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Recent travel miscellany

June 19, 2025 by Neil Turner

Disembarking a Jet2 aeroplane at Athens Airport

This is the fifth and final blog post about my trip to Athens – bearing in mind that my trip was only for three and a half days. This is where I want to write about everything else that happened whilst not in Athens – i.e. the journey there and back. Here are the links to part one, part two, part three and part four.

Ibis Budget hotel at Manchester Airport

As I mentioned last Monday, my flight was a 6:30am departure from Manchester on a Sunday morning. With this in mind, I booked myself a room in the Ibis Budget hotel at the airport, and then got a train over on the Saturday night.

Now, if you’re staying in a hotel with the word ‘budget’ in its name, you need to manage your expectations. The rooms are small – there’s space for a double bed, but no bedside tables. There’s a small and narrow desk, a blind instead of curtains, and quite a thin mattress. But as I only needed the room for about seven hours, it was fine. There was free Wi-Fi, and most importantly it was in very easy walking distance of Terminal 2, where I needed to be for my flight. I didn’t want to stay somewhere that required a shuttle bus transfer which may or may not turn up at stupid o’clock in the morning. And the room was significantly cheaper than almost all other hotels at the airport.

A photo of the inside of Terminal 2 at Manchester Airport

Manchester Airport at 5am on a Sunday

Speaking of an early start, you would not know that it was only 5am on a Sunday once you were through security and in to the duty free bit before the gates. It was like the Trafford Centre on a Saturday afternoon – all the shops were open, all the lights were on, and it was heaving. There was a lack of seating, although Terminal 2 is being renovated at present which may explain the lack of capacity.

Judging by the airlines and destinations, it was mostly package holiday flights taking advantage of off-peak slots.

Flying with Jet2

Indeed, my flight to Athens was with Jet2. Jet2’s selling point is that they’re a budget airline, but they’re not as stingy as some of their rivals *cough* Ryanair *cough*. You’re allowed one standard cabin bag, and one small bag as standard, although you can pay extra to ‘guarantee’ space for your cabin bag in the overhead locker. My carry-on case was quite a bit smaller than the maximum permitted size and so I didn’t bother, and indeed had no issues with space. As with my trip to Dublin, I only took carry-on luggage with me.

If you want a meal on the flight, you have to pre-order it when checking in online. It is, of course, extortionately expensive for what it is, but the food was fine and rather welcome considering my early start. If you don’t pre-order food, the cabin crew may be able to offer any food that is left over after the pre-orders have been given out.

On more than one occasion, staff wished me a good holiday. I didn’t have the heart to tell them I was travelling for work.

Flying with KLM

My flights back were with KLM, the Dutch flag carrier, and so this meant a connection at Amsterdam. I honestly expected more from KLM – after all, Jet2 is a budget airline and so I didn’t expect any niceties like in-flight entertainment or Wi-Fi. But I didn’t have those with KLM either, and both planes were also a bit shabbier and care-warn than Jet2’s plane. They were all variants of Boeing 737 planes, if you’re interested.

KLM did include a ‘snack’ on each flight though. From Athens to Amsterdam, we were all offered a Beemster cheese sandwich with a honey and mustard dressing, which was actually quite nice, and a small piece of cake. Drinks were also offered. Meanwhile, for the much shorter flight from Amsterdam to Manchester, we just got a packet of Mini Cheddars and a more limited range of drinks.

My flight back to Manchester also appeared to be a late aircraft swap. When I checked in at the gate, I was given a new boarding pass with a different seat number, having been moved from row 29 to row 22. Indeed, there was no row 29 on this plane. Amsterdam Schiphol Airport is KLM’s hub, and so they must’ve decided to swap the planes as the flight was under-booked.

Amsterdam Schiphol Airport

After Dubai, Schiphol is the second busiest airport that I’ve been to. My brief layover there on Tuesday is, to date, the only time I have been in the Netherlands, and I don’t think it really counts as I spent my entire time ‘airside’. Unlike other big airports, Schiphol has just one massive terminal, arranged in a horseshoe shape. Thankfully, my arrival and departure gates were relatively close to each other and so I didn’t have to walk too far. Like in Athens, there were lots of food and shopping brands familiar to Brits. Although, unlike 5am in Manchester, by the time I got to Amsterdam at close to 9pm local time, many of the places to eat were closed. I ended up spending €10 on a WHSmith meal deal for some sustenance.

