September 29th
This morning was pretty much a drag. I hate waiting at the best of times but there wasn’t even time to do anything. I’d pretty much finished packing by 8.30 so sat out and read my book. I had my last bit of banter with a waiter and then went to get changed.
I filled out my comments form and that was the last thing we handed in before leaving.
Bodrum airport is tiny and to save them time you get to x-ray your own luggage, you also get to lift it onto a waist high platform which was a bit of a struggle for some. Yet another scam by the airlines, when we got to the desk we asked if there were any legroom seats. All of these seats are at £25 extra, unless of course you wait until the end and they aren’t taken by paying customers you get them for free of charge if there isn’t anything else.
My conclusion is that the scales at Gatwick are broken as my bag weighed 17.8 in Turkey and it had a lot less in it. I can’t remember if I put this tip in but people we met told us that if your bag comes in just overweight and they try to charge you [which is currently £8 a kg I believe], you should ask them for proof of when the scales were last checked. They are supposed to “align” the scales after a certain amount of baggage has been through and you have a right to check. Obviously the scales at Gatwick were weighing in our favour, if it comes out extremely heavy there probably isn’t a lot of point checking as you must have just over packed! Mind you they aren’t as strict coming back as the couple in front were 16kg over weight and didn’t get charged.
We brought our duty free, I was sorely tempted by an apple Smirnoff but plumped for regular absolut. All the alcohol was a bit cheaper than back home but negligible. Dad went for a wander and asked if we wanted anything, I could smell chips and had the urge. If you converted the lira price to pounds sterling would you like to hazard a guess at the price? £4.50 for what was a very small portion of chips.
The flight was the usual trauma but sausage and mash for lunch was good. We’re coming down to land and as we’re coming in to London it’s funny to see a layer of cloud as if it’s land, but beautiful.
