Not sure about travelling

The villa was very good: spacious and well equipped, with a big, reasonably private terrace with a barbecue, a dining table and chairs and a couple of loungers.  And a sea view.  The walls were a little on the thin side, so we were keenly aware of tantrums from the child next door.  But as ours was the last villa in a row of twenty, we only had one party wall.  We were some distance from the pool and the noise that comes with it, so the most noticeable sounds were the sea breaking on the rocks and beach a few hundred meters away, and bird calls: mostly sparrows and azure winged magpies.  The place felt rather damp, though, but probably because of the high humidity of the air.  All in all, a good experience: we got a bit of exercise and saw some interesting places on the fine days, and it’s always a pleasure just to sit and read when outdoor activities aren’t possible.

We ambled along to Faro on Monday at a pretty decent hour, and turned the car in without (so far) any nasty surprises.  We’d checked in on line, and saved our boarding cards as photos on our iPhones (perhaps we should get an ungifted child to show us how it should be done properly).  Long queue for passport stamping as on arrival, and it was a sweaty experience again.  I hate to think what Faro airport is like in high summer.  BA Club Europe tickets got us into the CIP lounge at Faro, which takes a lot of finding.  And when you find it, it’s marginally better than the general waiting area if a bit quieter.  Small, and with a miserable catering offering, sweaty plastic chairs, and no information on flight departures.  

The flight back was in an ancient A320 that started its life decades ago in Brazil.  The service on board was adequate at best, and the food in Club Europe was unimpressive.  There was a time when British Airways could be relied on to provide good service: not this time.  Back at Gatwick, the airport experience was not too bad: long, long walks as usual (all told, we walked over 3 km on Monday in airports alone), but a fairly brisk passport clearance process.

It’s hard to know what our travel policy should be.  We no longer do long trips by road, and our recent experience of international rail and air travel is not encouraging.  Maybe it’s back to the floating care home, and to hang with the expense.