Getting home

I think some colleagues at the summit were a little concerned that my journey home to Sowerby Bridge consisted of two flights and then three trains. As it was, both flights were only delayed very slightly, and all my trains were on time – a relief as I had to change at both Manchester Oxford Road and Victoria, and the connections were both around five minutes. Not only that, but my train from Victoria to Sowerby Bridge was the last train of the night, so I was very relieved to make that connection.

Manchester Airport Runway Visitor Park

December 29, 2024July 14, 2017 by Neil Turner

Planespotters can be viewed in several ways. I think most people would bracket them with trainspotters and busspotters – eccentric, but harmless.

Greece, not so much – in 2001, a group of planespotters were arrested for spying. Ultimately, they were acquitted.

Manchester Airport, however, saw planespotting as a way of making money. So the airport’s Runway Visitor Park isn’t just a handy viewpoint for the runway – it’s a fully-fledged visitor attraction. We called on the way back from Quarry Bank Mill; I’d seen it signposted and figured it would be a good opportunity to snap a few shots of planes.

As you’d expect, there are three raised platforms to watch the planes from, one of which has a ramp. But there’s so much more; plenty of picnic tables, a café and bar, and a children’s funfair is open on summer weekends. Plus, there are several disused aircraft that you can book tours to see, including Concorde, and a shop that sells plenty of model planes.

One of the aircraft, an AVRO RJX (I’m not a plane geek, so this means nothing to me) is open all of the time; it’s a small aircraft that was used briefly for testing and only flew for a couple of years before being retired. The others are by guided tour only; I was only dropping in for a quick visit and so I didn’t book on for one this time. I’d definitely like to take a look around Concorde some time, as I never got to go on one when they were in service.

The park is surprisingly close to one of the taxiways, so it’s perfect for photography. A handful of people with big lens cameras were there, but I think most people had come to spend a sunny afternoon there. The food from the café looked rather expensive and uninspiring, but, as long as it’s a nice day, there’s nothing stopping you from bringing your own food and eating it outside. Just don’t feed the birds.

Entry to the site is free, although it costs money to park. It’s £5 for two hours, £10 for 2-4 hours, and £12 all day, making it relatively cheap for a car full of people. It’s served by a local bus service, and if you arrive by bus, on foot or by bike, there’s no parking charge. Be aware that on sunny days, like last Sunday, the car park may be full. And, being so close to Manchester Airport, security is high as you would expect – there lots of CCTV cameras everywhere.

I commend Manchester Airport for having such a good place to watch planes. I’d like to say our toddler enjoyed it too, but they were actually asleep the whole time. I expect we’ll be back – they’ll enjoy the funfair, and I might get the chance to look inside one of the bigger planes.

MET#6: Dubai airport

April 27, 2025July 9, 2015 by Neil Turner

For the last blog post on my Middle East trip, I thought I’d spend a bit of time writing about Dubai, or specifically its airport. As I flew with Emirates, I passed through Dubai airport both on the way out and coming back.

The travel agents we use at work offered Emirates as one of three airlines to fly with. The others were Etihad, via Abu Dhabi, and British Airways via London Heathrow. Having asked for advice on Facebook and Twitter, British Airways was discounted pretty quickly. Eventually I chose Emirates for the more convenient flight times – the late finishes and early starts that I had on my trip would have been even worse if I’d flown with Etihad.

One of the world’s biggest

Dubai airport is big. It’s the world’s busiest airport when ranked by international passenger numbers, and third overall when you count all passengers (domestic and international). Last year, over 70 million passengers passed through Dubai airport – more than the entire population on the UK, and 35 times more than Dubai’s total population.

