I'm not a very good writer, constructive criticism appreciated.
I've been mostly visiting big Scandinavian and East European countries recently, so for a change I decided to take a trip to a small Mediteranean country. There aren't many countries I've walked the entire length of, Gibraltar is my favourite.
There aren't any flights from my home airport of LBA to Gibraltar, so I was left with a choice of BA via London or Monarch direct from Manchester. The timings meant Monarch was slightly better, but for a Low Cost Carrier I'm not convinced I saved all that much money - particularly considering the lack of onboard meal and lounge access.
The journey started after work on Easter Thursday, having just helped the newer members of our team resolve an incident. I was ready for anything, including the battle for my seat on a packed train to Manchester. As it turned out, the airport train was surprisingly empty so I sat down and relaxed.
My bed for the night was the Radison Blu at Manchester Airport, a single rather than a double but given the ridiculously early start the next day I was happy to sleep anywhere.
It had been around 15 years since I last flew from Manchester Terminal 2 and about the same time since I last flew Monarch. I wasn't expecting much, and I wasn't disappointed. Terminal 2 is no longer the shiny new modern terminal, it's a terminal mostly used by low cost carriers and a few long-haul visiting airlines. The paid lounge had terrible reviews, so I opted for breakfast at Frankie & Bennies which was perfectly fine.
The flight to Gibraltar was fairly full, but they had just enough room to try selling extra leg room during boarding for just £20. I passed on this offer, leg room in the cheap seats was pretty bad but ok for a two-hour flight. The cabin crew spent the whole two hours selling extra leg room, drinks and snacks, charity scratch cards, and duty free; I tuned it all out and enjoyed the copy of Business Traveller I'd acquired earlier. Routing was down the English/Welsh border to Cardiff, then across the Bay of Biscay and down through Spain.
Arrival into Gibraltar was straight forward, there are no jetties at GIB so stairs arrived at front and back for a quick exit. Everybody got asked by passport control whether they were staying in Gibraltar or not, but this seemed to just be for their counting. With no luggage I went straight through customs control, across the car park and then over the runway into town.
It was still a few hours before I could check in to my hotel, so I enjoyed a wander by the harbour and had some awful fish and chips at a pub in a quiet square off main street. It being a religious holiday there were no newspapers being printed, which meant the newsagents were all closed, which meant no local sim cards to be had; so I resigned myself to being mostly offline and made my way to my hotel.
I was staying in the o'Callaghan Elliot hotel, a nice 4 star hotel which was a lovely contrast to my last hotel in Amsterdam - a 2 star hotel in the red light district that my colleague had booked me. A nice big room, but with expensive wifi and bad TV - I wasn't here to stay in my room though, and the breakfasts were pretty nice. The choice for evening meals was pretty limited, so I never ate there
I got up early the next day hoping to fit in a nice walk before the heat of the previous day hit me. It never did get too hot that day, which was nice. Gibraltar was completely dead at 9am on Easter Saturday, I ended up down at Little Bay with just a few dog walkers and builders around. April is still winter season, so it wasn't until noon that things started getting busy.
The people selling tours the previous day were nowhere to be seen, so I made my way up the rock on the cable car. £10.50 for a return trip, with some nice views down into town. Morocco was just about visible in the distance, but mostly obscured by cloud.
A much nicer but over-priced lunch this time at Jury's, followed by a walk to the very south of the country to see the lighthouse at Europa Point.
An early flight back to England this morning meant it was dark when I went for breakfast at 7am. In addition to yesterday's buffet there were boiled eggs and Cadbury's cream eggs, a nice nod to it being Easter Sunday.
A stroll through town up to the airport, setting off nice and early in case they closed the path across the runway. Arriving before airport security did gave me an hour to use their free wifi in the terminal building before checking in.
Airport security really liked me, I know how to get through quickly compared to their average annual flyer. There are three gates at Gibraltar, and a handful of shops. I spent my last two Gibraltar pound coins on some much needed caffeine before watching the incoming flights. The Manchester one landed smoothly, and then the Birmingham one had a last-minute go-around. I'd heard Gibraltar is one of the most dangerous approaches in Europe, seeing an A320 go around at the very last minute made that real for me and several other passengers were heard remarking how scary it looked.
No announcements from the captain or first officer until we were well over the Bay of Biscay on the way back. In all my recent flying this was the first time I've noticed a female first officer. Routing was up over Southampton and East of Birmingham.
Arrived into Manchester a couple of hours before my booked train, so went in search of food. There's not much good food available landside at Manchester, so service-station sandwich and drink it was. The new Metrolink platforms at the airport station are coming along nicely, although quite some way from being ready still.
The train back to Leeds was as quiet as the outbound one, with a regular Sunday service running from Leeds.