Good morning
We have come home a month early from Portugal. We were fine. No one we knew or heard about had the virus. On Tuesday March 10th having been told Seville had a lot of the virus we carefully checked the situation.
What we found was Madrid had some virus but Seville was fine. Yesterday there were 1903 new cases in Spain. Wednesday March 11 Trish, Kelly, Mary, Robin and myself drove the 160 kilometres to the Seville subway. We went downtown and took a bus tour then lunch and into The Cathedral.
Knowing what we know now we should not have gone. We are all fine, none of us are sick yet. This should show us all just how fast the disease is moving. We must all be very careful, not just for ourselves but all around us. Most of the people who currently have the disease are at this time showing no symptoms. You do not know if the person beside you has the virus. Don't blame them for they do not know either.
Last Thursday I was in Spain golfing at Valle Guadiana Links with Ron Austin. We finished and drove to Monte Gordo for a drink and agreed to play the next Thursday which was yesterday. By the next day I was contacting Ron to say we should hold off. Trish, Kelly and I were looking in to going home early. I said I would be in touch not really believing we would not play again.
First we emailed Air Transat as they ask and said we would like to change our tickets. They got back to us very quickly saying that they would get a hold of us even if it was after our flight took off. This was not as much help as they had envisioned during their committee meeting. We never heard from Air Transat.
As time went on either things got worse or we became aware of how bad things were or were about to be. We started to look for a way to get home before April 15th. Exactly how this process went I cannot tell you. It is a blur which very rapidly got worse and we got more and more worried or perhaps even desperate. By Sunday we reserved a hotel at Gatwick Airport. Before I bought tickets to London I went on Air Transat's website to order three tickets home. I am not a seasoned traveller, but for a number of years I had assumed people world wide did this all the time.
I filled our the form, gave them our information including passports. Actual seats were assigned, We had accomplished our goal and were headed home all be it through London England. I got to the end and pressed purchase tickets. The screen flashed mistake please try again. I went through the 7 or 8 minute procedure 4 times with the same result and gave up.
Monday as thing were becoming clearer we went in to the front desk at Pedras de Rainha. Lousia and the nice lady behind the desk ordered us tickets out of Lisbon on Saturday March 21st or tomorrow. Once again we had seats. She pushed the button and was told the order could not be completed. She tried again with the same result. Trish, Kelly and I headed for Faro.
Faro is the second largest airport in Portugal. TAP is the national airline. We intended to go to their desk and just buy tickets. We got to the airport only to find TAP has absolutely no present at the airport. There was no one to help us. As I talked to the information desk a Canadian gentleman approached and was told to phone TAP. He said he had phoned and hung up after holding for over an hour.
It became apparent our only hope was getting on Air Transat as standbys on Wednesday March 18. We talked to Pedras who quickly agreed to let us check out Wednesday with the condition we could return to the home Wednesday afternoon.
Wednesday morning at 7:30 Portugal time we piled in to our rental car. I say piled because we had golf clubs, three large bags, carry on and a large purse. Then on top of this we put Mary and Robin with their checked baggage and their carry on.It fit very nicely, but I should say I was not in the tight back seat with the golf clubs on my lap.
As we drove to Faro Trish was somewhat confident. I on the other hand was convinced that even if there were empty seats the people checking bags would not have the authority to let us on. I was very tense. I did not think we would get out. If this was the case I felt there was a chance we would be in Cabanas well beyond April 15. We arrived at the airport to a line up out side the building. There would have been two to four hundred in the line. I felt this was just what we needed. Robin and Mary got out with their luggage along with Trish and Kelly. I parked the car and joined them in the line.
The police had closed all doors except for one and where looking at passports. The line did move relatively quickly and we were in. We got into the line for the Air Transat flight. As we were about to go to the baggage check our passports were checked again. We said we did not have tickets for today and wanted to fly standby. We were asked to go to the side and talk to the lady. Finally a light at the end of the tunnel, we did not yet know if the light was a way home or a freight train.
The nice lady had good news, actually very good new and bad news. Her first words the first positive we had had in almost a week was "I have been directed by Air Transat to allow anyone with a ticket on the flight free of charge provided there is a seat." The bad news was last week 5 standbys got on and we were numbers 7,8 and 9. It was almost 9:00 and we were to return at 9:50. We went out t0 get the luggage. As we waited I decided to go to the car rental MasterKings and return the car on the condition we could come back after noon and get it back. As with Pedras MasterKings were great and I returned to Trish and Kelly.
We went forward at 9:50 and the first 9 standbys were asked to come forward. Wait a second that included us. As of 9:50 Wednesday March 18th we were going home on what may be the last flight form Faro. The scenes from Viet Nam with the helicopters on the roof of the American Embasy came to mind.
In fact there were 19 standbys and 19 no-shows at least 6 of the no-shows were Europeans turned away on account of the new flying rules which started at 12:01 Wednesday March 18th or that day.
