On the Road

There is a perception from people who do not travel for work that it is glamourous and a little like being on holiday. A recent trip whilst unusual for its intensity completely debunked that theory.

My Alarm went off at 05:30 on Monday morning and the taxi picked me up at 06:20 for the short journey to the airport. After passing through a crowded security point I was in the crowded departure lounge. To keep fares low Airlines have encouraged airports to pass on their costs to the passengers via retail opportunities, of which the airport retains a portion of retailer’s revenue. Airports therefore keep you in the lounge for as long as possible to maximise your time to spend money. With Most people traveling hand baggage space is limited on the aircraft and if you are in the last half of the queue then you risk your hand baggage being placed in the hold and a delay at the other end waiting for it to come around the belt. At peak times the departure lounges become overcrowded and passengers are released to the gates ahead of the planned gate time to ease congestion. This means that like most people I spend about 15 minutes looking at the departure screens waiting for the gate to appear at which point my fellow passenger and myself engage in a race to the gate to be in the first half of the queue. 

At 08:10 my Ryanair flight departs to Prague arriving one hour thirty minutes later. The office is on the airport a short walk from the terminal. At the end of the day I walked to the hotel a short distance from the office and still on the airport. The Marriott is a regular stop for me and I know my way round the menu quite well….. it does not change often and I am on my own. Its back to the room where it’s a fairly standard set of international TV news channels on the TV, the local channels in Czech Polish and German are available but for English speakers its all news. At This point I am bound to say Netflix is a god send, load up the laptop with programs at home and I have something to watch on the road. The next day is a repeat of the last, the short walk to the office and back to the Hotel …. Menu and TV.    

Wednesday morning is an Early start, my flight is at 7AM but sleeping in a Hotel in the airport carpark means that I don’t have to get up until 5:30 as I am already checked in. I am down for breakfast at 6AM and checked out of the hotel by 6:15. The next stop is Milan where I am speaking at a conference…. At the airport, the Hotel is a short walk from the terminal but still on the airport. I arrive at 9:00 just as the conference is starting. At the end of the day I have dinner and a couple of beers with a business contact and then its bed.  

Thursday morning is another early start with a short walk back to the airport for the 7:30AM flight to Frankfurt where I have a meeting with a customer ….. at the Airport, the meeting finished at 3PM and I have a couple of hours hanging around in the lounge before its time for the flight back to London. At 7:30PM I walk out of the airport at London city this being the first time since 6:30 on Monday I have left airport property or not been on an aircraft.  I eventually got home at just after 9PM.