Dear diary (Tales from Gatwick)…
13/01/2004…
Well, a lot can happen in 24 hours. Despite my numerous activities of the previous day, I didn’t sleep too well and probably got only three hours sleep. I made pick up fine. Flight back to Gatwick from Marseilles was very smooth and we had very crew friendly loads (Four passengers in the front and 39 down the back). Our transport for our next flight to Pisa was literally ten minutes after we had disembarked our passengers from Marseilles so it was straight on to the next aircraft. The loads on the Pisa flight were quite low as well so it was another smooth flight.
We had already made a plan of what we were going to do in Pisa inflight. One of the girls, Anji had never been before so we were going to take her to see the leaning Tower. We had also made plans to descend on the local supermarket and restock our empty wine racks at home with nice italian wines, get some olive oil and anything else that took our fancy. After that we’d find a coffee shop for a quick pick me up and then meet up in the hotel restaurant later for dinner.
After we had arrived and checked in at the hotel, we agreed to meet up in the lobby in twenty minutes (standard crew preparation time on short haul). As usual, I was the last down (but on time!). There was a slight change of plan and we first popped into a coffee shop our captain had been before and he treated us to the most gorgeous cappuccinos I’d had in a while, All of us had these except Jo who fancied a hot chocolate which when it arrived was so thick it could have passed for chocolate soup! It was very greatly enjoyed by her though :-)
We eventually got to the Tower and took the obligatory pics of us holding it up and then searched around for souvenirs to take home with us. I popped into the supermarket on our way back and got myself five bottles of wine and some olive oil all for 23 Euros (Bargain!!!) then made it back to the hotel and crashed out for a couple of hours before going down for dinner.
The hotel restaurant in Pisa is a favourite of the crew because the staff are really sweet, the food is delicious and we get a really good discount which more than made up for the tiny rooms (which are lovely but just on the small side!) There is a dedicated table which was always reserved for the two crews which would be staying there each evening. We’re all a bit sad because we’ve found out that as from March this year, Pisa along with several other European destinations we fly to out of Gatwick, will cease to be a stopover for us so this trip is a bit sentimental as it may be our last here.
we finished dinner around 8pm. Wine bottles carefully arranged in my wheelie bag and uniform ironed for tomorrows flight home. Buona Notte!