On the Road Again!

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...

No response from British Airways as yet and the phone number they give (well hidden on the website) has a queuing system that is indeterminate in how long the wait is to get through. So gave up. We will take the small cases that fit in the overheads and have been tested to fit in the sizing frames that are dotted around the airport.   Plus everyone can carry a laptop bag even though I won't be taking a heavy laptop with me, although I might take my Nexus 7 tablet in case we need a bigger screen to view things on. Luckily I have a few laptop bags hanging around the house and loft and a new one from work that has just been taken out of its packaging. BA kindly have all the information on their website . All we need now is to start packing!

The Tour d'España has come about really because we wanted an early holiday.  Most often we have been to the US in May but with the changes to my contract at work, where I am stuck with school holidays for the bulk of my leave, it has meant that two week trips are out  of the question unless done at Easter or Summer. I would like to have gone  back as we did in August  2014 on the Explorer -  Revisita España 2014 , and on the bike but it is not practical with Claire's hip and her gradual worry about being on the bike! The next best thing is to fly/drive. I have been checking on Skyscanner and the way it works it seems impossible to get the flight out and back into UK when you want them at a reasonable  price.  A quick click to one-way revealed a lot more flights. It also revealed that their website creates round trips groups of flights that when checked as singles come out at a very different (and lower) price.  In the end I booked Iberia out from ...

Of all the comparison sites I have found that the best, for me at any rate, is Skyscanner. Today I had a quick look, always remembering to change my internet cache before searching and was amazed to see that Virgin had a direct flight from London Gatwick (LGW) on my dates, and cheaper (not much!) that my earlier searches. The times were good and so I thought "I'll have some of that". I clicked on the "offers" page and was taken to TravelUp. An agents we have used before. I filled in all my details, Claire's details and got to "pay now", and a box popped up, "flight details changed". Clicking on it took me back to Skyscanner and it began another search.  This time Virgin was cheapest still BUT the outward aitport was LGW but we'd arrive back at London Heathrow (LHR), some 50 miles away. Not much use with my car in the parking at LGW and an expensive transfer to negotiate.   Instead for £4 more I can fly direct from LGW and come back to...