August 1 2007 Airports, Wirral, wedding anniversary

August 1 2007 Airports, Wirral, wedding anniversary

TONY Ellis left a comment backing up my feelings of dismay and disgust on my recent trip through the Dante-esque misery of Heathrow Airport.

Tony writes: 'British airports always look like slums compared to most overseas western international airports. I was at Zurich airport briefly last summer and it was like a palace - ditto Munich, Bilbao, etc, etc.
Perhaps UK airport authorities should start spending some of the huge fees they get from the airlines (ie. via the passengers) and start building world-class facilities'.

Well said. Airports must be driving people into the hands of the train operators and are the best possible advocates for taking a holiday in this country.

This year I've been to Bangkok, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, New York La Guardia, New York Newark, Montreal, Faro, and of course Manchester and Liverpool as well as Heathrow.

Heathrow is comfortably the vilest of the lot with Manchester second but trailing by a fair distance. Liverpool is still a small and emerging airport but it won't take long for its excessive queues and primitive drop-off facilities to drive me nuts. JLA needs to keep moving onwards and upwards.

There on Monday flying with Harry, Morgan and Lynne to Paris. Morgan (4) doesn't do queues and Lynne's MS means she can't walk far or stand for long. I'll let you know how it goes.

What's your worst airport? What's your airport hell story?

Lunch with Wirral Council Chief Executive Steve Maddox yesterday. Straightforward and likeable guy, hugely passionate about Wirral and Meresyside at large. All off the record but exciting times ahead for the Peninsula, I reckon.

Lynne and I's wedding anniversary today. 20 years. China. How appropriate: we've had our chips and cracks down the years, needed some glue from time to time, and once or twice we've looked a bit fragile.

But we're still in one piece.