On the Road Again!

After reading some very low opinion reviews of Drivefly Gatwick on Google Reviews I decided that maybe I was lucky in early 2019. The car came back undamaged and clean. Or at least as clean as it was when I dropped it off! Instead I have booked with the airport's own long term parking solution. We have used this many times before. Except this time, I have signed up for their meet and greet.... So that's another thing checked off the list.  We've only flown into Alicante once before although I had a few times in the 90's when I went quite often to visit ex partner in Murcia. Then I used the bus to Murcia and didn't hire a car.

With all the scare stories surrounding where to park at the airports, especially Gatwick, I might revert back to the long term parking on the airport where I park the car on concrete and take the key with me. The bus from there to the departures takes only a few minutes.  The problems surrounding "meet and greet" seems to stem from unscrupulous people with a website and a field taking people's cars and leaving them in an unattended and unguarded field. This is one of the cases that was brought to national attention -  https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/2nY7zwtVKkhl134HBvWhcPy/park-direct-gatwick-ltd When we went to Florida earlier in the year we booked a "meet and greet" service at Gatwick with DriveFly . The car came back to us as it was when we left it and wasn't damaged any more than it already is.  No mud. So we will possibly go with them again in the future. Reviews on Google not good though. They score 2.8 out of 5 stars.  There's plenty of ...

Up, packed and breakfast had before we set off at around 10am for the 332km drive back to the airport hotel where Centaur have their rental office. Unfortunately, I had a dickhead moment getting the car out of the parking space and bumped the rear into a concrete post. The underground garages are a forest of posts and some of them quite large to hold the building above up off the ground!  I was just rolling back and "bang".   There was a  minimum of damage, just a little paint chipped off the bumper. More my pride was hurt. It is lucky I opted for the "smart" all inclusive insurance. I hope. The 1.0L Polo seemed very economical to run. Admittedly it is a little underpowered on the autovia but cruised at 110 to 120km/h okay. It was supposed to be full when we left last week but this might have been the gauge rather than the actual level of fuel. I filled up in Badajoz and it took 8.78 gals to the "click" and we had done 313.5 miles. That comes out at 35.7 m...

Arrived last night in time for scampi and chips and then a relatively early to-bed. Up at 0645, just like a work day, to have full English breakfast. Once sorted we arrived at the parking. The road works look to be overnight only and we sped through. By 0915 we were checked in. They decided the aircraft was pretty full and our small cases have gone in the hold for free. Bugger. And here we are in Starbucks having a coffee waiting for the flight to appear and the gate number pop up. Gate 11. The long walk starts... To be continued. posted from Bloggeroid

Up early for breakfast and then set off for the airport. Not much traffic and we arrived in good time. All smooth until the self check in wouldn't work and we had a twenty minute queue to check bags. With human intervention instead. Quickly through security and now in Starbucks. Gate information just popped up. Gate 34.

Day 1 was yesterday. Busy for both of us as Claire was working and I had the builders in to start on the bathroom refit. We have been waiting for a start date for months. My less happy job was taking Reggie to Countrypaws Kennels for his holiday. He was a little sad when I gave him a cuddle and his new neighbours were barking the house down. The day ended with a short drive to a hotel near the airport so that we didn't have to contend with rush hour traffic on the deadly M25. Car parked and we checked the bags and we're through security in about ten minutes. The flight is allegedly on time at 1155. Scheduled arrival is 1620 local time in Tampa. Weather currently shown as 32C but showery!! Onwards and upwards. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone Location: Gatwick North Terminal

Another hotel. This time the night before we fly. With security etc we need to be at the airport around 0830 at the latest to check in and get through the passport messing about. As this will mean a very early start we decided to stay overnight locally. It will save a lot of hassle.

The countdown started with the alarm going off at 8am. By 9am we were up, breakfasted (a noun into a verb) and tidying the apartment and sorting the rubbish. Transferring some stuff (the dirty bag) to my little case to pack around the Arsenal boot bag (electrical stuff like chargers etc) and the Acer notebook meant that the big case would weigh a mere 19.5kgs. Once checked out and email/facebook/blogger checked on the wifi we made slow progress to Playamar to have a coffee and read the kindles.  Time usually drags but with the current two-hour before flights stipulation, we needed to be getting a move on.  TomTom took us to Malagacar and we dropped the Aygo off. I mentioned the key buttons didn't work and they just said the battery had gone.... In 7000kms?  Not good enough Toyota!! Once on the shuttle bus it was a matter of minutes before we joined the queue for the check-in. Pretty painless it was too. Security was a doddle, Claire's hip failed to set off any alarms and ...