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.

St. Clement of Alexandria

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 alarm going off at 3am seemed very early but it allowed us to get the airport in plenty of time for checking in at 4am. We checked in and passed through passport control without any problems. Now that we were not encumbered with our luggage we were able to enjoy breakfast which, for me, was a croissant whilst waiting to board the plane. Boarding was timely but when everyone was seated the captain announced that there would be a short delay before take off due to three planes being stacked in the queue for take off. Then a few minutes later there was another apology; someone hadn’t boarded the plane so there would be a further delay whilst their luggage was removed from the hold. We eventually took off forty minutes late but the flight ran smoothly thereafter.

At Naples airport we passed through customs and made our way to the baggage unloading area. This proved a little quirky; most of the baggage arrived and then there was a long delay before the final few cases (including mine) arrived. Luggage retrieved, we made our way to the airport entrance to locate our driver for our private transfer to Ravello. We drove out of Naples on the main highway where Vesuvius dominated the landscape with its charred lower slopes and wispy clouds ominously floating across the top of the crater. After a brief glimpse of the sea we cut inland and took a narrow winding road up through the mountains to Ravello. As we wound our way up, we were treated to spectacular views of the mountains, countryside, mini shrines and a different view of the imposing Vesuvius. As we rounded one hairpin bend, a larger-than-life sized statue of Jesus greeted us.

At the taxi rank in Ravello our driver informed us that cars were restricted in the centre of Ravello and that he had called the hotel porter for us. A few minutes later a small, strange vehicle arrived onto which the porter loaded our bags and then told us to follow him. He wended his way through the narrow streets at slightly faster than walking pace leaving us trotting along behind him to keep up. When we got to the hotel we found that our room was ready and we were taken straight there. The room was small but nicely appointed with a balcony overlooking the hotel pool and the town square beyond.

We booked in for evening dinner in the hotel’s restaurant which is located in the sister hotel, Villa Maria, a few minutes walk away. We then went to find somewhere suitable for lunch, it seemed such a long time since we had eaten breakfast at the airport. We settled on Hotel Amora where we were able to dine alfresco looking out over the spectacular view of the Amalfi Bay. The mountains were illuminated by the sun’s golden light playing across the various mountain features casting shadow and light. We dined on panini, of which I chose Tuna and Tomato accompanied by a glass of cool white wine. It was heavenly.

We lingered a while before taking a circular route back towards the hotel. We detoured into the town square and the narrow streets beyond where we visited a church, S. Maria A Gradillo which is quite plain inside but which has some of its original medieval floor exposed under panes of glass.

We stopped for a drink at the cafe Duomo in the square where I discovered the delights of Lemon Spritz; freshly squeezed lemon in water. By the time we had finished it was time to return to the hotel to unpack and freshen up before dinner. The food at the Villa Maria, which has featured on various TV programmes  including the BBC, was delicious and the service was good. I chose pumpkin, almond and lemon risotto and we shared a dessert of citrus fruit and honey en papillote.

After dinner we walked back to the hotel to sit on our private balcony with a glass of local wine from Mr C’s indulgent (expensive) purchase from the wine shop next to the hotel. The good news is that he was given the corkscrew free of charge It was a delight to sit outside in the warm evening air and soak up the atmosphere.

Our early morning call woke us at 4.20 am and we quickly showered and packed the last few items in our cases with a view to being outside ready for our 5.30 transfer  that the Ljubljana representative had told us to expect. The room phone rang at 5 am  and when I picked it up I was informed that our transfer to the airport had arrived so I replied that we would be down in a few minutes. Luckily I was already dressed but Mr C had to dress rather quickly.

When we arrived in reception we were greeted, as expected by Damjan who had been our rep in Piran. We found out that the pick up time was 5.00 am and that we had been given the wrong time!! We felt rather guilty for keeping him waiting even though it wasn’t our fault.

When we arrived at the airport it was chaotic and heaving with people who were in a queue of sorts winding its way to the check in desks. Someone in the queue quipped, ‘This isn’t a queue it is a mess’ which caused laughter all round. And one of the locals said ‘I am not sure what is going on today, I travel from here regularly and it is not usually like this on a Wednesday’. Looking at the flight board there were four flights due out within in half an hour of each other which would explain why there were so many people in the small terminal.

