Knowing what to expect, the journey back from Malgrat was relatively
uneventful except for one rather unfortunate incident.
We boarded our bus at The Maplins Solano at 6.35 pm on Saturday
and set-off on our route across Spain and France.
Around midnight I decided
to try and get some sleep and pushed the button to recline the seat. The seat shot back to a horizontal position, emptying the contents of the tray on
the back of the seat onto the lap of the poor unsuspecting, half asleep elderly
chap behind me. The tray, still in the open position pinned him to his seat on his thighs with the headrest trapping him in the throat.
Worse was to follow.
Apologising profusely to the poor old guy, as he gurgled out
his protests, I tried to raise the back of the seat but it was well and truly
locked. After much tugging and banging the seat returned to its normal position
and order was restored but not before everyone on the coach was wide awake!
Fortunately we were approaching a service station and the
driver pulled off for a 30 minute stop and the incident was forgotten. Well forgotten
by almost everyone. I don't think the guy behind me dare close his eyes for the
rest of the journey and every time I made the slightest movement he raised his
arms in self defence in case my seat attacked him again.
The rest of the journey was comparatively uneventful and we arrived at Calais late Sunday morning in
plenty of time to board the 12.35 pm ferry to Dover.
We were lucky as we were on the P & O flagship, The
Spirit of France, which is relatively well stabilised and although the crossing
could only be described as "lively", only a few more ferries braved
the journey that afternoon before the service was suspended until Monday
morning.
What I did find interesting
was that whereas most people, Janice included, had difficulty walking in a
straight line, I seemed to manage without difficulty. No doubt my years of experience of walking home over-served at the Fox on "terra firma" without falling over held me in good
stead when walking sober on "terra wobbly"!
All in all we had one of our best value and enjoyable short
holidays.
The weather was unseasonably hot and we took excursions to Blanes, Girona, Tossa del Sol via the rugged coastal road,the Santa Maria de Montserrat Abbey where we saw the Black Madonna and watched the Escolania, Montserrat’s Boys’ Choir singing, and Barcelona (twice) to La Sagrada Familia and The Magic Fountain of Montjuic .
The weather was unseasonably hot and we took excursions to Blanes, Girona, Tossa del Sol via the rugged coastal road,the Santa Maria de Montserrat Abbey where we saw the Black Madonna and watched the Escolania, Montserrat’s Boys’ Choir singing, and Barcelona (twice) to La Sagrada Familia and The Magic Fountain of Montjuic .
Without boring you with the detail, here are the highlights:
I could possibly get used to overnight coach travel. It certainly avoids the trauma of getting to an airport 2 hours early and queueing to check in, queueing to get through customs, queueing to get on the plane, queueing to get through customs when you arrive, hanging about for your luggage and getting transport to your final destination.
In fact Lake Como in March is already being rumoured in Cotswold Towers!!!!!
I must close now and start my preparations for the big match between England and Australia but before I leave you here's a couple of videos in memory of Lou Reed who sadly passed away this week aged 71:
Hey Ho!
