Here we go again

 I dropped my car at the car parking at 4.30am, over 5 hours before my flight, 'just in case' we were going to be taken  to another airport due to the fog.

In the car parking hut, I also dropped my keys and  purse as my hands were shaking uncontrollably, I had driven less than 2 miles from the hotel to the parking, but the fog was so thick that I couldn't actually see the road, centre lines or the side of the road, I really was driving blind, the family that came in after me said the exact same thing. in my 150 years of driving I have never driven in fog like the last two days, and seriously never want to again.

I arrived a the 'new and improved' Leeds /Bradford airport, not impressed. Jet 2  are now a separate entity, meaning that you  go to one building, come back outside to walk into another, I am hoping this is just a temporary arrangement.

Through security without my underwires triggering a full scale SWAT invasion, and then spent 10 minutes trying to find the 'new' food and drinks places. I had checked out the Tap & Brew on line, and was looking forward to Yogurt and granola bowl washed down with a couple of glasses of house champagne.

Ahhh the blissful idea was blown out of the water instantly, ' we don't sell champagne by the glass love, you can have have a glass of prosecco'. Even the withering look from me did not deter him wittering on about Prosecco. 'Why are you advertising on the website that you sell 2 glass sizes of champagne' I asked. 'don't know, but you can have prosecco' he replied. I'm not sure if he had shares in the overpriced Italian plonk, but he was desperate to sell it.

He offered me  bottle of champagne!!!, I asked him if he really should be trying to get a lone woman to buy a bottle of champagne when she then has to get on a flight ( or not as the case could have been). He shrugged his shoulders.

I cancelled my order and headed back through to the 'old building' and the cabin bar, where you order via a QR code, the whole system had  gone down, carnage! I eventually got 2 slices of cold sourdough toast and jam and an espresso martini.

As you should know by now it is the law in my house to have champagne at the airport, a disappointing start. However, the planes were leaving despite the fog, so that was a bonus. Leeds/Bradford is now on my 'naughty 'list and looks like I will only be flying out of Newcastle for the foreseeable future.

We took off and 2 hours 30mins later we touched down in Faro, where I sailed through passport control, grabbed my case and was whipped away to my hotel by private transfer.

 The lovely Nell, was my driver and she told me all about her city, which she was so proud of. She gave me a quick tour of some things I might like to see and then dropped me at my hotel.

I was checked in and was in my room in minutes.

The fact that there is a roller blind which when I pulled it up, covered a window to the shower, was not lost on me, imagine the 'fun  if I had come with company, that might have been interesting.

The decor in the room is lovely, white and black and surprisingly the safe is free. Sadly the roof top bar is not open at the moment due to the rather grim weather, however the staff are so lovely, saying that if they do open it they will let me know immediately.

I changed into trainers and headed out to get my bearings and something to eat, as the cold sourdough toast was a very distant memory.

I wandered around for about an hour and then stumbled on an Irish bar, not my usual haunt but by this time, my stomach thought my throat had been cut, so in I went. Wowsers what a beautiful building inside ( I didn't get pics but will go back). The girl behind the bar was from Argentina, she spoke amazing English. I had a club sandwich and chips and a mineral water. all for the princely sum of €9.

It was cooked by a young man from Hong Kong! no Irish in sight.

I wandered back to the hotel and settled down for a nap as tiredness was now taking hold. And that as they say is that, I never even got out for dinner, preferring to lounge around in my room, snacking on a feta salad purchased at Auchon on my way back to the hotel. 

Now I am off for breakfast and getting out to explore.

And lunch today may be below, I've had some odd variations of lasagne recently ( remember the roquefort lasagne I had in Mijas in October?), might as well add this to the list, if you cant read it at the bottom, its duck breast lasagne!