Despite being busier than London Heathrow (ranked second globally for international passenger traffic), Dubai has three terminals compared to Heathrow’s five. Terminal three is the biggest of these and is split into two halves, connected by an automated people mover. It’s basically an underground metro train, but it’s driverless and runs on pneumatic tyres, rather than steel wheels on rails, and only runs between the two halves of the terminal.

Coming back, my flight from Muscat arrived into terminal three, but my onward flight to Manchester departed from terminal one. The concourse of terminal one is connected to terminal three, but I still had to use the people mover and then had a long walk. At least it was all indoors, and all ‘airside’ so no need to go through immigration. Terminal two is completely separate though, and a shuttle bus can take 20 minutes.

Altogether, terminal 3 is the second largest building in the world by floor space. It’s big, and is almost exclusively for flights with Emirates, with just a few Qantas services calling there.

Shopping

Modern airports aren’t just designed to help you get on and off planes, and in parts Dubai airport feels more like a shopping mall than an airport. Most shops exist in multiple locations in each terminal, because of the size, and are generally run by the airport operator with just a few branded concessions like Starbucks and Boots. In all, Dubai Duty Free makes over £1billion a year from sales. Outbound, I didn’t buy much, apart from a couple of drinks (which were far cheaper than in the UK). But coming back, I picked up a couple of things, having forgotten to buy any souvenirs whilst in Jordan or Oman.

As with most airports free Wi-Fi was available, but only for one hour. Thankfully I had a phone and two iPads (one work, one personal) to stretch this out.

Dubai

I didn’t leave the confines of the airport but it’s worth talking about Dubai itself. Dubai is an ’emirate’ – essentially a city-state within the larger nation state of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Abu Dhabi is another emirate, and there are several others that are less well-known. Originally a series of sheikhdoms under British control, independence was granted in 1971. The majority of sheikhdoms joined together to form the UAE, but two – Qatar and Bahrain – split off to become independent nations. Dubai residents are known as Emiratis, along with those from other emirates.

The UAE is an Islamic country and so there are restrictions on alcohol – in the airport, there were just a handful of Heineken-branded bars where drinking was permitted. There are also dress codes; these primarily relate to women and oblige them to dress modestly. Not doing so is a criminal offence.

Qatar has been in the news for the deaths of hundred s of migrant workers who have been building venues for the 2022 Fifa Football World Cup. Migrant workers in the UAE also suffer from a lack of rights and are forbidden from unionising, despite the huge amount of ongoing construction.

Flying back

My outbound flight from Manchester to Dubai was on a Boeing 777, but on the return I got to travel on one of Emirates’ Airbus A380s. These are the largest passenger planes in use today, with the cabin spanning two levels. Dubai airport has specially-adapted air-bridges that connect to both levels, with those travelling in Economy using the lower level and first class passengers going upstairs. In-flight Wi-Fi is available, and it starts at just $1 USD for up to a gigabyte of data, which is far cheaper than many hotels. The downside is that it’s so slow to be almost unusable, but better than nothing I suppose. And you have the opportunity to post a boastful tweet that you have internet access whilst in the air, which, for people like me who grew up with dial-up internet, is pretty amazing.

My return journey from Salalah back to my flat in Sowerby Bridge took the best part of 24 hours, in all. I woke up at about 10pm UK time on the Thursday, and was home at a similar time on the Friday. In all, it involved a minibus, three flights, a people mover, a train, a taxi, and a fair bit of walking.

I haven’t been asked to do any more overseas events for work as yet, and with a baby on the way I’m not sure if I would agree to any if offered. But it was a good experience in all, and one that I’d consider doing again in a few years time perhaps. With less overnight travel, hopefully.

MET#3: Bahrain (or at least its airport)

April 27, 2025July 2, 2015 by Neil Turner

*Bahrain Airport overview by Franz Zwart, CC-licensed.*

After spending less than 48 hours in Amman, I was back to at Queen Alia International Airport to make my way to Oman. To fit my schedule, I had to fly overnight, and the only airline with flights that suited was Gulf Air, the Bahrain flag carrier. And this meant a stop at Bahrain airport.

