grey. grey walls. grey, sombre moods. nasty, mouldy smells in the passages. shrieking yellow signs. interminable, underlit, un-windowed corridors. views (when you get them) of dank, miserable brutalist concrete with shabbyness.
grey-toned officialdom. people wearing hi-viz vests telling you not to cross tape-lines which make you snake 4x the distance to a short queue.
grey-eyed officials who cannot be bothered doing "more than their jobsworth" and so make you wait, or misdirect.
TSA equivalents who are so bored on the job, holding you up 5 extra minutes so they can fiddle with your kindle and then accuse you of not obeying the rules (which you did: the sign says laptops) and then strip your bags and complain about the epi-pen (which is legal) and on and on.
Its not that LHR is evil: its just the outer-waiting room of the country next door to Mordor, with slightly less tax, and hi-viz vests.
T5? getting better. T3 to T5? not so bad.
Charles-De-Gaulle is pretty bad too: Thunderbirds-are-go launchpad it may LOOK but its as disorganized as hell. Mind you, Gallic charm makes up for a lot. Heathrow just has an ineffable nasal whine about it.
[PS dual AU/GB passport holder, do LHR 2+ times/year, 10+ intl flights a year worldwide... so I've seen the competition]
Last edited by geeohgeegeeoh; 21st June 2012 at 00:25.