It all got off to a good start as the captain announced a journey time of 8 hours and 50 minutes – about an hour shorter than usual. the flight was pretty uneventful. Toby did his usual trick of falling asleep about an hour before the journey end and then woke up all tearful and in a pickle.
Border control was reasonably straightforward and for the first time, not completely intimidating – the guard was actually nice and made conversation – there’s a first time for everything! The luggage came through quickly and all was under control until customs suspected us of smuggling food. Our luggage was screened and their suspicions confirmed by x-ray machines – we were sausage smugglers! After going through the guilty suitcase, and Tracy’s underwear, the sausages were identified as bottles of toiletries so we were let off.
Next stop collecting the cars. Once again Egencia managed to mess up the booking with no insurance. All was sorted with a credit card but it will all end in yet another expenses claim.
With Harry reading the directions the journey to the Villaggio was quite straightforward. The apartment is spacious and comfy. It’s a little sparse on towels and kitchen equipment but all in all it should make for a nice base for the next few weeks (if Harry and Toby can learn to understand that they can’t shout at 4am and run and jump round the flat!).
Straight after unloading the cars we hit the shops, well a supermarket anyway. QFC was the first supermarket, swiftly followed on Sunday by Trader Joes. Then QFC again. And again. Trader Joes is small but has some nice looking (organic) good and probably most importantly some red wine at $2.49 a bottle. We bought some assuming it would taste like vinegar. It doesn’t! It’s good! More bottles to follow and we’ll give the white a try out too.
The only other thing of note so far (apart from the constantly naughty children) are the frogs that sing us to sleep. It’s just like being on holiday.
Update: Here’s a floor plan for future reference because we’re bound to forget what it was like!
Maybe it wasn’t Egencia. Possibly we should have read the small print. Let’s hope it doesn’t prove too costly!
Insurance sorted! Removed from the contract – £3k + saved. Phew.