Part of my Mom’s visit to see us involved a trip south to enjoy a warm part of Spain. We flew RyanAir (Never again!) which made for far to many transfers and far too long a wait to get home again. Going there I though I was such a clever traveler. I booked flights for less than £15 a person and a hotel for less than £30 a night. While I may have patted myself on the back when I finished booking it, I certainly was not by the time we arrived home. As it turns out, by the time you get finished paying for all the transfers to get to the discount airline airport (2 trains, two tubes, 2 cabs and a hotel room) and back we may as well have paid for the pricey flight out of Gatwick (1 hr, 1 direct train)! Lesson learned. On top of all that, it was ‘a real pea souper’ in London and the plane that was supposed to arrive in Malaga to take us home at 1630 couldn’t depart Stansted, on the east side of London, until the fog lifted. We were 11 hrs in the airport waiting for a plane. Waiting 11 hrs was bad enough, but we misinterpreted the layout of the Malaga airport. Instead of having a nice long meal and a shop in the retail area, we went right past all the distractions to our gate, which had no shops or restaurants and we had past passport control to we couldn’t go back! Bah! A small bit of luck was a kiosk that sold wine and sandwiches at our gate.
Now, as boarding time approached, I noticed that there were very few passengers at our gate and no one staffing the boarding entrance. Sometime during our wine and sandwich feast the gate had changed. We went running back through passport control and were detained by the officers there (They scared the hell out of me because they were yelling at us to stop in Spanish) We had to get our passports rechecked and then we had to find the new gate and go through passport control yet again! Bah! We did finally make it onto the plane and touched down in London around 0330h. We grabbed another hotel to catch 4 hrs sleep after which I had to whisk Mom to Heathrow to catch a flight back to Canada. What a gong show. Lesson learned. Pay for the closer departure airport and don’t expect too much from a discount airline.
Our time in Torre del Mar was great though! The little town is a haven to Boomer retirees and there was a great long walk along the ocean that had numerous bars, restaurants and playgrounds along the way. The food and wine was amazing and we tried to eat our fill of seafood. The weather cooperated for the most part and in the afternoons it was warm enough to wear a tank top while we strolled along the ocean. B loved to throw rocks in the ocean, but he maintains to this day that the best part was the hotel room. It had a fridge full of his favourite treats, a bed he could bounce on and a big tv he could watch cartoons on. My favourite part (aside from being in the sun everyday) was sitting outside at a different place everyday and enjoying my Mom’s conversation and a great glass of Spanish red. I think my Mom’s favourite part was getting to see me and B. It just happened that the backdrop to the company was a fabulous little Spanish town along the Rivera.
weRNtheBritzone 