Carcassonne Day One : Stansted Wetherspoons – The Windmill

As there’s limited public seating in the airside part of Stansted, it wasn’t clear where else we would wait for our flight other than at the Wetherspoons at Stansted Airport, the Windmill. I’ve written about this venue before, but it’s well managed, the staff are engaging, it’s efficient and the environment is clean. It’s expensive, but that’s hardly going to surprise anyone. Liam and I had already enjoyed an extensive breakfast of a packet of crisps and a beer, so we didn’t need to have a fine dining meal. I’m sure (well, I’m not, I’m not always very observant) that they’ve extended the Windmill again, as we were seated in a wing that I hadn’t even noticed before. Incidentally, I remember the previous Wetherspoon outlet at Stansted which had around 18 tables, whereas they must now have over 100 tables across the two floors.

I like high seating and I was enjoying watching whether people coming in would go for high or low seating, and the majority went for higher seating. That’s how I spend my time now, with riveting polling such as that. I definitely need to get out more.

I went to the bar to order as they were playing a rather mean prank on customers and pretending on the app that they only had Greene King beers. I was momentarily excited to see that they had Theakstons Old Peculier, but the helpful staff member said that it had sold out within two hours and it had surprised them. I mean, I can hardly wonder why that beer sold out when the delights of Greene King IPA was on….. Anyway, they had Gold from Exmoor Ales and so I had half of that, it was a not unagreeable creamy, smooth and light beer. It also went well with the five decaff coffees that I had, such are the joys of unlimited coffee.

There are other food and beverage options at the airport which aren’t really any more expensive than Wetherspoons, but their beer and coffee options are more extensive and better value. I might try the Camden Bar and Kitchen at some point which has a few craft beer options and although isn’t linked to the Camden Brewery, as it’s operated by SSP, it does sell their beers.