Today dawned sunny and bright, with gorgeous blue skies. The clouds had disappeared overnight and it looked set to be a beautiful day. We were all up at a reasonable time, and I made a start on the rest of the packing. By 11am, everything was packed, we were showered, the dishwasher was on, and the house tidy (not that we made it untidy in the first place!).
The plan was to go and have breakfast in the square, collect the car, make one final drive up to the house and load it with our luggage before setting off for Palma. Café Espanyol was busy with no tables free, so we settled for U Placa. Sophie and I ordered the English breakfast each while Keith chose scrambled eggs, bacon and toast. It was pleasant sitting in the sunshine and I knew that at home it was set to be cold, with temperatures down to a possible -3c! Brrr!
My stomach still felt a little queasy from the meal we had on New Year's Eve and I wasn't happy to be served chips with my breakfast rather than the hash browns listed on the menu! I tucked in, though, but said I was a bit "overwhelmed" with it, giving away most of the chips and bacon!
After eating and paying the bill, we walked to the car and then made the tortuous ascent to the house along the narrow streets. Thankfully, we didn't meet anyone and I parked opposite our street. Keith and Sophie went to collect the luggage, and I gave the house a once-over to make sure we hadn't left anything behind and emptied the dishwasher. We had one last call of "Watch the poo!" as this street has been littered with little deposits since we arrived! I will not miss the treacherous stairs and the thought of one of us falling down them, which kept me awake at night! They were so steep and hard that I doubt we would have survived a bad fall.
On a funny note, Keith had hung two bags of recycling with the stuff from a neighbouring house first thing this morning, in the hope that they would be collected (a note on the fridge told us the days) but he was handed them back by the woman who lived there! I'd already told him off for doing it, and she seemed good-natured about it, but she certainly didn't want our stuff adding to hers!
We drove back down the narrow streets, disposed of our rubbish and recycling on the edge of the town, and set the map for the rental car return address. The journey to Palma passed without mishap and we found the return address after putting half a tank of petrol into the car. The woman behind the desk went out to inspect the car and Sophie showed her photos of the dent along one of the rear passenger doors. We were so glad we'd taken photos when we collected the car!
As soon as we'd arrived, a shuttle bus turned up and within minutes we were on our way to the airport. We were early for our flight, but what else could we do? Luckily, we found a table at a bar serving snacks and drinks and played cards for a couple of hours! Sophie finished her current book, and bought another at a WHSmith outlet!
We were finally able to check in our bags at about 4.30pm. We'd checked in yesterday but we weren't able to print our boarding cards, and the friendly check-in woman did that for us. Security was easy and straightforward apart from one little boy who was misbehaving badly and had run through the barrier without his parents! He was a little demon!
Once through security, we walked to the main departure area and saw a couple of planes taking off into the sunset. The views of the mountains were spectacular and the sky was slowly turning from blue to multiple shades of pink and purple.
After a visit to McDonald's, (this seems to be the tradition now when we fly home) we sat and watched the planes some more, then trekked to our gate. This part of the airport was empty and we passed through passport control to get our passports stamped.
Unfortunately, our flight was delayed and our time of departure moved from 6.30pm to 8pm. This had a knock-on effect on our journey home, meaning we wouldn't get back until well past midnight. I had messaged Isla this morning, asking her to put our heating and water on when she fed the cats this evening. The thought of getting home to a cold house did not appeal one bit!
We finally boarded at just after 8pm (for some reason it took ages to get us all onto the plane) and we took off at about 8.20pm. The flight passed quickly and soon we were thrust into the hustle and bustle of Gatwick. I called the car parking people who told us which bus stop to go to to get the shuttle. One was waiting for us, and we boarded for the interminable (it seemed) journey back to the car.
It was freezing and the VW was coated in a layer of frost! After defrosting it, we made our way to the M23 (where I nearly took the wrong turning off a roundabout and a screaming match ensued). By now, the three of us had been together for twelve days and tensions were running high!
The journey home was fine and I actually think it would have been harder if we'd landed at rush hour on the M25. We made it home at about 12.45am, with the temperature dipping down to -3c at one point. Mooney was curled up on the sofa in the conservatory and seemed delighted to see us, purring and giving us multiple kisses. Sophie managed to spot Gomez outside and grabbed him so she was ecstatic they were both in for the night. She had missed them so much!
Phew! We're home!
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