Marseille, April 2014

30th April to 1st May

Following the peace and tranquility of the Calanques, it was back to the madness that is Marseille. We explored the Panier, the old part of the city, and had lunch at an Algerian cafe, the contents of the table continuously being blown off by the Mistral. The final day was a trip to Niolon, a pretty little village a short train ride around the bay from Marseille.

The trip back to Leeds was entertaining. After going through Marseille airport security scanners with every combination of family member, with and without shoes (I mean, how much explosive can you really pack into a baby's shoe?), we arrived at the departure gate with no sign of our plane, but at least there was an Antonov An-124 Ruslan parked outside for Matthew and me to stare at.

Departing half an hour late, our hour to change terminals at Heathrow was looking increasingly tight, and the single man at Passport Control in Heathrow chatting to the people in front for 10 minutes certainly made sure it was going to get more stressful. Then it was shoes off again, irises scanned again (or whatever they were doing with those cameras), and a frantic search for lost boarding passes that turned up behind the X-ray machine. We then had 5 minutes to get to our plane before it was due to take off. Running through the crowds pushing Matthew, Matthew giggling, people scattering, we arrived at the gate only for them to say "where's your wife?" Clearly I can run faster than Debbie carrying Megan... luckily she turned up, and we got on the plane to find everyone else patiently strapped in and waiting. Matthew, having spent the last hour pointing at everything that moves (which at Heathrow, is everything), passed out with excitement and slept all the way home.