Craving a beach vacation, we considered coastal airports to which Ryan Air flies and narrowed to Faro, Portugal. Colleagues raved about the inexpensive delicious Portuguese food and the internet showed beaches surrounded by 100 foot cliffs. This country, not on my places-I-need-to-see list, offered sun without glitzy tourist attractions. We found a two bedroom apartment overlooking a river and across the street from the beach through homeaway.com. The place lacked reviews, but photographs of the living spaces and e-mail conversations with the owner convinced us to book.
Our flight departed at 5:30 pm so I initially planned to work half day. I changed my mind in the morning. Starting the vacation relaxed appealed more then finishing a paper at work. With Emily home on her 10-day fall recess, (yes, four weeks into the school year and already a break) 2:00 pm arrived quickly. We drove the hour to Ryan Air's Hahn airport, picked up chicken nuggets, and waited in line to drop our checked bags - paid for in advance. Ryan Air strictly enforces weight limitations. We paid 20 euro to check a 15 kg (roughly 35 lb) bag and 50 euro for Dave's 20 kg golf bag - each way. We snuck running shoes, flats, and books into his golf bag. I packed most of our clothes, bathing suits, and socks into stuff sacks my friend Tim recommended. At check in, our bag weighed 20 kg, "100 euro. Would you like to move stuff around?" Ah, yes. One plane ticket cost 70 euro - total for BOTH ways. We dragged our suitcase, golf bag and four bag packs to the door. I stuffed stuff sacks into the kid's tiny LL bean back packs. Thank you Tim. The sacks prevented loose underwear from flying between bags. Back in line. 17 kg - 40 euro. Back to the door - do we really need the bug spray, why did I pack night cream. Back in line. 16 kg - 20 euro. Back to the door - our 5 kg suitcase is definitely a problem. Back in line. Next time, we need a duffel bag.
We arrived on time. "90% of all Ryan Air flights are on time beating all other European carriers." (Yes, because they add an extra 45 min buffer to all flight times. See later post on our flight home.) We quickly collected our bags and headed to the rental cars. We booked our rental car with the only company offering automatic. Unlike other places with a rental car section, in Faro, attendings hold name cards at the airport to find their customers, provide the paper work, and bring the car. Very smooth. Unless your attending expects you an hour later than your flight arrival time and you have two irritable, hungry people in your group.
We forgave our car guy when he called Dave 20 minutes after we left the airport to ensure we found our apartment which was located 5 minutes away. Still driving around and cursing our GPS, Dave replied, "We are a little turned around." He told us to come back to the gas station at the airport and he would take us. We followed the signs to Alerporto before realizing Alerporto was not Aeroporto. An "L" made a big difference. Eventually, we found the gas station and the attending took us straight to the apartment. (And not to a random dark parking lot to rob us.)
Ahh. Let the vacation begin.
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