Overnight in Gatwick Airport, London

We arrived at the Gatwick airport, south of London, around midnight and were to fly out at 6am to Athens, so we opted to spend the night there. We had been concerned about this since our initial planning as the last time we spent the night internationally in an airport it was what we refer to now as our Barcelona “nightmare”. (no need for further discussion of this) We arrived in Gatwick (which is now beginning to feel like a second home to us) a bit late, went through customs, retrieved our bags then bellied up to the counter at our, by now favorite 24 hour airport grocer, Mark and Spencer Foods. We found fresh fruit, yogurt, and salad – no tagine- and found ourselves an armless row of benches (not so easy to do, as people of all ages, were scattered all over the lounge areas, some were very well prepared for their airport camping expedition, we however were not. We curled up on the benches, backpacks for pillows and our Patagonia coats for covers and Jubie, who was quite sick with a bad cold, fell instantly asleep. Mary, however, spent a good deal of time “people watching”, and finally got a bit of shut eye as she knew the kind English man across from her, looking like there was no way he was going to sleep, would keep an eye on the bags.
We want to say that we love the Gatwick airport and feel that it truly is a sleep friendly place for those needing to do so. We also want to applaud Easy Jet, as we continue to encounter a unique and interesting cast of characters employed by them. We think they choose only the folks that apply with the highest fun factor, most are quite young, exuberant and have flashy and fun to look at hairstyles! We are always amused. The airline has lived up to its name, as it is easy, user friendly and very economical.