Gulf Air’s history is actually quite interesting, as various Arabian Gulf countries owned parts of it in the past. Nowadays, it is wholly owned by the government on Bahrain, and based out of Bahrain international airport. The flights I took were on its smaller Airbus A320 aircraft, and neither flight was particularly well-loaded. I think I was one of of only 20 passengers on the second leg from Bahrain to Muscat.

Despite being a hub airport, Bahrain International isn’t all that big. It sits on an island off the cost of mainland Bahrain (itself an island), and has just one terminal. Naturally, Gulf Air operate the vast majority of flights. But, there are a number of other operators, including British Airways who fly from Heathrow.

As I was travelling overnight after two long days, I didn’t really take much time to explore the terminal. Instead, I went straight to the gate for my flight and made use of the free Wi-Fi for an hour or so. The time difference meant that Christine was still awake at home, despite it being the small hours of the morning where I was. The previous flight from my gate was a busy flight to Mumbai in India, which departed late as a large group of elderly passengers turned up to the gate well after the scheduled departure time. Even though I fly rarely, I’d like to think that I’m a considerate traveller, and so I aim to be at the gate well in advance of the departure.

The flight departed from a small extension to the terminal, right at the far end. It was barely more than a shed, with a small coffee shop and duty-free stand. Naturally, the coffee shop was a Costa Coffee – it and Starbucks were available throughout the Middle East. Both offered pretty much exactly the same experience as at home. Whereas the gates in the main terminal had air-bridges, we were loaded onto those super wide buses with minimal seats that you only see at airports, for the short drive to the plane.

It was while I was waiting for my flight that Christine started checking the Foreign & Commonwealth Office travel advice for the countries I was visiting. I’d already checked it, as a requirement for work, but I think this rather upset her. Whilst I stayed entirely airside in Bahrain, there was a major uprising in 2011 as part of the Arab Spring and there is still an undercurrent of unrest.

I left Bahrain at 1:35am local time, and arrived in Muscat 90 minutes later. More on Muscat in the next instalment.

MET#2: Amman

April 27, 2025June 30, 2015 by Neil Turner

This is post number two in my series about my recent trip to the Middle East. Here’s yesterday’s introductory post.

The first stop on my trip was to Amman, the capital city of Jordan. My time there was brief – less than 48 hours in total, as I arrived in the early hours of Saturday morning local time and departed on Sunday evening.

Rather than obtain a visa ahead of time, I acquired a visa on arrival. As well as an ink stamp in my passport, I also got two 20 dinar Jordanian postage stamps, which reflected the cost of the visa. A nice addition to my previously blank passport.

The security situation in Jordan is worth mentioning. Jordan has a land border with Syria, which is in the midst of a civil war between the government, Islamic State and other rebel groups. Amman is around 80 kilometres, or an hour’s drive from the Syrian border.

Consequently, on leaving the airport (which is around 25 minutes’ drive south of Amman) we had to pass through a military checkpoint, and to enter the hotel we had to go through a metal detector and have all of our bags x-rayed. Part of my visit involved going to schools, to recruit students, and these were all within secure compounds with gates and security guards. I was also advised to keep my passport on me at all times for identification.

Whilst we did travel around Amman and its environs, visiting 5 schools, unfortunately I didn’t have much spare time to actually explore the city. The hotel I stayed in, the Crowne Plaza, was some way out of the centre of the city – and it’s a big city. Around 4 million people call it home, making it not much smaller than London.

What I did see of Amman seemed rather run-down – a bit like Burnley, I suppose, but much bigger and with better weather. I gather that Amman has some really nice parts though, and if I’d had the opportunity to fly out earlier and spend a day exploring then I’d have been able to see more. Sadly work commitments made this impossible.

I did notice a lack of traffic lights. Most road junctions are roundabouts, or grade-separated junctions with slip-roads (on-ramps to Americans). I don’t think I saw a single set of traffic lights, which means that drivers tend to use up any bit of available road space when waiting in stationary traffic. And seemingly everyone drives – there were very few pedestrian crossings and I wouldn’t like to try my luck with them.