The people who had traveled with us on the transfer bus thought they were rather clever jumping the queue even though they had annoyed others in doing so. It didn’t save them much time as we arrived at the check in desk only a few minutes after them. At the check in desk we could tell by the body language and facial expressions of the lady who was checking us in that there was some sort of problem. She made a phone call and then advised us that there was an admin problem and that and there was nobody available to help her sort it out. She directed us to the help desk on the other side of the terminal and advised us that, when the problem had been sorted, we should go straight back to her rather than rejoin the queue.

When we arrived at the help desk there were two advisers, each with queues that were frustratingly long, and time was running out. We each stood in different queues to see who got there first. Eventually Mr C arrived at the front of his queue just 30 minutes before the plane was due to fly. The lady behind the desk said, ‘Oh I can see what the problem is, Manchester have used the inbound code for the outbound flight’. She added that my ticket was OK and then typed in a few things and gave us a new code to quote at the check in desk.

I handed my passport to Mr C, along with the flight tickets and we made our way back to the check in desk. We stood to one side and the lady at the check in desk exclaimed, ‘Oh you are back!’ and then to the customer she was currently serving ‘Excuse me this is urgent!!’ At this point Mr C turned to me and said ‘You will need your passport’ to which I replied ‘I gave it to you’. He was adamant that I hadn’t and sent me back to the help desk to see if I had left it there. He had me doubting myself so I went back to check…

At this point my stress levels were extremely high. Missing a flight is one thing but losing a passport takes it to another level. Of course my passport wasn’t at the help desk and when I returned, Mr C he was holding it apologetically in his hand along with the boarding passes. By this time it was only twenty minutes until take off and we were told to go through the priority security lane. Even that was slow; we encountered two Americans with all sorts of items that are banned in hand luggage. Eventually we got through and made our way to the boarding gate where we were greeted with an apology, ‘Sorry you have had problems checking in’. I was surprised that, with so little time left, that we were not the last people to board the plane. As we passed the couple who had jumped the queue earlier they advised they had had their breakfast confiscated due to it containing a large bottle of water. They seemed to think that they were unlucky and that it was a random check and I didn’t bother to point out that bottled water  is one of the things checked for when going through the scanner.

We took off almost immediately after we boarded the plane and everything went smoothly after that. On arrival in the UK I went through a digital scanner for the first time. As I was pondering on the fact that I was not wearing glasses in my passport photo one of the border security guards passed by and advised me to take my glasses off for that reason. This meant I couldn’t see a thing as I was standing looking at the screen for what seemed like a very long time. Eventually the screen changed colour (it wasn’t red) so I stepped forward cautiously because I couldn’t see if the barrier was open or closed. It was open and I hastily put my glasses back on so that I could see what I was doing.  Our luggage had also made it to the plane on time and once we had retrieved it, we went to find our car which was waiting for us at the Meet and Greet car park allowing us to make our way home without any delays.

Swami Vivekananda

On our visit to Old Sarum we were treated with a fine aerobatic display from a plane that had taken off from the nearby airfield. It was only later, when I returned from my travels that I realised that it was possible to visit the airfield site. Maybe next time

One of the exhibits in the London  Science Museum is the command module from Apollo 10. It is quite fascinating to see it in person rather than in black and white on a television screen.  The scorch marks caused when re-entering the earth’s atmosphere are distinctly visible.

Apollo 10, carrying astronauts Thomas Stafford, John Young and Eugene Cernan, was launched in May 1969 on a lunar orbital mission as the dress rehearsal for the actual Apollo 11 landing. Stafford and Cernan descended in the Lunar Module to within 14 kilometres of the surface of the Moon, the closest approach until Neil Armstrong and Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin in Apollo 11 landed on the surface two months later. The craft, which had the call sign ‘Charlie Brown’, travelled approximately 500,000 miles (800,000 km) during the eight-day mission and exceeded 24,790 mph (39,887 km/h) on its return to Earth, faster than any other crewed vehicle before or since.

Housed in a different part of the museum is a full sized replica of the Apollo 11 lunar module that landed the first humans on the moon in July 1969:

The Eagle has landed – Apollo 11 was the first mission to land people on the moon. It’s lunar module, nicknamed, Eagle transported Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the moon’s surface while Michael Collins piloted the command module in lunar orbit.

This full-sized replica of the lunar module shows the lower ‘descent’ stage, with a rocket engine (just visible underneath) that slowed the module to a safe landing, plus storage space for experimental equipment to use on the moon. The upper ‘ascent’ stage included the crew’s cabin and another rocket engine that blasted it off from the top of the descent stage when the mission was over. The descent stage was left behind on the moon.*

*Information from a signboard next to the lunar module