Well no, I don’t especially love MIA. Like most travellers I don’t especially like most airports, particularly if I’m in transit. (An exception is Singapore’s Changi) A lay-over is either tight (you have to speed walk or run) or you have several hours to kill, with emphasis on ‘kill’. There is no ideal lay-over unless it involves a shower and horizontal time between sheets, somewhere sound insulated and close to said airport.

MIA sprawls over huge distances, with long concourses, only some of which are served by a skytrain or moving walkways. It’s much like other US airports, except for the wonderful floors in some parts – these pics were taken on concourse D, around 5.30 am.

So to arrive at MIA one morning last week at 4am from Montevideo, UY, gave me plenty of time to kill until my 7.45am flight to Denver.

With few people around and most shops still closed, I was able to take my time to photograph and enjoy the lovely brass inlays in the man made granite-like flooring presenting a tidal shore theme entirely fitting with the city’s coastal and near-Caribbean location.

While there are plenty of large starfish and shell shapes, many smaller fragmenty things are easily overlooked in a hurry, and these are lovely little snippets of brass seaweed, coral and sponges.

My theme might now must be more obvious – what lovely patterns holes can make.

And I still had heaps of time to enjoy a coffee and some people watching near my boarding gate!