We have come home a month early from Portugal. We were fine. No one we knew or heard about had the virus. On Tuesday March 10th having been told Seville had a lot of the virus we carefully checked the situation.
What we found was Madrid had some virus but Seville was fine. Yesterday there were 1903 new cases in Spain. Wednesday March 11 Trish, Kelly, Mary, Robin and myself drove the 160 kilometres to the Seville subway. We went downtown and took a bus tour then lunch and into The Cathedral.
Knowing what we know now we should not have gone. We are all fine, none of us are sick yet. This should show us all just how fast the disease is moving. We must all be very careful, not just for ourselves but all around us. Most of the people who currently have the disease are at this time showing no symptoms. You do not know if the person beside you has the virus. Don't blame them for they do not know either.
Last Thursday I was in Spain golfing at Valle Guadiana Links with Ron Austin. We finished and drove to Monte Gordo for a drink and agreed to play the next Thursday which was yesterday. By the next day I was contacting Ron to say we should hold off. Trish, Kelly and I were looking in to going home early. I said I would be in touch not really believing we would not play again.
First we emailed Air Transat as they ask and said we would like to change our tickets. They got back to us very quickly saying that they would get a hold of us even if it was after our flight took off. This was not as much help as they had envisioned during their committee meeting. We never heard from Air Transat.
As time went on either things got worse or we became aware of how bad things were or were about to be. We started to look for a way to get home before April 15th. Exactly how this process went I cannot tell you. It is a blur which very rapidly got worse and we got more and more worried or perhaps even desperate. By Sunday we reserved a hotel at Gatwick Airport. Before I bought tickets to London I went on Air Transat's website to order three tickets home. I am not a seasoned traveller, but for a number of years I had assumed people world wide did this all the time.
I filled our the form, gave them our information including passports. Actual seats were assigned, We had accomplished our goal and were headed home all be it through London England. I got to the end and pressed purchase tickets. The screen flashed mistake please try again. I went through the 7 or 8 minute procedure 4 times with the same result and gave up.
Monday as thing were becoming clearer we went in to the front desk at Pedras de Rainha. Lousia and the nice lady behind the desk ordered us tickets out of Lisbon on Saturday March 21st or tomorrow. Once again we had seats. She pushed the button and was told the order could not be completed. She tried again with the same result. Trish, Kelly and I headed for Faro.
Faro is the second largest airport in Portugal. TAP is the national airline. We intended to go to their desk and just buy tickets. We got to the airport only to find TAP has absolutely no present at the airport. There was no one to help us. As I talked to the information desk a Canadian gentleman approached and was told to phone TAP. He said he had phoned and hung up after holding for over an hour.
It became apparent our only hope was getting on Air Transat as standbys on Wednesday March 18. We talked to Pedras who quickly agreed to let us check out Wednesday with the condition we could return to the home Wednesday afternoon.
Wednesday morning at 7:30 Portugal time we piled in to our rental car. I say piled because we had golf clubs, three large bags, carry on and a large purse. Then on top of this we put Mary and Robin with their checked baggage and their carry on.It fit very nicely, but I should say I was not in the tight back seat with the golf clubs on my lap.
As we drove to Faro Trish was somewhat confident. I on the other hand was convinced that even if there were empty seats the people checking bags would not have the authority to let us on. I was very tense. I did not think we would get out. If this was the case I felt there was a chance we would be in Cabanas well beyond April 15. We arrived at the airport to a line up out side the building. There would have been two to four hundred in the line. I felt this was just what we needed. Robin and Mary got out with their luggage along with Trish and Kelly. I parked the car and joined them in the line.
The police had closed all doors except for one and where looking at passports. The line did move relatively quickly and we were in. We got into the line for the Air Transat flight. As we were about to go to the baggage check our passports were checked again. We said we did not have tickets for today and wanted to fly standby. We were asked to go to the side and talk to the lady. Finally a light at the end of the tunnel, we did not yet know if the light was a way home or a freight train.
The nice lady had good news, actually very good new and bad news. Her first words the first positive we had had in almost a week was "I have been directed by Air Transat to allow anyone with a ticket on the flight free of charge provided there is a seat." The bad news was last week 5 standbys got on and we were numbers 7,8 and 9. It was almost 9:00 and we were to return at 9:50. We went out t0 get the luggage. As we waited I decided to go to the car rental MasterKings and return the car on the condition we could come back after noon and get it back. As with Pedras MasterKings were great and I returned to Trish and Kelly.
We went forward at 9:50 and the first 9 standbys were asked to come forward. Wait a second that included us. As of 9:50 Wednesday March 18th we were going home on what may be the last flight form Faro. The scenes from Viet Nam with the helicopters on the roof of the American Embasy came to mind.
In fact there were 19 standbys and 19 no-shows at least 6 of the no-shows were Europeans turned away on account of the new flying rules which started at 12:01 Wednesday March 18th or that day.
