The alarm went off at some ungodly hour. Why can’t I take late nights any more?? Dragged myself out of bed, performed basic ablutions, wearily manoeuvred my bike box and other chattels out to the waiting coach and settled the bill. Then basically curled up in a corner on the coach for an uneventful ride to Alicante Airport.

Way too early to check in for my flight, so just hung around trying to get the corpuscles at least moving, albeit slowly. Finally got to the check-in desk and was told to take my bike box elsewhere. Everything else was fine, so off I trudged. Bike went through with no problem and once again I wondered if I would a) see it again b) if I did, how many pieces would it be in?

Got onto the plane with no fuss, but the flight was delayed because they had to take some baggage off (?). Unfortunately, that meant that we missed our take-off slot and we eventually took off 45 minutes late. Very smooth flight, but when I got off the plane at Luton, I was really unprepared for how COLD it was! Apparently the weather during the previous few days had been glorious!

Long wait in baggage reclaim, but was successfully reunited with hold bag and, more importantly, my bike box. Got through Customs to be met by my wife and elder daughter, the latter having brought her (company owned) estate car so as to manage storage for the bike. I was knackered, so very grateful for the lift home. Couldn’t face the thought of establishing the fate of my bike, so shoved the bike box in the garage. Work to do tomorrow……