Cars, buses, Boats, Trains and Planes

Serafina
Rob & Sarah Bell
Fri 17 Oct 2008 16:14

Tuesday 14th October

 

Sarah’s master plan was to get finished by midday and then to take advantage of yet another glorious day to catch a few rays.

 

Of course it did not work out like that for a whole raft of reasons, one of which was the failure of the marina’s power supply so the hoover could not be used until after lunch. Everything just took longer than hoped and then a minor disaster when we discovered that the angle that boat was tipped back caused the lazarette drains not to function properly and the water that we had hosed onto the window to test the seals, had now made some of the carefully washed and dried ropes, wet again!

 

Finally got everything done and the boat closed up by 6.30pm and we went back to the apartment in the marina office that we had rented for the night, to relax and have a well earned drink.

 

Wednesday 15th October

 

Up at 7.00am to do the final packing and for me to go back on board Serafina to return a couple of items we had used in the room last night and to get a couple of things for Sarah.

 

At 10.00am we boarded the marina’s minibus for a free ride into Preveza along with Steve (Miller) who was flying home on the same flight as us. Had a coffee in Preveza and then took a taxi to the bus station. The bus then took us all the way to Igoumenitsa where following a brief lunch we caught a ferry to Corfu Town.

 

Had a few hours to kill in Corfu so we went up to the Old Town so Sarah could do some proper shopping whilst Steve and I guarded the bags (sat in a bar!). Sarah returned empty handed and more than a little miffed that the shop she had really wanted to go to was firstly shut and then when it briefly opened, she was told to go away. (Some people might think I had something to do with this, but honestly……).   Then had a very nice meal in a restaurant on the (expensive) ‘Listern’, which is the posh end of town.

 

Finally caught a taxi up to the airport around 9.30pm and all went well and we boarded the aircraft early. There were some very interesting folk on this EasyJet flight to Gatwick including a family who had patently never flown before and were asking some very unlikely questions of anyone and everyone. Also I was slightly wrong footed so to speak, by an American lady who having checked in at the desk, turned round and saw all of us patiently queuing behind her and said to her husband, “ Gee, look at all these people, I wonder where they are all flying to?”  Managed to avoid advising her that EasyJet was not an exclusive executive airline!

 

Great excitement when we arrived early at Gatwick, touching down at 12.20pm, some 15 minutes early. This of course is not always good news, and sure enough having taxied slowly for ages we came to a halt in the middle of nowhere and the captain explained that there was a plane still boarding at our stand, so we would have to wait. Finally got off the plane at 1.00am and then went in search of bags and the car we had arranged to hire. Being 1.30am the Europcar check in desk in our terminal was closed (Something you did not get to find out until you had walked miles to get there) and were directed to go to the South terminal. This involved a ride on the shuttle train and another long walk before finally being handed the keys to a Peugeot 207. Trouble free drive home and we crawled into bed around 4.30am (which was 6.30am Greek time).

 

The blog will restart next spring when we return to Serafina around 1st April for the next leg of our travels which will include the Aegean Islands of Greece and Turkey.

 

All information and photos are at www.rhbell.com (photos will be updated on Saturday 18th October.)