Sunday, September 30, 2012

4 days in Rome - the journey home


24th September

Set the alarm for 4.30am as taxi due at 5.30am and we still had to check out.  Bill paid – roughly €15 each for tourist tax!  Taxi arrived early and we were at the airport before 6am which was a lot shorter than the 40 mins I was told it would take. 






Checked our bags in and queued for security – this took ages.  Once through I used the loos – disgusting!  Then we got coffee and brioche (like a pain au chocolat) (Mark had a filled roll) for breakfast.  The brioche wasn’t that filling and I didn’t get the water I ordered – it was a strange system.  Moving on to our gate we found that there were no seats for our gate, but there was another breakfast bar so I bought water and a couple of blueberry muffins and we sat in comfort in the café seating until our flight was called. 
Another full flight and it never ceases to amaze me what luggage people try to bring in the cabin.  After an uneventful flight we arrived at Heathrow – more security and finally we had access to a decent toilet!  We had brunch in Wetherspoons – Mark had the full English and I had pancakes and bacon.  I wandered round the departure lounge just trying to stretch my legs after having sat down for so long after being used to pounding pavements. 
The flight home was delayed and full and yet again someone had not made the flight so the luggage had to be located and removed!  The flight back to Glasgow was a bit bumpy – we hadn’t realised that there had been high winds for a couple of days.  Mark’s bag came through fairly quickly, but we had to wait for ages for mine – starting to worry that it hadn’t made it, but then to my relief it appeared.  Just as we got out of the airport we saw our transfer bus depart, so we had to wait in the wind and the rain.  When the next bus eventually arrived the queue was huge and a family with what seemed like an endless stream of bags and pushchairs took up all available space on the luggage racks.  The bus driver was trying to tell everyone to move down the bus, but there were bags in the aisles!  Eventually he suggested the rest of the people in the queue waited for the next bus.  When we got back to the car park it then took ages for the same family to find all their bags etc and get off the bus.  Luckily we were the next stop and got back to the car with a sigh of relief!  Next hurdle was getting the car park exit ticket.  I had my ticket and voucher number ready, but the family guys ahead of me didn’t have their voucher number, and one didn’t know his wife’s car registration number – all leading to more delays!  What a relief to finally leave the car park!  Got back to the village just before 5pm – totally exhausted.
It was a great 4 days away, just the right length of time for me as I am not a big city fan.  I would go back but would try to find a way of avoiding Heathrow.  The only direct flights were with Ryanair – which we didn’t fancy.

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