THE MOTORS - Airport
WEDNESDAY CLUB
LIGHTNING STRIKES TWICE
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| THE FAMOUS MOSQUE OF MARRAKECH |
THE MOTORS - Airport
MORROCO Part 2
We arrived at the Hotel in about 15 minutes and checked in. I asked if we could have a late check out. The Hotel had this facility to checkout at 14:00 rather than at 12:00 for an extra 10 euro's. The guy ensured me this would be OK and to tell the day shift guy and he would arrange this. We really needed that extra two hours and did not fancy the long wait at the airport for the evening flight to Morocco at 19:40 which I hoped to book.
I managed to book online a flight with Royal Air Maroc and arrange a taxi pick up in Marrakech. By the time I had done all that it was about 03:30 when I eventually got to bed. We got up and rushed down to breakfast at 09:45 as it closed at 10:00. The girl in charge was not very happy to see us come so late. We had to fight for plates and cutlery and there was not much left in the buffet. 'Pay now, Pay now ' she said, I replied angrily that I will pay after I have had my breakfast. To cap it all at 10:00 on the dot she disconnect everything , the coffee machine, fruit machine etc. It was unbelievable. What kind of service was that?
I then went to arrange the late check out. No chance. 'The Hotel is full you must leave by 12:00'. No matter how I pleaded this guy would not budge. That gave us about 50 minutes to clear and leave the room. Old Ma was shattered and I was not far behind her.
We left with a bad taste and arrived at the airport with over seven hours to kill. I spend a lot of time on the phone to my Insurance Company and my Credit Card Company as I was having problems with my card. This all was more inconvenience and hassle which we could have done without. The time soon passed and we checked in without any problem. Finally we were on our way. The flight was about an hour and a half to Casablanca where there was just over an hour wait for the connecting flight to Marrakech. Royal Air Maroc was a delightful airline, plenty of leg room and excellent service.
We at last arrived in Marrakech at about 22:30 and it was great to see my name waiting on arrival for our taxi to the hotel. Flycasual was waiting to greet us, the rest of his family were exhausted and had already gone to bed. He told me that when he arrived about 10.30 that morning and asked about our booking he was told it was cancelled and because of half term the hotel was full. My son did mage to sort it all out and we did have a room. That would have been the final nail in the coffin. We were all tired and decided to call it a day and we would catch up and have a drink together tomorrow.
The hotel was great if not a little noisy. Well it was half term and it was filled with kids. But we did not mind that after all we were there to see our grand kids so we would take it as it comes. The hotel had hugh grounds and also included a water park. It suited me perfect as I had just purchased a Fitbit which monitored the amount of steps you did. That first day I managed 16,000 steps which was a lot more than my 10,000 daily target. You had to walk everywhere and I loved it. The food was superb for an all inclusive, especially the Moroccan corner, salad bar and sweet section. I was trying to lose weight, yes even on holiday and I liked that I could choose what I ate.
All was going great we were enjoy all this family time together when on the Tuesday night I got a dose of the runs, which kept going most of the night. The next day I never left bed unless it was to the loo. I was spent and completely out of it. My wife brought me some bread and that was about all I could manage. I am glad to say that I recovered and was fine the next day but it was only rice, bread and pasta for me.
We did spend an evening in the famous Marrakech square but really I would have like to have spent more time there. I hope to return there one day.
It was over all to quickly It was a joy spending time with our family. We hoped it would be a smooth journey home. Surely lightning would not strike twice on us old pensioners, never.
The day before we left we received a message from our airline to get to the airport 3 hours before departure as there were big security delays at the airport. I was taking no chances and re-arranged my taxi pick up to comply with that request.
The taxi was there on time and we sailed through security and into departures. We even had time for a leisurely breakfast. Things were looking up. We arrive in Barcelona and had to change terminal and have about a seven hour wait but that was not a problem after what we had previously experienced. We checked in to out flight and went to departures all was fine nothing could go wrong now. Suddenly Old Ma rushed up to me with a smile on her face. 'The flight is cancelled, the flight is cancelled'. I thought it was a joke and I smiled too, but Old Ma never joked about things like that. I looked at the board and there it was our flight was cancelled. Lightning had struck again.
We had to get out of departures and go to the Vueling ticket desk, there was another flight at 22:55 that night another long long wait. We checked in again and were told we had to go to the arrivals hall and find our bags which should arrive at a certain place. That was another nightmare. The bags were lost and we had to do all the chasing ourselves. If it was not for the assistance of a kindly woman in the baggage department we would never have seen our bags again. It took us four and half hours to get these bags back. We had to re-check in again. A third time, more queuing, more queuing.
The flight was on time and we arrived in Alicante, got our car and headed home in a thunderstorm, pouring rain and lightning flashes. We eventually got home at 01:30 the next day we had been on the go for almost 24 hours.
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