Wish we were there

we have had a surfeit of travel news, and decided to test the water, finding out first hand what is happening to local tourists. A trip into a local Thompsons hotel reveals their emergency response. They will be sending everyone back by coach to Calais 30 hour trip, no ifs or buts. Accross the road in the internet cafe, anxious tourists are logging on to their airline website.Those with ryanair are in the cart, as they are not flying, nor offering their passengers any means of return before Thursday. Having spent up they are keen to get another flight when possible, as there is little chance of a refund of hotel bills from ryanair. We are more fortunate, logging on to jet2 we find that we could get a coach tomorrow, except it is fully booked. We can also book and pay for another flight, and claim a refund when we get back. The first weeks flights are booked up, but -excellent news we can fly on 29th April, at a reasonably normal price.

The task of booking online, putting in passport info,  not booking a seat, and printing a boarding pass, suddenly seem very complicated, but at last we have take off – excuse the pun, and it seems unlikely that the ash will persist. The possibility of more ash is something that can be dealt with on the day, for now optimism rules, and we are back to thinking how fortunate we are, and planning to treat this as a holiday and plan a picnic on the beach and a walk up the steps to the old church square with the view of the port, first time I have been back there