The journey home

Friday 30^th August

We needed to be out of our rooms by 8:30. I stayed in mine until the last minute and then went to breakfast. I saw the others but there was a bit of a mix-up. I thought we were meeting up in the lounge from which we would depart the ship, and went there to save seats. However, the others stayed on the top deck taking photographs and came to me at the last minute, just as our group was named for departure. (Seeing I was reading, I had not worked out how people knew when to depart; it appears that someone walked around with a sign, so you needed to be looking up at the right time.)

Feeling rushed, I was slightly disoriented and at first could not find my cruise card. Sue had even more trouble finding hers but at last we were both sorted and in the port looking for our suitcases. I found mine easily, as did Margaret and Wadia, but Sue’s could not be found. It took about another hour and many deliveries later before hers came along. It had lost its luggage label! (Although all three of them had followed the instructions on the label, the others had been lucky enough that theirs did not separate, though a slight tug would have pulled them off!)

We had missed our transport to the airport by then, and had to wait an hour for the next one. In typical Italian fashion we were first told: ‘Wait 10 minutes for four more people to join you’, then told ‘Wait 15 minutes’ and then ‘Wait 20 minutes’. Eventually we managed to leave in a full coach.

We had a 3-hour wait at the airport before we could hand in our cases. Luckily I have a Priority Pass card that allows me to use lounges at airports for a £15 per person fee, and Venice has a business lounge before immigration (very unusual). It was not super fancy but we were the only ones there. How wonderful to have arm chairs to ourselves, free internet access and cups of coffee by request. (Anyone could use this, but would generally pay €10 per hour.)

The flight went well. Sue was met on arrival by a wheelchair and we were all put into a motorised vehicle, and got through immigration ahead of the crowds. I thought we were racing crowds all the way through, but perhaps we went a longer way and were slower than others, as our suitcases had been taken off the belt by the time we arrived in the luggage hall.

The other three had planned to stay in the Gatwick hotel but I wanted to get home. I missed the 8:15 coach to Oxford by about 2 minutes, so sat in Costa with some coffee and food and waited for the 9:15 coach. This got me to Oxford just before 11pm, leaving me at a bus stop about 10 metres from my local bus. Wonderful. I was home by 11:15. That really suited me. Sue returned the next day and I collected her by car from the local Park and Ride.