"They're taking me to Marrakech" - 23 December 2006

“Wouldn't you know we're riding on the Marrakech Express
They're taking me to Marrakech
All aboard the train”
Little did we know when we were singing this in the 60’s that one day we would be riding the Marrakech express, only it was a plane not a train. However, a train may well have been quicker. We were flying GB Airways (part of BA) and between them and BAA, the airport owners, they had created a total foul up of the boarding process.

London had been fog bound for a week and many travellers had been stranded but the fog had lifted enough for flights to be leaving on schedule.

We arrived at the North Terminal via the sky-train and headed for Zone F as indicated by the information boards. As we approached Zone F we found our way blocked by a queue with helpful queuers telling us that we had to return the way we had just come, go outside the building and join the queue from there, and that it had taken them 40 minutes to get back inside the building.

It was a truly amazing piece of bad planning. One would expect that an airline would know how many people they were planning to process at any given time, after all they had sold the tickets, and to put on enough staff to cope with the check-in numbers.

So after arriving at 10:30 for a 14:15 flight we filled in the entire time standing in queues.In spite of it all we arrived safely in Marrakech and booked into the Moroccan House Hotel, a smallish hotel delightfully decorated throughout in Moroccan tiling and paintwork.