4 ms·

Strikes at Britain's Gatwick Airport during peak summer holidays

NoZebra120vClip 3y ago
My Gatwick Experience 15 years ago, I flew into Gatwick on a little cut-rate airline called Zoom. It was the first leg of my voyage to Manresa, Catalonia, to visit my fiancée, and so my itinerary involved California (Zoom)->Gatwick-> (TfL) Heathrow-> (Iberia) Barcelona-> (fiancée's car) Manresa. Being a boorish ignorant Yank, I'd never heard of Gatwick, so I looked it up. Apparently the name derives from a goat dairy farm. I don't know if there are any goats still in the airport, or if they're giving milk. However, I also learned that Crawley is the nearest town, and I know Crawley well because it's the birthplace of The Cure! You don't even know how desperate I was to go into town and, like, visit their high school or something. I refrained from celeb-stalking, though. I landed in Gatwick with a fresh face, and I purchased the correct train ticket that would convey me to Heathrow. Chatting with a local on the northbound train, at one point I stopped, stared out the window, and asked him, "Was that the THAMES??!" and he nodded and I was absolutely starstruck. I was officially in London! Anyway, my return trip was disastrous. Zoom airlines went bankrupt; all their planes were grounded and refused fuelling; and my father picked up the tab for a British Airways ticket via Heathrow. So I did not even transit through Gatwick on the way home. I had a 12-hour layover, so I booked a hotel in Westminster. Arriving at Heathrow after a good night's sleep, I was dressed down in sweat pants and visited the ATM. I took my last £5 in cash and crammed it deeply into my pocket. I approached the Customs & Immigration desk and handed over my passport. The official squinted at me, made a cautious appraisal of my appearance, and then asked "how much money do you have?" and then she said "sit down over there." So evidently I was being detained, for about ten minutes. Could they deny my exit from the UK or something? I mean, I was just trying to get home. My airline ticket was paid for. Anyway I got home. My impression of Gatwick is that it's a good and capable airport. My other comment is about August. If you're American, you may not know the prevailing pattern of holidays in Europe. During the entire month of August, everything shuts down, businesses close, all the locals take time off. A lot of people travel to Greece or Monaco or somewhere beachy. It was interesting to visit Manresa and Barcelona during this month of August, because the restaurant and shopping options were more limited, and everywhere you saw signs, "Tancat per vacancies". My fiancée, being a local, should have gone on a trip somewhere else, but she stayed in town to be with me and show me around. But yeah, August is really different in Europe. It's sort of like Spring Break, but on a grander scale, and with adults.

My Gatwick Experience 15 years ago, I flew into Gatwick on a little cut-rate airline called Zoom. It was the first leg of my voyage to Manresa, Catalonia, to visit my fiancée, and so my itinerary involved California (Zoom)->Gatwick-> (TfL) Heathrow-> (Iberia) Barcelona-> (fiancée's car) Manresa. Being a boorish ignorant Yank, I'd never heard of Gatwick, so I looked it up. Apparently the name derives from a goat dairy farm. I don't know if there are any goats still in the airport, or if they're giving milk. However, I also learned that Crawley is the nearest town, and I know Crawley well because it's the birthplace of The Cure! You don't even know how desperate I was to go into town and, like, visit their high school or something. I refrained from celeb-stalking, though. I landed in Gatwick with a fresh face, and I purchased the correct train ticket that would convey me to Heathrow. Chatting with a local on the northbound train, at one point I stopped, stared out the window, and asked him, "Was that the THAMES??!" and he nodded and I was absolutely starstruck. I was officially in London! Anyway, my return trip was disastrous. Zoom airlines went bankrupt; all their planes were grounded and refused fuelling; and my father picked up the tab for a British Airways ticket via Heathrow. So I did not even transit through Gatwick on the way home. I had a 12-hour layover, so I booked a hotel in Westminster. Arriving at Heathrow after a good night's sleep, I was dressed down in sweat pants and visited the ATM. I took my last £5 in cash and crammed it deeply into my pocket. I approached the Customs & Immigration desk and handed over my passport. The official squinted at me, made a cautious appraisal of my appearance, and then asked "how much money do you have?" and then she said "sit down over there." So evidently I was being detained, for about ten minutes. Could they deny my exit from the UK or something? I mean, I was just trying to get home. My airline ticket was paid for. Anyway I got home. My impression of Gatwick is that it's a good and capable airport. My other comment is about August. If you're American, you may not know the prevailing pattern of holidays in Europe. During the entire month of August, everything shuts down, businesses close, all the locals take time off. A lot of people travel to Greece or Monaco or somewhere beachy. It was interesting to visit Manresa and Barcelona during this month of August, because the restaurant and shopping options were more limited, and everywhere you saw signs, "Tancat per vacancies". My fiancée, being a local, should have gone on a trip somewhere else, but she stayed in town to be with me and show me around. But yeah, August is really different in Europe. It's sort of like Spring Break, but on a grander scale, and with adults.