We got up bright and early, paid our bill and checked out of the hotel. We decided not to stop for breakfast to give us plenty of time to arrive at the airport before our scheduled flight.

The journey was not with us and we were beset with delays, arriving at the car hire outlet much later than we had intended. We fuelled up in the petrol station next door before checking the car back in with the gentleman that we dealt with on arrival.

Despite cutting it tight, we arrived at Rome airport in time for breakfast. Mr C still missed out on his cooked English breakfast because in Italy breakfasts are continental style. I chose a pistachio croissant which was something new to experience.

The flight boarded early and the pilot anticipated a timeslot ahead of schedule but this didn’t happen and our flight left on schedule. On arrival at Manchester airport, we passed through immigration and made our way to the baggage reclamation area.

Mr C always likes to position himself on the far side of the baggage conveyor so that he has plenty of time to recognise our luggage; he prints distinctive luggage labels that are easy to recognise. My fear always is that someone will grab my case as it travels slowly around to where we are positioned.

This was the day that that happened…

I had identified my case and it had the distinctive luggage label but before it made its way to me a lady grabbed it off the carousel. I ran across to her shouting excuse me and as I got nearer, I said ‘this is my case’. She looked down at the case and realised that although it was the same type of case as hers, it didn’t have the yellow ribbon that she used to identify her case. Thank goodness for Mr C’s luggage labels.

Luggage successfully retrieved we drove home via Wilmslow Garden centre for a late lunch where I settled for apple tart rather than something more substantial.

We picked up a ready meal on the way home (chicken Kiev) which we enjoyed after unpacking and watching the latest episode of Dr Who (no spoilers).

Before unpacking I put up my VE day 80 window display ready for the day of commemoration the day after.

We got up early so we could enjoy one last hotel breakfast before the taxi arrived for our transfer back to Rome airport. After collecting our bags and checking out at reception, we waited in the lounge area for the taxi to arrive.

There was a bit of confusion when the taxi arrived. The driver read out a couple of names, neither of which was ours. The driver was expecting to pick up four people and when he checked he realised that he had read out the wrong name.

We shared the taxi with a couple who had been celebrating their wedding anniversary and a couple of ladies who were already on board. The transfer ran smoothly whilst the six of us engaged in interesting conversations. The others we were travelling with had all flown from Birmingham and their outbound flight had suffered with air turbulence which we had not experienced on our flight from Manchester.

Checking in at the airport also went smoothly giving us time to relax before boarding the plane. Once again, the flight was delayed due to air traffic control issues. The captain was eventually, one hour late; given the all clear for flight. When he announced this, he added that we would now be joining the ‘Conga’ queue to the runway. There were around ten planes ahead of us on the curvy taxi way to the runway.

The flight was also smooth, albeit with a slight bit of turbulence. Once back at Manchester and past customs and passport control, we made our way to the baggage reclaim area. This proved to be slow again. My bag arrived quite quickly but Mr C’s took a long time to arrive as did many other passengers’ luggage. A few cases would arrive and then there would be a delay before more cases arrived.

With our car reclaimed from the ‘meet and greet’ parking we headed home, stopping to pick up a ready meal for dinner. We stuck to the Italian theme and chose lasagne.

Although we were both quite disorganised in our packing and preparations, we actually managed to set off on time for our overnight stay in the Premier Inn. We always choose to stay overnight in a hotel near to the airport when we have an early morning flight, it allows us to get to the airport on time without additional stresses.

The journey to Manchester was horrendous with torrential rain causing spray and difficult driving conditions on the motorway. In addition to this, too many drivers were travelling too fast for the difficult conditions. We had a brief stop at a motorway service station, then continued our journey to the Premier Inn where we checked in and relaxed in the room with a refreshing cup of tea before dining in the nearby Tatton Arms. I had a small portion of fish and chips accompanied by a delicious glass of Pinot Grigio blush.

After dining, we retired to the Beefeater bar  that is attached to our hotel for a nightcap. We didn’t linger too long; the drinks were expensive and the room was extremely chilly. We returned to our room where we warmed up with a refreshing cup of tea before an early night in anticipation of our 3.30 wakeup call to allow us to get to the airport on time for check in.

We had an early start with the alarm going off at 6am. Some breakfast items had been left in our room the previous evening but unfortunately we had to leave most of it behind because due to airport security restrictions there would be nowhere to put any leftovers.

The hotel porter loaded the electric buggy with our cases and took them to our pickup point where we met our taxi driver for the return journey to Naples airport. The journey over the mountains, through national parkland and offering magnificent views of Vesuvius was spectacular as the sun rose.

We got to the airport in plenty of time to check in. Unfortunately the boarding staff were rather slow with their service so our flight was delayed slightly. The flight itself ran smoothly as did collecting our car from the airport car park and our onward journey home.

The day had finally arrived for my extended family get together in Paris.  The midlands contingent were just leaving for the airport as the southern contingent arrived in Paris via Euro-star.  The journey to the airport, the meet and greet parking service, the flight and the private taxi from airport direct to hotel all ran like clockwork.

We shared our flight with the England Women’s football team who were sat in the rows of seats just in front of ours.  We didn’t land at the main terminal at Charles de Gaulle airport which meant a bit of a trek to get to where our baggage was unloaded.  This gave us the opportunity to chat to the ladies from the England team on the train journey to the main terminus.  We were informed that they were training that evening and that the following day they were having a ‘friendly’ match against France and that the match would be broadcast live on BBC3.

On arrival at the hotel I unpacked my bags and freshened up after the long journey before meeting up with everyone in the hotel reception.  We then set out to find a suitable restaurant for our evening meal.

I know I have posted this one before (several years ago…), but I came across it again whilst I was browsing through my photo files. I thought I would apply a little bit of photo magic to it and see how it came out.

Sadly it was now time to say goodbye to Carcassonne and return to the airport for the journey back home.  We took a leisurely drive along the A roads and stopped off in the quaint town of Saint-Papoul in order to visit the abbey. We then continued our journey and stopped at Castelnaudary where we didn’t quite find the cathedral but we did find an unexpected windmill!! Along the way we picked up a cheese and ham baguette for lunch which we ate on a picnic bench at a service station.

After that we made our way back to the airport stopping for petrol on the way before finally dropping of the hire car. After all that we thought we were a little late for checking in but we found we were half an hour early. The flight times had been given in UK times rather than local times

I inadvertently managed to choose a seat that was in the emergency exit isle and was advised on how to open the emergency exit if a problem arose… Then I was asked ‘are you still happy sitting here’. Well of course I was for more than one reason. And in any case there were going to be no problems There was thick cloud throughout the journey until we came into land. At this point we were treated to some amazing cloud formations and gaps creating interesting views of the land below. My camera had been stowed away by this time…

Luck was with us and we were off the plane, baggage collected, onto the shuttle bus to the car within 20 minutes of landing. All that remained was for us to pick up our car key from the airport parking and head for home.