.. but not like this!
Greyrocks is in Puerto del Rosario as planned, and the idea of having a couple of days here to relax seems prescient, as we suffered a lot of stress in the preceding 37 hours! The previously unspoken suggestion that we might be getting too old for this has been uttered!
We started with a 4am taxi to Chania airport with the driver who regularly does the anti-social hours run, and who told us how dead the airport would be. It was indeed with very easy check-in and ages to kill. The flight to Athens was full but arrived early, so we simply walked through the labyrinth of the airport (Schengen arrival so no checks) to find the Vueling check-in. There was hardly any queue at the desk but an employee was checking Covid status before allowing people to get there. We proffered our "Fast Control" QR codes and had trouble identifying the problem, then realised the date on them was today - not yesterday! (It was Ruth that had made the error with the confusion arising from two consecutive days of travel, but Bob had checked it before submission). She said we would have to do new ones and there was plenty of time for that!
We found some space in an increasingly crowded airport and spent an age trying to start again with no success. Communications defaulted to the original. We tried to find Vueling's agent but they would not be there until it was too late, then with the check-in queue now growing alarmingly Bob got past the "filter" and was told we could check-in from the main queue provided we took the risk of not being able to enter Spain. (This would have been disastrous as we were on day 90 of the wretched 90-day allowance) So we joined the queue and from this point were just another two passengers in it. This lasted at least an hour with folk trying to butt in and a distinct lack of social distancing, but we made it and reached the gate with ten minutes to spare until the revised closure. An entire apron bus-full was even tighter in boarding, so we did indeed take off late.
In Barcelona things were looking as if we might not need the paperwork as we were triaged, but they caught us and the QR codes were declared invalid, so we had to stand with a dozen other sinners and fill everything out again but manually, and were then waved through nicely. From there to Baggage Reclaim which had still not yet started - even after all this! It was late and slow, so we began to get messages about our pre-booked taxi having arrived, and then having gone as the waiting time was exceeded. Twenty WhatsApp later we eventually found it, having been at the wrong exit! The driver was remarkably pleasant about it all and sped us to the Best Western, which we had selected over our usual hotel, because that no longer had a shuttle during the afternoon. - only for us to discover too late that this one didn't either - hence the taxi! The evening was pleasant and we were knackered, so an early night, with the shuttle booked for 7.30!
Our flight to Fuerteventura was at 10.30 so we thought we had plenty of time to sort the known issue of residents' discount. Brexit has put an end to this sizeable perk of a 75 per cent discount on such flights. We had claimed months previously but had failed to obtain the certificates, which had hitherto been easy to get from the website of the council. We knew we would have to pay the balance and went to the Customer Services desk to join another queue. This one took until 9.20 to clear and give us access to a very helpful person from whom we could only buy a new full ticket. There was seriously anxiety about missing the flight, but she arranged a special check-in desk and we made it to the gate and even had upgraded seats. Out of control small children adjacent meant it was not the most restful flight, but we were elated and relieved to be on it at all!
On arrival we were once again shepherded by originating airport and our certificates were not inspected. We got a taxi swiftly to the hotel.
We anticipate a good night's sleep!
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