2AM start to Sunday, all thanks to Thomson holidays ‘reviewing their flight operations at Bristol and finding that they could get us on holiday even sooner’. Roughly translated, this appears to mean: ‘the fuel prices are crippling us at the moment, so we’re moving to a cheaper slot to protect our margins, and dressing it up like it’s doing you a favour’. Still, at least they didn’t have the gall to charge a fuel surcharge like most airlines are ‘having’ to do.
A was super excited at getting up in the middle of the night. O was non-plussed as he’s a stickler for the right routine.
Drive to Bristol was uneventful, although it’s amazing how slow 50mph actually feels when you’re driving through empty roadworks in the middle of the night.
Silver Parking at Bristol was a breeze on the way out. We were a little later than C&B to arrive, and so by the time we did, there was a steady stream of traffic hitting the gate for early morning flights. It didn’t take more than 30 mins to park up, organise A&O, luggage etc and transfer to the main terminal.
Bristol Airport knocks spots off Cardiff ‘International’ Airport in terms of facilities at the terminal, however it’s location is shockingly bad in terms of access from pretty much any direction - not helped by random assortment of signage by the different councils along the way to the airport itself.
We flew Sabina from Bristol - or Brussels Airways as they’re now known after their bankruptcy. They still keep and use the SN designation on their flights though.
I thought SAS European flights offered the worst in cabin crew attitude, based on my own experience, but no - Brussels Airlines takes the crown with a clean sweep of indignant and outlandishly rude staff. The flight was a round robin from BRX->BRS->BIA and back - and it almost felt like they were pissed off that they had to come to pick up paying passengers at Bristol The announcements made it sound like they had 2 classes of passengers - ‘real’ and ‘tour operator’. Suffice it to say I was pleased to get off. A and O behaved for the whole flight. Bless.
Bastia International hasn’t changed at all since we were last here - it’s pretty much on a par with Bristol in size, and is reasonably efficient in shuffling people through passport control and baggage. The airlines seem to have consorted to make sure that they all arrive at the same time, however, and so there’s a land grab for trolleys if you need them (plus you’ll need a €1 coin to release them - and oddity in my eyes, as I’ve never really seen how anyone would get away from an airport with a trolley, as it’s not really Sainsbury’s Car Park now, is it).
The confluence of all these folks arriving has a knock-on effect once you’re out in the main terminal, and that is in picking up your hire car. The mergers that have happened in the European holiday market have provided a more secure revenue stream to the main operators, but have reduced choice for travellers who perhaps don’t want to book independently. The embodiment of this reduction is evident was evident in Bastia in the form of the queue for hire cars.
Bastia has all the usual operators you might expect, such as Hertz, Avis and Europcar. The problem is that on arrival, because everyone from across Europe is travelling with essentially the same company, then they all have to line up at that company’s favourite hire car partner - in this case, Europcar.
It took a good hour to have the queue reduced to the point where we were able to pick up our car - something that could be avoided if only Europcar took advanced pick up details from travellers online. BTW - our Simply Travel tickets stated that advanced bookings were something we could take advantage of, but it wasa complete fabrication. Nobody at Thomson or Simply Travel was able to get to the bottom of why the tickets have that information printed on them, as it’s something they’ve never done.
Thomson were also good enough to try and cheat spatial reasoning by reserving us a Ford Fiesta for a party of 6 - 2 of whom need child seats. Bless them - they really are the travel specialists they make out to be.
Europcar managed, and I qoute: “to do us (you) a big favour by upgrading us (you) to a VW Touran for additional cost”.
Great. Thanks Eurocrap - that’s just what we need, as there are now enough seats for everyone, it’s just a pity that the rear row are in the boot and therefor take up the space that the luggage would like to be nestling in.
Ho-Hum.
A quickish ride North of Bastia took us as far as Erbalunga, where we’re based for the week. We’re actually a way up the side of the mountains in a villa that has spectacular views of the surrounding scenery and out to sea. Aside from the buzz of occasional traffic up the mountain road, and flights passing over Corsica, you can’t hear a thing. Just birds, and the stream that runs swiftly down the ravine outside of the property boundary.
The place itself is HUGE. A and O have spent most of the time just charging around the substantial grounds and around the house. It’s big enough for them to lose each other and have to bellow as loud as possible to find each other again.
Highlights are the well equipped kitchen and private pool. There’s so much space for activities that we don’t really need to venture out all that much - daily outings to the local Boulangerie aside.
Tags: corsica, vacation