Well here I am freezing my bits off in Oxford for a week. I will hopefully be updating the site with some bits and pieces, although that depends on how much real ale I drink.

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Flying out from Reina Sofia airport on Tuesday afternoon, a slight delay left me with a bit of extra time to kill, and determined not to start on the beer too soon, I had time to explore. You may remember I had a bit of a moan a few weeks ago about the tourist boards aborted banana promotion at both airports. The idea was that arriving tourists would be given a little box of 3 bananas and a leaflet of useful contact details, but despite a big splurge of publicity that made many news sites, the promotion was scrapped before it even started. So it was with interest that I spotted a stall in the upstairs departure lounge at Reina Sofia, it wasn’t there on my last trip in June,  selling souvenir packs of bananas to take home. The packs contain 8 bananas and cost 6 euros, makes you wonder how the free promotion became a business idea, and if the company El Regalo Mas Natural is owned byanyone connected to the Cabildo (government). It’s not a bad idea in itself, but they missed a trick. At that price it is a good way to buy a snack at the airport, given that Reina Sofia was found in a survey to be the dearest airport in Spain for food and drink.

Reina Sofia seems to be getting more commercial, there are definately more shops open downstairs and a few more locales nearing completion. I think the large local produce shop, selling cheeses, sauces, wine etc, is a good idea, after all if people are going to buy overpriced things to take home (2 small pots of mojo sauce for 6.70 euros) they might as well be locally produced overpriced things.

Another slightly annoying thing was the credit card stands, where a couple of supposedly dolly birds were trying to get Brits to sign up for a Barclays Flexi rate card. The ladies didnt just stick to their little stands, they were going up to people and giving them the cheesy smile and silly chatter to draw them in. Can’t help thinking that after being accosted on holiday by Lookie Lookie men and Timeshare touts, it might be the final straw for some tourists to get more hassle at the airport.