John Edward Cooper’s Notes

DAY 8 - RETURN FLIGHT
Today at the appropriate time, the coach will transfer you to the airport for your return flight home.[i]

[i] This was the itinerary that tour manager Andrew had posted:

Day 8 - Departure day
Please return any room keys to reception. Please remember to empty your safety deposit box have your passports In your hand luggage, and see your hold luggage onto the coach.
Your departure time will be advised.

Janet vacated the bathroom, 6.35am. I showered…[etc.]. Janet wrote that we went for “breakfast”, adding: “We said goodbye to ‘our’ waitress, and we arranged to keep in touch by e-mail.” Her e-mail address was “vladanam––@––––––.com”, so I guess her name was Vlada Nam. “How lovely,” Janet continued. “We finished packing then went down to Reception. It was 8.50am.” Yesterday, as Andrew spoke, I wrote:

Manchester group
Leave 9am

So we were at the coach by that time. I saw after boarding the coach that the one of those referred to on Friday 8 September 2023 as “the fruit vendors” and on Tuesday 12 September 2023 as “the farmers” was out with wares and weighing scales — and attracting custom by the looks of it.


Thursday 14 September 2023 09:05:32
Vendors, seen from the coach as we wait to depart from Petrovac


Thursday 14 September 2023 09:06:18
Vendors, seen from the coach as we wait to depart from Petrovac

“About 20 minutes later,” Janet wrote, i.e. from our checking out at the hotel reception, “we Manchester people left for Tivat Airport.… What a mêlée!”
 On the approach to Budva I noted “half-built structures”; obviously, to be worthy of note, we passed more than two of them, one here— one there— one there— We joined a “slow crawl in Budva from 9.30am. [At] 9.40am [I] saw [a] Russian car in [the] queue.” I dropped off to sleep; “Janet woke me up [at] 10.05am, with the airport runway to [the] left side; but we went past it, around a roundabout, [and went] back again to it. [We] arr[ived], 10.10.am”
 We went through the main entrance (behind Janet in the photo below), but couldn’t find where to check in. I’d been having diarrhoea, and my state was still parlous. So first I “found the crapper. [I] had to break into the toilet paper dispenser. [The] sensors on [the] taps [were] hardly operable.…”
 Janet wrote, “We went for a drink and I bought a cheese and ham buttie for the plane — there is plenty for us both!” It was only when we saw one of our people pass to my left on their way to a smaller building, that we realised that that was where we had to check in. So that’s where we went after drinking our Coke Zero and sparkling water.


Thursday 14 September 2023 10:30:30
Tivat Airport: refreshments


Thursday 14 September 2023 10:55:48
Tivat Airport, Terminal 2: waiting to check in


Thursday 14 September 2023 11:06:26
Tivat Airport: departures for “Terminal 1” and “Terminal 2”


Thursday 14 September 2023 11:10:00
Tivat Airport, Terminal 2: waiting to check in

The fact that we’d already done a check-in and printed our boarding passes—




—was ignored and new boarding passes were issued.




Thursday 14 September 2023 11:28:28
Tivat Airport, Terminal 2: heading for Security and Passport Control

Janet wrote, “We were dismayed to find we should have brought water through security as there was nothing there[, airside]. How ridiculous! We were late boarding and departing.”
 At Security we were surprised to see people being allowed to carry bottles of water through. I’d noted what Andrew had told us:

Manchester people
from Tivat
Check Departures
[for] delays before going airside

But he’d made no mention of needing bottled water. We restricted our liquids in hand luggage to no more than 100ml, in accordance with the rule introduced in 2006 after British authorities thwarted an Islamist terror plot to blow up a USA-bound plane with liquid explosives carried in soft-drink bottles. There were water dispensers airside (cf. “11:52:36”), but only empty ones!


Thursday 14 September 2023 11:52:02
Tivat Airport, Terminal 2: airside, Gate 21


Thursday 14 September 2023 11:52:36
Tivat Airport, Terminal 2: airside, Gate 21


Thursday 14 September 2023 11:53:28
Tivat Airport, Terminal 2: airside, Gate 21: Passport Control, through which we have passed


Thursday 14 September 2023 11:57:30
Tivat Airport, Terminal 2: “Departures” board (“Processing”)

At “12:36”, according to the clock on the “Departures” board, our flight was shown as “Boarding”.


Thursday 14 September 2023 12:37:20
Tivat Airport, Terminal 2: “Departures” board (“Boarding”)

According to my contemporaneous scribblings: “The sign said ‘Boarding’ but no-one had appeared at the desk. [The] clerk appeared, 12.45pm, and disappeared. Boarding started, ca.12.50pm. Specified row numbers [were called, but] not ours, so we sat till near [the] end.”


Thursday 14 September 2023 12:59:30
Tivat Airport, Terminal 2: airside, Gate 21: actually starting to board

We boarded the aircraft up the steps at the front.


Thursday 14 September 2023 13:08:16
Tivat Airport, Terminal 2: crossing the tarmac to board


Thursday 14 September 2023 13:08:24 CEST
Tivat Airport, Terminal 2: crossing the tarmac to board


Our selected seats on the return flight of the Boeing 737-800 (shown in black)

The flight was scheduled for departure at 13:05. “[The] captain came on [the address system] about [the] delay, but [I] couldn’t hear most of what he said, ca.13:25 CEST. [The] local ‘yellow vest’ departed [the] captain’s cabin, 13:38. [The] doors [were] closed, 13:39.
 “Captain: ‘further delay’ (13:41).
 “Captain (13:55): ‘[We should] be able to start [the] engines in five minutes.’
 “[The] engines started, 14:10.”
 I wrote the names of the cabin crew:

 “Taxiing 14:14–14:21 CEST, with a pause, along [the] length of [the] runway, then turned.
 “Take-off, 14:22: 1hr 17min late.
 “13:51: [our] estimated time [of arrival], 16:10 BST.
 “[We] started [our] descent, ca.15:45.
 “(16:10) Captain: ‘In a holding pattern. Estimate landing in 10 minutes’ time.’
 “[We] landed, 16:23; stopped moving, 16:36.
 “[The] door opened, 16:39.”


Thursday 14 September 2023 16:42:18 BST
Boarding the shuttle bus at Manchester Airport

It’s hard to believe that the above photo was taken at “16:42:18” and the next one, on arrival in the Baggage Reclaim hall, was only 11 minutes later (“16:53:28”), given that in the first one we were still waiting to be taken to the terminal on the stationary shuttle bus, and that in large airports there is always much toing and froing in corridors and upping and downing on stairs or escalators. But we did have “Passport Control FastTrack” tickets, so we didn’t have to join any vast, zigzagging, slow-moving, multitudinous line.


Thursday 14 September 2023 16:53:28 BST
Arrival at the baggage reclaim hall at Manchester Airport

There were the remnants of others’ unclaimed baggage on the carousel, from “SAW” (Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen International Airport, according to my later browser lookup). Our flight’s started to appear at 17:26, then the carousel stopped with the announcement of a delay of half an hour. My phone showed “No service”, so I couldn’t ring G— B—, who was coming to pick us up. The appearing of luggage on the carousel resumed, 17:36. According to my notes, “G— [was] waiting, ca.17:42.” So our luggage must have appeared very quickly after the carousel’s resumption, for us to head through the Customs “Nothing to declare” glass cages and arrive at the exit six minutes later. (Unless my notes are wrong!)
 We arrived home ca.9.30pm. “I checked [that] all [was] OK,” Janet wrote, “unpacked [John]’s stuff, etc., then had a shower and was in bed at 10.50pm. What a day! I was so tired.…”…

[2023]