17 May - The End of a Short Break

Went to Croatia to help a friend get his boat ready for the summer. More work than play but great to be doing something completely outside Rotary with friends in a beautiful part of the world. We had two bad days, one involving cleaning out and de-calcifying poo pipes - a day to forget - and the second being ash trapped on our return.

We got up early to get the flight on Monday and arrived at the airport in Split at 0715hrs. It was eerily quiet but the departure board said our flight was scheduled. We quickly learnt that it was cancelled. No Easyjet rep, no help, sent to an internet connection to make enquiries, we were starting to feel desperate. Phone calls home offered little help so what should we do? Go back to the boat and leave the folks at home to re-book us. The prospect was that we would be there another five days at least. Time to bite the bullet and shell out some cash, so we booked a flight to Paris and got someone over here to book us onto Eurostar. Lots of waiting around till the Paris flight left at 1440hrs and put down at Paris Charles De Gaulle at 1700hrs with our train leaving Gare du Nord at 2045hrs. More hanging around and a chance to eat. It was 2200hrs UK time when the train arrived at St Pancras and a quick dash across to Victoria was called for to put us on the 2230hrs Gatwick Express. By the time we caught the Skyparks bus to the car park it was nearing midnight. A swift drive westwards got me to bed at 0300hrs today. That means that we were waiting and travelling for 22 hours, so I am a bit cream crackered today.