a chap in white tails playing the grand piano. Now that was a touch of old fashioned style.
Perhaps my worst experiences of aerodromes are those connected with my employment. Bagdad in the early 1970s left something to be desired and I once spent eleven hours in the departure lounge there while the Israelis shot the Syrian airforce out of the sky (again). I had no Iraqi cash left and there was not much in the way of refreshments to be had anyway. We stumbled onto the Inshallah Airlines plane completely exhausted. I spent the flight sat next to some kind of holy man who reeked of garlic and prayed none stop from take off to landing. It evidently worked as we landed at Heathrow in one piece and on time - and that is saying something for I.A.
posted by Travelling Man | 9:11 AM
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