Dreams do come true – our Med cruise! **Updated 6/30** THREAD 1 *COMPLETE* About This Page:

[chezp]

Friday 26 May – part one: This isn’t how the day is meant to start…

It wasn’t a good start to the day. I woke up and realised I had a headache and it was rapidly getting worse with every minute that passed. Great, just I don’t need – a really bad bout of sinus. I know how it works with sinus and me. If I don’t take a tablet, it won’t go away, it will just get worse and worse and already my head felt like it was going to explode. Of course, where were my sinus tablets? In the suitcases, all packed away of course.

I had no choice but to wake Mark and ask him to get them for me, as I could barely move my head. Fortunately, about half an hour after I took them, I did start to feel a little better and drifted back to sleep. Unfortunately, I know that Mark didn’t and I felt really bad about that when he told me that.

Just as well we were awake early, as we never got the 5.30 alarm call that we had asked for. That’s the first time that’s happened to us and that could’ve led to some serious problems, had we not woken up when we did (or in Mark’s case, just never gone to sleep after being woken up)

We quickly dressed and decided to wait for the bus to the airport downstairs, as our room was just too hot, no matter what we did with the air conditioning. All in all, the Clarion was OK, but I think there are better hotels to stay at at Gatwick before flying out of there.

The bus arrived on time and we were the second hotel of three to be picked up. I’m glad we weren’t staying at the third, as there were no seats left at Gatwick by the time we got there.

We were about the only ones to get off at the North Terminal stop, but that didn’t mean that it was quiet inside the terminal. Anything but. There were lots of people in there, but luckily I had checked in online last night before we left home, so we were able to get into the fast bag drop line. I think we waited about 15 minutes and then we got the news we wanted, both cases were underweight, although in fairness, not by much. Better not buy too much then, or if we do, we’d better put it in the hand luggage on the way back.

We quickly cleared security, making sure only to take one bag through (tip for anyone flying in for the Med cruise this summer from America via London, you have to take one bag only through security, not one bag and a purse or a handbag. Everything has to go into one bag, no exceptions. As far as liquids go, I believe it’s the same policy as in the States – it’s all got to go into a clear plastic bag and no liquids of more than 100ml.

Then we went in search of breakfast. We thought we’d go to the same place we ate in October. The food was just as good, I had fruit salad with yoghurt and Mark had a full breakfast, although he was midway through it when he noticed that there was no bacon, but too late to say anything by then! The service was, well a bit odd. We sat there for 10 minutes and weren’t severed. Mark went to get a paper and, on the way back, noticed a sign that said you have to order at the bar, so that’s what he did. Then a few minutes later, we then saw the servers taking orders from other tables, so goodness knows what was going on there.

We browsed a few shops and I stocked up on sinus tablets, as I still wasn’t feeling 100% and before we knew it, we were being signposted to our gate. My goodness, we had a hike to get there and through some very new parts of the airport:



We had a tiny plane for the journey and I grabbed some shots of what was going on out there.



While we were waiting for our flight, an American family sat behind us and Mark spotted the Disney luggage they had and asked if they were going on the cruise. Sure enough, they were, but they were exhausted, having just flown in an hour or so earlier from Texas. How well we know that lovely feeling of jetlag and how nice that we don’t have to experience it today!

Next: a pleasant surprise in Barcelona