V-Flyer

Last year, I emailed my friend Christopher to arrange to stay at his B&B in France.

I used to work with him and he left five years ago to follow his dream to open his own B&B (chambre d'Hôte) with his partner. For five years I have been promising that "this year I will visit" and I realised that this was becoming an empty promise.

And look what I'd missed! But more of that later: flight first.

I had selected the date 29 April as I was off on Monday for the MayDay bank holiday. Little did I know that that was to be the same day that Prince William would get married. Result! A weekend away : 0 holidays used!

After my last flight from Stansted I had vowed never to use Stansted Express again to get to the airport.

This time, I booked a taxi from my home to take me their. It was £35 (about £15 more than Stansted Express then: but saved so much hassle. The journey time was also 22 minutes door to door. ).

So arriving at the airport feeling refreshed and ready to go, I headed to security. The queue was quite long but moved pretty quickly. Arriving at 0625am meant that I missed a surge of passengers as the queue behind me filled up quickly.

I was alarmed by the strict notices to place liquids in a separate bag for inspection. I didn't do this. I had some toothpaste and those travel size shampoo etc. in my hand luggage and I thought that I had a decent reason to explain myself should I be stopped. I wasn't and headed to the lounge.

No.1 Lounge has two at Stansted - I headed for the one at Gate 49 which was miles away... (not literally).

I had a nice coffee, some pastries and also a bacon roll: all very tasty, I watched the mind numbing coverage of the wedding (at 645am what was there to say?) and spoke to the one member of staff on duty at that time.

The service at No. 1 Lounge was hit and miss: basically because there was one person on duty so I had to wait a bit longer than I like for service.

After a while a blood curdling scream eminated from outside the lounge. The girl on duty mentioned that we "have a good view" and it appeared to be someone who had falled foul of Ryanair's hand luggage policy. I didn't hear the details but there were tears.

My flight was called shortly afterwards and I waited for everyone else to board first. I still managed to get a row for myself, cleverly avoiding the kids and babies!



I nodded off shortly after the safety announcement.

When I woke, it felt like it was just after take off. I was a bit disoriented but I could still see 'land' outside the window. There were four crew on board.

I hadn't noticed before but the 'plane had been fitted out with an inflight entertainment system. I would try that later. The steward at the front of the plane had a tray of orange juice which she was distributing to the passengers row by row.
Her smile was reassuring and kind. Behind her her colleague was distributing newspapers to passengers too. The choice was The Independent, The Guardian or The Daily Mail. No one picked the Daily Mail I noticed! There was the gentle murmur of passengers relaxing, chatting : a few laughs even. A stewardess leaned over to me and tucked a pillow behind my head - she smiled politely and apologised when realised she had disturbed me. But for some reason, despite being awake, I woke up.



Aw no, I was dreaming.

Back to reality:

No the seat doesn't recline.
Entertainment? The Ryanair magazine.
Buy your SCRATCHCARDS!
Buy your Royal Wedding HELLO! special!
Buy some coffee and tea!
Buy a newspaper!
But some sandwiches!
Buy some gifts!
Did we mention SCRATCHCARDS? (Yes, and if I buy ten I get ten free. And if I buy ten, it's because of another offer where if I buy three I get two free, so I can buy six I get four three, and for every ten.... etc. etc.)

The flight was actually uneventful again.
Joking aside, the crew stood out because they were actually very friendly, very smiley and did assist passengers.
It felt like a step up from previous Ryanair flights (which have never given me cause to complain).

As we approached Limoges, the scenery of this part of France was breathtaking: rolling hills, woods and lakes and oh so green.

BUMP! A Ryanair Landing.

Limoges Airport was lovely and petite, and my most expensive Ryanair flight ever was complete. (£69 or something.)

I really enjoy these ex STN TR's, thanks for taking the time.

How do you work out which No1 Lounge to use; if the gate isn't shown don't you risk being in the wrong place? What if the flight departs from the gates that serve domestic arrivals (Gates 81 - 8whatever) and you've already headed out to the other gates on the monorail? I don't think there is a way back?

Just by the by, the STN express has added some new, clean, rolling stock. My trip out to STN last week was bordering on the pleasurable.

Paul

Great TR - for a minute there I thought Ryanair had really stepped up their game....nice thought though

Thank you for the TR and pics, Sealink.

pjh wrote:I really enjoy these ex STN TR's, thanks for taking the time.

How do you work out which No1 Lounge to use; if the gate isn't shown don't you risk being in the wrong place? What if the flight departs from the gates that serve domestic arrivals (Gates 81 - 8whatever) and you've already headed out to the other gates on the monorail? I don't think there is a way back?

Just by the by, the STN express has added some new, clean, rolling stock. My trip out to STN last week was bordering on the pleasurable.

Paul

I took a chance. Gate 49 is mainly for Ryanair departures; around Gate 80 is usually for domestic....

Sealink wrote:I took a chance. Gate 49 is mainly for Ryanair departures; around Gate 80 is usually for domestic....

Weeeeeeell, up to a point. Domestic arrivals, yes, but when I was doing my regular EDI commute in the morning there were usually two or three flights to european destinations from those gates.

Top tip: if you want to know which gate the flight is scheduled to depart from well before it appears on the display boards, ask the staff member that guards the tunnel down to the 80s. Their computer system holds the information well before made available to the travelling public.