After a hectic trip to England over the Christmas season ... Which consisted of: A flight to Heathrow, two tube journeys and a train ride to Crayford all with 3 huge suitcases and 3 smaller suitcases, a fairly relaxing Christmas with Janet's mum and Christmas dinner at Janet's sister's house. Then a worrying car hire experience
- all booked and paid for from Portugal months ago but I now needed a credit card to actually drive the car away. Well, we don't have a UK credit card any more and they couldn't do the security payment with my debit card. After a few frantic 'phone calls Janet remembered her business credit card. So I had to go back to the house, collect her, return to the hire company then start a new agreement under Janet's name - then we had to pay more to add me as an extra driver.
Finally we got the car and were able to return to the house and load up the cases and at around 10:30 finally, set off for Macclesfield. Little did we know that the trouble was only just beginning.
Two hours later we still hadn't left the M25, the traffic was abominable. It seemed like every car in England was on the road. Crawling at up to 30mph for an eternity.
Even when we reached the M40 the traffic was not much better and the queue to reach the services so we could get food and drink was just as bad. All the usual busy areas were just complete gridlock. Finally, we were on the M6 and managed to get moving slightly faster, but not for long!
Having already telephoned ahead to warn that we would be delayed by at least an hour, things were looking bad. Eventually the sat-nav directed us off the M6 through the streets of Staffordshire and Cheshire to get to our destination after more than 8 hours.
Upon arriving at Macclesfield, we dropped off Rachel's cases at their house and then went straight to the pub for a meal and a relax. It was very nice to see some of our old friends from Macclesfield that evening. Eventually we checked into the hotel and got some sleep.
The next day also started not too well, expecting to get breakfast at the 'Aroma' cafe next to the hotel we were surprised to find it closed. Off to Sainsbury´s then. With a list of jobs to complete during the morning we were rushing from place to place, getting Rachel officially on the rental agreement, trying to get Rachel's bank accounts activated and making sure that they have everything in place so Janet and I could leave the girls to their own lives.
The conclusion is that one day is not enough to make all that happen, but we had to get on to the next stage of our trip with only about a third of the tasks complete.
Setting off for the familliar journey to Halifax it was less than encouraging to see that the traffic was no better on Friday than it was the day before. We grabbed some food at the KFC in Hazel Grove and found a convenient spot to park up and eat. It was obviously here that we managed to get a punctured tyre, the clever car flashing up a warning about 10 minutes after setting off, showing the wildly inconsistent type pressures and the front-right getting lower and lower as the minutes passed. Stopping at the first convenient petrol station to put some air into the tyre we were confronted by the machine being serviced and unuseable, unbelievable!
So, setting off again, we had a 15 minute drive to the next place, where we then had to find 20p to get the air machine to work. As the time ticked away the tyre was deflating more and more. I got the tyre reinflated and found the large wood screw lodged in the tyre, obviously not a self-fix situation. A call to the hire company was the only option, and they directed us to contact Kwik-Fit for the repair, eventually we arrived at a Kwik-fit in Oldham (following Google´s direction and way off our normal route) at 4pm. As usual, they were completely booked up, but luckily they could squeeze us in at about 5pm. Then some real luck, they got on with it at 4:30 so finished earlier than expected. Not quite 5pm and we were on our way again.
The final leg of the trip to Halifax was without incident and we got to the hotel. A meal in the Italian restaurant next to the hotel with Janet, my parents and sister was very enjoyable - and, bizairrely, there was a Portuguese family on the next table making us feel quite at home.
Another hotel, another night, this time with an olde-worlde feeling, a keyring, huge plastic fob and real key to unlock and lock the door. The room was comfy and spacious, just right for a good sleep.
Next day, and again I needed to get out by 8am to put money into the parking meter before breakfast. After eating we worked out that there is no long term parking in the town during the day so parked the car out of town and walked back. A relaxing wander round Halifax centre took up the entire morning and we suspect that this is where the cold/flu germs were encountered.
We walked to my parents' house and spent the afternoon there. We then went to my sisters house and distributed yet more Christmas gifts. All in all, a good day. One final night in the hotel before our journey back to Portugal.
Surprisingly it was an uneventful drive to Leeds/Bradford airport to drop off the hire car and wait for our flight to Heathrow.
On time, and with all our luggage checked in, we were able to take time for a breakfast. No need for pushing and shoving on the 'plane, no bags! A quick flight to London then a three hour wait for our connection to Lisbon. The time went suitably quickly and we were finally on our way.
Everything then went to plan and we received Janet's car for our drive back to Fundão. The 2½ hour trip was as traffic free as usual, a far cry from the pandemonium on UKs motorways. Back in time to collect essential items from the supermarket and get to the apartment well before 10pm.
Next day was unfortunately when Janet woke up with a sore throat and beginnings of a bad cold, a day later it was my turn. As I write this post we are just about recovered. Since then, we've had warm sunshine every day and chilly nights.
Much better than the damp, miserable wather we saw in UK. ... we´re home.