paul riley

The first day of the holiday started early, both kids struggled with the early wake-up call as well as the excitement that had built up over the last week or so. Elizabeth's father drove us to the airport, the country roads dark and quiet and the sun seeming to struggle to rise, but as we drew closer to Gatwick the roads got busier and dawn eventually broke.

The drop-off point at Gatwick was it's usual busy self, and we joined the throng of people heading off for some much anticipated sun. Having allowed additional time for check-in it was a bit of a shock to see so many of our fellow passengers already queuing, and I have to admit that I expected as a result we would end up with particularly bad seats. Whether it's because of the electronic visa waivers that British citizens have to apply for on-line, the check-in process is preceded by a passport check by two members of staff with mobile computer terminals, I cannot confirm that this is a visa check as nobody seemed to be pulled up on it, who knows.

Once checked in, and with two kids doing very good impressions of zombies, we quickly moved through passport control and in to departures. We had already decided that irrespective of whether we would get a breakfast on the plane, to see us through to embarkation we would get a breakfast in the departures area, though the kids found that they had little or no appetite for food.

We ended up spending about an hour and a half in the departures area before our plane was called, and as we already had started to suspect it was one of the gates furthest from the departures lounge. As we made our way to the gate I discovered two disappointing changes that have happened since I last flew from Gatwick. First is that the mono rail that you used to take from the south to the north terminal is no longer there, which means that you now walk from one to the other. The second is that the north terminal is now very shabby in appearance.

When we arrived at the gate, I though that bearing in mind that this was the kids first flight anywhere, we would get a seat overlooking the plane. This decision proved to be quite fortuitous in the end, as it gave us something to look at while our departure time was delayed. Although not confirmed, it became apparent that the cause of the delay was a defective catering lorry, the ones where the back raises up to access the plane, so the removal of used catering trolleys was very manual.

Eventually we were able to board our plane, and for a charter flight the space provided to the passengers was not uncomfortably small. The children got the seats closest to the window, our position on the plane was not bad at all, about five rows back from the wing so the kids could see take off. It has to be said that we anticipated the flight would be horrendous, as mentioned previously this is the first time either of the kids have flow and here we were throwing a ten hour trans-Atlantic flight at then, we should have got our heads tested. In the end the flight passed pretty much without incident, they saw the take-off as an adventure, one in which you are encouraged to suck sweets through-out, the noise of the plane neither upset, or worried them, even the time spent on board was not a problem for them. As with the departure lounge breakfast, appetite either of the meals served was virtually non-existent, although the airline (Monarch) did not help matters by selling snacks just before they served the meals. When finally we did land, this again the kids took as an adventure, staring in wonder at this new land we were flying over.