Immigration in Jordan is something of an issue. Recent years have seen a lot of conflict in the Middle East region and Jordan’s open border policy has seen around 5 million people seek refuge from countries like Iraq and Syria. As Jordan’s population wasn’t that large to start with, it’s resulted in a massive, fast growth in the number of people living there, and, from what I saw on my brief visit, is struggling to adapt somewhat.

The internet connection in the hotel was very good though – they advertised that they had a 150 Mbps line which suggests that the telephony infrastructure in Amman is generally good. This came in useful when needing to do a Skype call with someone.

I’d maybe like to go back to Jordan in future to actually see the nice bits of Amman, and visit the Dead Sea which isn’t far away. But I’d prefer to wait until the situation in Syria dies down first.

Notes on Dublin

May 18, 2024May 27, 2014 by Neil Turner

Following last year’s cultural observations about Paris, I’ve decided to do the same about Dublin. This isn’t about where we visited – that was yesterday – but all of the little things we saw or did.

Getting from the airport

Following advice from the guidebook, we took the 747 Airlink bus from Dublin airport into the city centre. It’s a bit pricey, at €6 one way, but the €10 return ticket is valid for over 12 months. It’s probably the best compromise between price, speed and comfort, as it uses the Dublin Tunnel to get into the city centre quickly. There are more expensive, but probably more comfortable coaches operated by First, as well as some slower but cheaper buses. A taxi will set you back at least €20 each way for up to four people, although if there are four of you that means it’s the same return price as the Airlink so may be worth bearing in mind. The airport isn’t connected to the local rail or tram networks, sadly.

Open top tour buses

There are two open top tour bus companies operating in Dublin – one operated by Dublin Bus (the municipal operator) and another is a CitySightseeing franchise. The latter is cheaper overall, as its €22 ticket is valid for two days, whereas the €19 ticket offered by Dublin Bus is for a single day. Both offer small discounts for some of the attractions.

Whilst they are a good way to see lots of attractions from the outside, be aware that most of the buses have an open top deck and it rains a lot in Ireland. And there are cheaper ways to get around the city, using regular buses or the trams. We therefore didn’t bother with the tour buses.

Dublin Pass

If you’re going to do a lot of attractions whilst visiting Dublin, then the Dublin Pass may be worth considering. Once you’ve bought the pass, you get free entry to all of the participating attractions for the duration of the card. However, personally I feel it’s a bit of a rip-off as you’ll need to visit at least three attractions in a day for it to worth the €39 cost. For some places, this may mean cutting visits short. We didn’t bother with the pass.

The Luas tram system

The aforementioned tram service is a quick and relatively cheap way of getting around the city – particularly to places like Dublin Zoo and Kilmainham Gaol which are some way out of the city (although you will still have quite a walk once you get off the tram in both cases). The trams are very frequent – as often as every three minutes – and the system only opened in 2004 so it’s modern and comfortable. There are two lines – the Red Line goes east-west to the north of the river, and the Green Line goes north-south to the south of the river. However, presently the two lines do not meet and so the north of the city isn’t served yet – a cross-city line is presently under construction.

Mobile phones

Ireland has three of the same mobile networks as the United Kingdom – O2, Three and Vodafone. There’s no EE but their fourth network is called Meteor, owned by the Irish national phone company Eircom. If, like me, you use Three then you’ll be pleased to know that Ireland is a ‘Feel at Home’ country, so you can use your inclusive minutes, texts and data allowance as you would in Britain at no extra cost. Vodafone charged £2 a day for internet roaming, by comparison.

I had a 3G signal everywhere in Dublin – in fact, it was better than some parts of Leeds or London – but no 4G on Three as yet, it seems.

Free Wi-fi

It seemed like just about everywhere offered free wifi (or at least a wifi service that was free for a short time). This included our hotel, most cafés and restaurants, and most of the tourist attractions too. It was certainly more prevalent than what I’m used to in Britain.

