Airports (catch up narrative)

DAY 1 + 2:  (Written by Dad)

Saturday: 

Heavy roadworks meant delays getting off the M42 and made for some fraught moments in the car, as I was advised in vociferous terms of the inadvisability of not having left the motorway at the previous junction. As it transpired, we were at the airport in good time; so much for wasted angst.

COVID? What COVID?

So, the flight (FR734) was around half full (or half empty if you're feeling pessimistic, as may be your wont), so around 150-200 random strangers shoe-horned into a 3.5m steel cylinder; just as well then, that we were all wearing our fabric or paper face masks, otherwise we might have spread the Coronavirus!

High and dry:

Sadly, this first anxiety was not to be the only one, as we arrived in Bratislava M R Štefánika (BTS to its friends) to find no hire car waiting for us; no friendly agent with a folder and keys; nada! How fortunate then, that we had elected, some months before to break our journey with a stay in Bratislava; even more fortuitous that we'd chosen the Garni Aviator Hotel, about 500m, a short walk from the terminal.

We arrived, having tried numerous times to no avail to organise a replacement for our non-existent hire car, at the hotel reception. Once there, selflessly offering myself as the sole sacrificial interest for the city's mosquito population we stood bemused as the concierge examined, then seemingly transcribed slowly and oh so very carefully every detail of each one of our passports into his 386 Commodore computer, unseen below the counter (or maybe I was just a little tired and more than just a little fractious). Checked in, exhausted and anxious from our day's traumas, I showered the layers of tiredness off and scribbled down some brief notes for this update upon a scrap of notepad with a pencil both, ironically from the Park Plaza hotel in London, Victoria. I guess, I thought, in my addled state; you get what you pay for!

Wheels:

Once back at the airport terminal on Monday morning, we soon had our chariot organised; the wonderful machine you see below:

At least we would not miss it in a crowded car park!