A little trip to Spain - Day 1 - October 2010

[jewels_555]

Day 1 – Saturday 23rd October

So the first day is a bit of a long one with all the travelling...


So we wake up really early (4.30am) like usual when going on holiday we all stick to the rota of whose in the shower next and by 5.30am we’re all ready to set off (me being paranoid checked my airport bag 3 times and document wallet 6 for our passports!). So at 5.45am we set off in dads car for the airport! It’s a sleepy, boring and rainy ride to the airport (East Midlands) and we’re there in an hour and 20mins. So we start searching for car park signs and just our luck we’re in one of the car parks furthest away from the airport building! So after discussing whether we take a ticket to get into the car park seen as we’d already booked became apparent that we had to to get in the car park! We grab our bags and stand at a deserted bus stop for the shuttle to the terminal – 2minutes and we’re on one! We seem to be pretty early for our flight – theres no-one around until 15 minutes later a ryanair staff member opens the check in desk – we queue behind 15 people and were soon saying bye to the 2 suitcases we have (me and Craig shared and Dad and Claire). Me and Craig are told they don’t have to check our pre-printed boarding passes as we don’t have the suitcases under our name neither do they look at our passports! Just to mention to those of you who haven’t been in east midlands airport it’s a bit like an old hanger covered over in white stuff!

We get to security and there’s a huge queue! (Lucky we got there early!) You do have the option to buy a ‘priority ticket’ which is £3 each and gets you to the front of security… 2 words… no chance! We wait around 15mins and we’re through easily enough and we stand putting belts back on etc. At this point me and Craig see an elderly man wondering from scanner to scanner with no shoes on… no way could he have lost his shoes we say… an announcement then comes on the tannoy… ‘ could the passenger who has the wrong shoes on or who has picked up an extra pair of shoes please return them to security…’ (I’d be devastated if this happened to me! I felt so sorry for the guy!)

We go grab breakfast (full englishes) and sandwiches for our flight (seen as ryanair charge £4 for a sandwich nearly!) then we nearly die from the cost of the 2 breakfasts … that’s right not 4 of us! ... £26. We then go wander around duty free and try on multiple Oakley sunglasses (I have an obsession with these) and Craig eyes up £200 watches. We then see a smaller shop where he sees the worlds thinnest watches apparently he tries it on and decides he likes it and wants to buy it (credit card use number 1!) I then feel left out with no purchases so go and buy the Oakley sunglasses I liked (credit card use 2 and I now have 2 pairs of Oakley glasses in my hand luggage!)

So we meet back up with Dad and Claire who have been to the smokers room and we all stand around the information screen to find out which gate we’ll be boarding at. We have a quick toilet stop and 5 minutes later everyone moves… we notice our gate has been posted so we walk around to it. Claire had paid £10 for us to get priority boarding so we end up been the 2nd family in the queue! We stand for a further 10 minutes and see our plane land, we watch the people get off and the bags come off they re-fuel and we start to get on – apparently Ryanair have a 21 minute turn around time when they land.



We grab our seats 6th row to the front and then sit and watch for 10 minutes as everyone else fights for their seats. The woman in charge of the cabin crew seems pretty grumpy and keeps asking people to move from the aisle and take their seats. 9.30am and we take off!





At this point taking off is my favourite part of the flight but the actual flight itself makes me panic as the last time we flew back from Orlando we had some pretty bad turbulence but I manage to hold myself together (I tell myself that if I panic that much for a 2 and a half hour flight I’ll start to dread flying to Florida!). Craig watches 4 christmases on his iPad while I sleep and occupy myself by watching the cabin crew sell drinks and food and perfumes, then all three again! Here are a select few photos of the flight...









We land at Malaga airport and breeze through security and then wait 30 minutes for our baggage! We make our way to the car rental desks but realise we’re in the wrong place and head back to the exit to meet a rep who takes is to the car rental place opposite the airport. We’re there only 15 minutes and we have our car for the week…. A brand new opel astra! I mention to my dad the front tyre looks flat so we wait for it blowing up and we’re off on the road. I take numerous pictures on the way….





We meet with my Dads friend Duncan at his villa in Torrox to pick up the keys for his apartment. We have a quick nosey at his villa… I take a few sly photos…





And before we know it we’re back on the road and call off at a LIDL. We buy tonnes of crap to eat and then realise the suitcases are still in the boot of the car… so me and Craig sit with the shopping at our feet and on our knees and anywhere else a carrier bag would fit!

We eventually get to the apartment in La Herradura and unpack everything and have a quick sandwich. At around 7pm we head to the beach its only a 10 minute walk and we sit a small but very popular bar and have a couple of drinks with tapas (crisps and then nuts) and take in the sunset…





Probably the best photograph of the holiday...




We head back to the apartment after a long day and head straight to bed…

[Cinnabon]

Great travel day, where abouts on the Costa del sol are you staying.

[jewels_555]

Le Herradura - whoops I forgot to mention it on here lol

[Jet]

Good trippie...hope you got to go to Nerja...my favourite place in the whole of Spain!

Jean

[Guest]

Lovely photos. Love that part of the world and have flown to Malaga more times than I can remember but have never yet been to this side of Malaga. Can't wait to read about Nerja, might have to take a daytrip there when we fly out and stay in Coin for my birthday next weekend :-)
Off to read more...

[DIBBadmin]

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