My theory is to do with Ireland’s mobile phone networks. They all use GSM and UMTS, like in Britain and most of Europe. But Verizon and Sprint in the USA don’t use GSM or UMTS and so phones on these networks won’t work in Ireland. Ireland receives a lot of tourism from America, hence the need to provide Wifi (AT&T phones should work fine, and T-Mobile phones may work).

In any case, Christine, who is on Vodafone in the UK, decided not to pay the £2 a day for internet, and just use the free wifi hotspots. And rely on me.

The weather

It rains a lot in Ireland. We Brits may think we get a lot of rain, but Ireland gets even more. Make sure that you pack a waterproof jacket, and/or an umbrella to take with you. Many shops in Dublin also sold plastic ponchos for days when it gets really bad.

Security and crime

Crime levels in Dublin are, apparently, similar to any other large city. Sadly, Christine almost got pickpocketed by someone on O’Connoll Street, not far from our hotel. A young bloke sneaked up behind her and tried to open her handbag; thankfully, she felt the tug and very quickly had the miscreant pinned up against some railings and on the receiving end of a large amount of angry shouting. He didn’t manage to take anything but he did run off very quickly afterwards. After that, we put our passports, which had been in her handbag, into the hotel safe, just in case.

We also noticed that there were a lot of rough sleepers and beggars in the city, especially in the area around Trinity College.

Language and signage

The official language of Ireland is Irish Gaelic, with English as the second language. This means that on most signs, you’ll see both languages, with the Gaelic text in italics and the English text in capitals. That being said, in our experience I don’t think anyone used Gaelic conversationally and so you’re highly unlikely to find anyone who doesn’t speak English.

Road signs are somewhat different to British and Europeans ones, and they more closely resemble American designs. However, the font is the same.

Prices

Dublin has a reputation of being an expensive city and this was partly true in our experience. In other words, there are many ways that you can spend lots of money unnecessarily, as I’ve mentioned above. Drinks in particular were often on the pricey side, with a pint of beer coming in at around €5 – £4, or almost double what I’d expect to pay in my local pubs here in Yorkshire. But there were cheaper places – for lunch, I can recommend KC Peaches on Nassau Street, opposite Trinity College, where you can fill a plate from a buffet and get a drink for less than €10.

Familiar brands like Subway are everywhere in Dublin, with many Londis franchises having a Subway concession inside, but they are slightly more expensive than Britain. The £3 Subway and drink deal is €4 for example. Also remember that shops in Ireland have to charge you extra for plastic carrier bags – 22¢ I think.

One potential way to save money is to book tickets for attractions in advance online. We didn’t do this because our British debit and credit cards charge extra for non-Sterling transactions, so any potential savings would be wiped out. But if you have an overseas spending credit card then you may be able to save 10-15% off entry for attractions this way.

Looks like I’ll be banned from Heathrow

March 9, 2025June 27, 2007 by Neil Turner

BAA, the operator of Heathrow Airport (and a number of other big UK airports) wants to get a court injunction against members of 15 organisations who are running Camp for Climate Change in August. The injunction would mean that members of the 15 organisations involved in the camp cannot go into the airport, use the Heathrow Express or its platforms at Paddington station, use parts of the Piccadilly Line on London Underground, or use any of the airport access roads, including parts of the M25 and M4. There’s more from Greenpeace here, link via BoingBoing.

The thing is, these 15 organisations aren’t all loony liberal hippy organisations. Yes, the likes of Greenpeace are there, along with single-issue groups opposed to airport expansion. But you’ve also get well established organisations like The National Trust, RSPB, The Woodland Trust and the Campaign to Protect Rural England. The combined membership of these organisations is around 5 million people, and if the injunction is worded how Greenpeace say it is, then all 5 million of them will be banned from the airport. And as I’m a proud paid-up member of The National Trust, that includes me, and my parents.

Amusingly, it also includes The Queen, patron of the RSPB and CPRE, and Prince Charles, patron of the National Trust. And whole load of BAA’s own staff.

As it happens I have no real intention of being anywhere near Heathrow at that time, either as a protester or a passenger (although I know of a few friends wanting to do the former). But this injunction is so broad that’s almost amusing in a real head-against-wall way, if that makes any sense.