For to travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive… That may have been true when Robert Louis Stevenson penned it in 1881. In those days it was adventurous to have uniformed porters load your trunks aboard a train for a leisurely or not so leisurely journey. The concept of flying planes was as improbable as a visit from Martians and computers belonged in an even more ethereal sphere.

Nowadays, what we all do is to travel hopefully. We’re hopeful that we’ve clicked the right buttons when buying our tickets; that we’ve got the names exactly as they are on the passports; hopeful that our bags will not be too large, wide, fat or heavy to comply with the ever-changing regulations of the different airlines. Hopeful also that they will arrive when and where we do.

Travelling is still a great adventure, and really worth it in the end but recently it has become more stressful than ever - unless you happen to be a minister or a civil servant. Even the most innocent of us passengers is made to feel like a suspect in a grand international drug chain and, before we even reach that stage, there’s all that queuing– for check in, bagging, tagging and dropping, security and scanning.

Trying to run for it
As I am ageing – well aren’t we all! - things like those signs where it tells you that the terminal you want is a fifteen or twenty-five minutes walk away strike horror into me, especially if I have hand luggage or I got carried away in the duty free shops.

As the owner of a titanium replacement knee the metal detectors earn their keep every time I go through one. In Oslo and Schipol I was asked to show my scar. In Gatwick the frisker wanted to know how long it took for recovery as she was going to have one done the following week. So, as not to appear to be holding everybody up as she elicited the necessary reassurance, she swabbed my bags for explosives and then went though every item in my bag as we chatted amiably. In Dallas, I was ushered into a bulletproof booth for further investigation. I recently travelled with a much younger friend who has had two hip replacements. Well, that was worthy of a comedy half hour of its own, and by the time we’d both been thoroughly examined, in full view of everyone, the whole airport even knew we were wearing under-wired bras!

Top travel tips
As a travel writer, transiting airports is a sizeable part of my life and I have come up with a few tips that make thing easier for me. I always increase the font size of my ticket before I print it so that I can read the booking reference and other information without having to forage for my glasses every time I need to check anything. I use a bag with one exterior zipped pocket where all that paraphernalia goes, along with my passport and nothing else. I always have a book and I never wear a belt going through scanners, nor shoes with laces and I am now perfectly happy to forgo the duty free savings on a bottle or two for the sake of having my hands free.

Despite all of the above, I have to admit I still get excited as I head for the airport, off on my next jaunt, wherever that may be. And I don’t really agree with Robert Louis Stephenson’s sentiments - For to travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive!