We had to get up at 4.45am today. Apart from the hour, the day got off to a good start with almond croissants and a cup of tea. We arrived at Liverpool airport more or less on time and joined a queue already about 20 people deep 15 minutes before the check in opened.
We have flown with Easyjet again, despite the fact that we vowed never to fly with them again after the fiasco in Finland. I think that in the panic of booking flights we forgot about the self imposed ban.
Anyway, once again, Easyjet disappointed us, although at least this time they didn't leave us stranded in a foreign country. This time the problem was with poor queue management.
We checked in online about a month ago. Given that Easyjet charge about £40 per passenger to check in at the airport (check in = print a boarding card), surely it goes without saying that the vast majority of customers will have already checked in online for free before arriving at the airport.
SO WHY HAVE TWO QUEUES FOR NORMAL CHECK IN AND NONE FOR ONLINE CHECK IN?
And, more to the point, why tell your customers to arrive early to avoid all sorts of airport perils and charges, and then leave them standing in a queue for 45 minutes AND THEN FINALLY OPEN THE ONLINE CHECK IN DESK AND ALLOW ALL THE PEOPLE WHO'VE JUST TURNED UP TO JUMP THE QUEUE.
I honestly thought I was going to have to break up a fight between an arrogant Easyjet employee and an elderly man in a straw hat at one point.
Anyway, we made it thorough check in, popped into the Easyjet customer service centre for a rant, and then had a nice (second) breakfast at Frankie & Bennies which made things seem a lot better.
The flight was much better than the queue, although this may have been because we spent most of it asleep.
After arriving at Faro, in our usual cheapskate style, we caught the bus, and then the train to where we are staying.
Typically, we'd just missed the previous bus, and then we'd just missed the previous train.
There were some hippy traveler types sitting opposite us on the train. We didn't quite know what to make of them when the ticket collector came round and they said they were going to Spain but hadn't got any money to pay! We didn't really know what to make of the ticket collector either when he just walked off from them without charging them!
After a while, they started making sandwiches using a Swiss army knife. We were mainly bird watching at the time so didn't pay much attention until one of them started saying "psst" and offering us slices of apple, freshly sliced by the Swiss army knife. We accepted, and then I immediately regretted it thinking that either the apple was poisoned, or we were now expected to pay their fare.
After getting off the train, unpoisoned and not out of pocket, I felt bad for thinking such things about the kindness of a stranger towards another.
We've got a nice apartment in the gardens again. We stayed here last year and liked it so much we've come back. The only problem is a slightly rowdy family nearby with not just children, but adults who play the hokey cokey loudly at night!
This evening we went out to our favourite watering hole / restaurant from last year, Copacabanas. We were rather disappointed to find that the menu had changed since last year and now only offered Tapas. And there were no flaming cocktails on the drinks menu. We managed a couple of beers there before the sun went down and then went elsewhere for a huge steak and a pile of chips.
Tomorrow we're having a lazy first day, going to the beach and the bar and maybe the pool before going back to either the bar or the beach. It's forecast to be 27 degrees for the next few days before rising to about 35 degrees midweek!!
We will try not to repeat last years sunburn experience.
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Location:Cabanas de Tavira, Portugal
Did you see our gaff?
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