Sunday, 16 October 2011

Miami vice

No matter how hard they may try (and lots of them don't seem to try at all), airlines seem no longer able to inject romance into international travel.


I set off from Heathrow's Terminal 5, which is a strangely mixed-up place: a vast shopping mall with intrusive security pantomime and an oddly other-worldly feel to its cavernous waiting areas. Which at least give you a decent view of your waiting plane, ready to whisk you off to, er, Miami.


I arrived as the sun was setting and woke to a glorious view from my hotel room, over the tops of the palm trees, the boardwalk and the beach, to the sea and the wide skies beyond...


Exploring later, the sea-front is full of run-down hotels -- this one particularly struck me, and revived my fantasies of owning a motel:


The beach itself was delightfully deserted...


Although the tranquility was rather spoiled by the warning notices all along the boardwalk:


This clause in particular provided me with a strong sense of unease:


Let's end here, with typical beach-front architecture...


It's not just the airlines that fail to find the romance. Whoever thought that was an appropriate piece of architecture for the beach front?

Miami: it's not like Miami Vice nor even like Dexter. I can't work out if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

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