Last week I went abroad for a short break, specifically taking a flight that went from Gatwick to Kalamata in the Peloponnese region of southern mainland Greece. You can see from the photo on the home page that in terms of departure time we were in a three-way tie for second when it came to who was flying first. What I have not got a photo of here is one of the queue to get into Wetherspoons at 4.42 – in the morning! I do like a drink or two myself but I don’t go for a pint or a glass of red at a time when ordinarily I would be be asleep. Clearly there were scores of people at Gatwick that morning who had a contrary viewpoint.

Anyhow, the flight was happily uneventful, landing pretty much on schedule. It was only a short walk from the plane to the terminal you see pictured below…whereupon it took an hour to get through immigration. And our easyJet flight was the only game in town! How much of this delay could be laid at the door of Brexit and how much at the torpidity of the officials doing the passport-stamping I am not able to say but I would say that to make people wait that long in a queue with no access to bathroom facilities was at best inconsiderate and at worst scandalous.

Goodness knows what might happen if and when the airport starts taking flights from the United States, which the local tourism industry is very eager to happen. Among other issues at present is that the airport runway is no long enough to allow a transatlantic flight to land, and there doesn’t seem to be any impending date by which this rather fundamental factor is remedied. Also, by the time the Americans arrive, they might want a bigger and better terminal building.

After four delightful days, it was time to return home. My suitcase weighed in at 22.7 kilograms, only just below the maximum weight before a fine would kick in. What I didn’t understand was that the scales had read just over 20kg on the way out and so far as I was aware the contents were the same. After that, going through to airside was an interesting experience. You will probably be familiar with the type of bins airports use for you to store your laptop, jacket, etc while you make your merry way through security. They don’t bother with those at Kalamata. They use washing-up bowls. I have no photo here of those either but just go into your kitchen and the odds are you’ll be able to see one for yourself.