Travel woes

As someone who gets to see his fair share of airport terminals, Gatwick South has to be one of the worst I’ve experienced in recent years. Even at 6.30 am it’s crowded and noisy. The queues for departure are long. The departures lounge is hideously low budget with the usual range of rip-off shops (that’s to be expected, it’s an airport) and complete lack of anywhere decent to eat (again, it’s an airport). But the most annoying thing this morning has been the vastly restricted options for coffee. There’s not even a Starbucks. The best option is the lousy Uppercrust, and to add insult to injury, there was a 15 minute queue to be overcharged for bad coffee. This is motorway service station bad. What is this place like at peak time in the Summer Holidays? You’d need a holiday to recover from the appalling travel experience.

Getting to Gatwick was relatively painless though. 0506 train from Feltham – Clapham Junction where I waited five minutes for the 0539 to Gatwick, which cost £4.80 (from the boundary of Zone 6, where my season ticket ends). Nice quiet train gave me a chance to work on the laptop. Depending on what time I return tonight, getting home should be fun...

[posted later]
I'm now in Toulouse airport, and it's 10.25 pm, waiting for my 9.50 pm flight home. No sign of any orange-liveried plane. At this rate I'll be arriving at Gatwick well after any sensible travel options home have stopped running. Looks like a night bus to Heathrow beckons, followed by the 285 bus home.

Toulouse airport is at least quiet. There are just two shops here: one a rather basic 'duty free', and the other a refreshment stand offering a similarly basic (and airport-expensive) fare. There is wireless internet though.

Fortunately, my day here was very productive. It makes the travel woes bearable, sort of.