Saturday 14 September

On Saturday morning our flight was scheduled to leave Almeria at 10.50am. The airport is not large although it handles international traffic from around Europe, and both Thomas Cook and Easyjet fly in from the UK. We planned to leave Vera around 8.00am, with the hour drive giving us nearly 2 hours leeway before the flight. First job was to get the car to the door so we could load it. Thankfully, by now a Council worker had opened a drain manhole so the flooded road was much reduced. Tony inspected the car for damage.

Amazingly it was all OK. The man at Europcar seemed to agree and failed to log any extra damage, all good! The only hiccup was leaving Tony's mobile phone in the car. We were queued to check-in when he got a bit panicky and started searching bags. No good, no phone. Kathy stayed in the line while Tony headed back to the car, which was locked of course. The helpful man from Europcar came to the rescue by unlocking the car, and then managed to find a black phone in a compartment in a black interior. Back to check-in with plenty of time, however Kathy did not appreciate the extra stress. The joys of travelling.

Although the taxi fare from Madrid Airport is a fixed €30, so not unreasonable, we had opted to accept the free bus transfer by Insight Vacations which runs every 2 hours. We just miss one pickup time so we will wait for the 2.00pm bus. It means we are relaxed about the slightly late arrival of our flight, and can pick up some lunch at the airport. Tony tries to fix up an issue with the Hesperia Hyatt where we are staying for our few days in Madrid at the end of the holiday. Then we join 2 other couples on the coach in to the city. Unfortunately this the last time Tony sees his mobile. Having had one go at losing it, this time he is successful. A nuisance as he has to get on line to make sure there are no security issues with the lost phone.

The rain has arrived from down south so for our Insight "Welcome Dinner" we are dropped off in the old centre of the city and walk for 15 minutes in the rain. We share 5 typical tapas starters including cheese, chorizo and Jamon, potato omelette and croquettes. Followed by meatballs & patatas fritas, or calamari. Dessert, or postre in Spanish was a choice of egg bread (torrijas) cheesecake or flan (custard). All the food was what Kathy & Tony had come to expect from a "typical" Spanish meal (if there is such a thing in this diverse country) although the torrijas was new to us.