By the time you have woken up and got the chance to read this, I will probably already have arrived in Berlin. At the moment (05:02 on Friday morning) I am sitting in Costa at Gatwick’s South Terminal with a hot chocolate.
I have already been awake since 03:15 this morning – an earlier start than necessary perhaps but as I was travelling alone I wanted to make sure I allowed plenty of time to wake up. It seems that getting up at 03:15 is easier than getting up at 6 (which I have failed at recently, sleeping in until 7 for the last few days). This morning I was straight out of bed. Maybe I should get up earlier more often!?!
I checked out of the hotel and loaded the car, set the sat nav for the Long Stay South car park and set off on the short drive to the airport. At such an hour the roads were empty! Travelling from the hotel I went down to junction 10A, joined the Northbound M23 and put my foot down once more. I like empty motorways… I should travel at night more often! I reached the airport just as the 4am news came to an end and Steve Allen opened up his daily Early Breakfast show on LBC.
Parking was quite simple – I pulled up at the barrier and after a couple of minutes the electronic screen said “Welcome Fred Hart”, my ticket printed from a machine and the barrier lifted. I managed to find a space quite quickly, locked up the car and got on the shuttle but to the terminal building.
Gatwick has 2 large Christmas trees outside. I’m not used to travelling abroad at this time of year, it’s unusual to see Gatwick with Christmas decorations. It’s only November 20th, seems incredibly early to put the decorations up to me. 20th December is about the earliest I’d ever do it!
There were no queues for EasyJet flights so I was checked-in and through security within no time at all! That means I’ve got plenty of time to read my e-mails, and I’ll get a text when the gate is open so I don’t need to worry about checking the display boards.
The flight closes at 6, departure at 06:30, and we’re due in to Berlin at 09:25 German time (that’s 08:25 UK time).
The next time you hear from me, I will be in the German Hauptstadt.
Bye for now…
FH.