After breakfast and a shower, I went to the pharmacists for my three monthly batch of medication. Not that I'll run out this week, but since Ibiza in 2020 I take an extra amount just in case.
Lots of fiddly bits to do before closing bags, including securing our self print hold baggage labels issued by Riviera Travel. Clare started the day painfully, but rallied after analgesics and booked an early taxi to the coach station. In the half hour of spare time left while waiting for our taxi, I finished the Morning Prayer video I was working on and posted it to YouTube. The taxi arrived even earlier, so we had three quarters of an hour to change gear and relax at last into holiday mode at the coch station.
The one o'clock airport coach arrived in Bristo Airport at two forty. Since we were last here en route to Barcelona in May, a new transport hub has opened comprising a massive car park with a bus and coach station on the roof and a bridge from there to the forecourt of the airport building. No more hill climbs pulling luggage! The bag drop zone is automated as far as possible, but there are friendly helpful staff on hand to help with getting barcode ticket scanners to behave. The security clearance process is now state of the art. No need to extract digital devices etc, just put watches spare change and chip 'n pin cards in your bag. So quick! By the time we'd been body scanned and walked to the end of the conveyor belt, our rucksacks were level with us to take away. Twenty minutes since getting off the coach, half the time a few months ago. And then a three hour wait until take-off.
The flight arrived fifteen minutes late and arrived at Porto 20.30, already dark. We entered and exited the plane by the back stairs rather than the air bridge, which meant climbing a dozen flights of stairs to get up to the right level for the six minute walk through to passport control. Painfully worrying for Clare but she coped amazingly and I felt the distress too. At baggage reclaim I spotted my bag and incorrectly identified the bag next to it as Clare's, carried it through to arrivals and met with the Riviera Travel tour group from the same plane for transport to the MS Douro Elegance, moored at Gaia on the opposite bank of the Douro to Porto. Thankfully I realised I'd picked up the wrong case before we left, and had to go through security in reverse to reach the baggage reclaim section, where I met with an EasyJet steward with a worried lady, holding Clare's case. The one I took had her wedding garments in it!
Then half an hour's coach trip to the ship where we were welcomed with a light supper of fruit and sweet tart before check-in and a couple of glasses of local dark vino tinto. When we got to our cabin Clare's bag went missing again, causing a panic for us and the ship's stewards. It turned up later, having made it to the ship, but ended up a deck below by mistake. Poor Clare. Twice in one night.
It was gone half past eleven by the time I went up on top deck to take photos of the amazing nightscape of Porto rising above us in dock. By chance, I returned and collected a different camera to compare their performance in the dark. By this time the half moon had risen and was sitting right above the main bridge over the river. Awesome luck, what a consoling finale to a challenging day.
Now I can turn into a slumbering pumpkin, worry free.
No comments:
Post a Comment