This morning we left our hotel in Rome and made our way to the bus station. Here we caught an airline organised bus to Ciampino Airport, about 30 to 40 minutes out of the city depending on the traffic. We decided to catch the 10am bus that would give us plenty of time to catch our midday flight.
However, the bus was running 40 minutes late!!!
Many people getting on the bus realised that they would not make their flights, others with flights at a similar time to ours were keeping their fingers crossed. As we got talking to the people around us we many some great seasoned travellers from Ireland, England, Holland.......all of whom had the attitude of "Oh well, if we miss this one we will get another"....easy for them to say as they were all heading home and back to work....we had a hire car and paid accommodation waiting for us!
Travelling with a company like Ryanair is quite an experience, they are a no frills cheap airline that can get you all over Europe for very low prices, but they also bring a new meaning to Cattle Class.
Once we arrived at the airport we joined the QUEUE to check in our two large suitcases...most Ryanair travellers only have carry on baggage and go for short trips. When we checked in the suitcases we were 2 kilos over the allowable weight, so we had to join another QUEUE to pay the excess baggage fee (a hefty 40 Euros for 2 kilos!!). We then joined another QUEUE to get our carry on luggage scanned.
We finally joined the QUEUE to get on our aircraft just before they closed the gate...made it.
An hour and a half later we were at the Avis desk picking up the keys to our Peugot 306 that would be our transport for the next 30 days or so. Let me tell you that driving a car for the first time after 2 months of using public transport felt very strange. What was worse was the fact that I had to drive on the wrong side of the road while sitting on the wrong side of the car.....all I can say is thank goodness we have a GPS as that let's me concentrate on driving while it tells me where to go....which is a nice change to Lesley telling me where to go....lol.
After a good 3 hour drive we arrived at our destination an old millers cottage just outside of the little village of Magnac Bourg in the Haute Vienne region of France. When I say we arrived what I mean is.......we arrived in Magnac Bourg and went down the road we were given as an address but could not find our accommodation. Lesley phoned Hubert (our host) and he gave further directions (sort of), we still could not find where we had to go. So we phoned again, he told us to keep going out on the road we were on and 5 kms out of town he would meet us at an intersection.....after 8 kms we decided something was wrong and turned around, but still could not find him. Lesley phoned again, he came up with the perfect solution, he would come and get us.
Where we were waiting for Hubert we saw a small Co-op (small supermarket), so we went in and got enough food, drink and toilet paper to get us through until tomorrow. As we were paying he turned up. We followed him a good 10km out of town before we turned off don a small side road, then another...boy are we in the middle of the country.....but it must be said very beautiful country.
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| Our Cottage |
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| The Stream Near Our Front Door |
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| Lounge Room |
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| Kitchen |
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| Bedroom |
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| Dinner..Crusty Bread, Cheese, Terrine, Pate, and Wine |
Soon we were at the cottage we would be staying at for the next 5 nights, unpacking, and Lesley prepared a great dinner of local foods we had bought at the co-op with a very nice bottle of Bordeaux.
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