Today was my turn to drive. We opted for a mini road trip up to a couple of mountain villages I’d read about. The first one was Tylissos which is a very old village with an impressive set of excavated ruins of a large Minoan town. Unfortunately despite it supposed to be open every day it was all closed up and locked. However we wobbled around the village and enjoyed the small square.
The old fountain and church in the village square are beautiful and even better – not a tourist shop or tatty tourist gifts in sight. This is just a local village with at least three old coffee shops and about 50 cats. Peaceful
On then to Rogdia or Rodia, another village based in the mountains with incredible views of Heraklion and the sea (and equally perilously narrow winding roads that snake up the hillside). We hoped to grab a bite to eat at a couple of Tavernas I had read about but unfortunately despite the views they offered they were closed. However, we had a peaceful day driving around
The closed Taverna
And that bloody cough of mine is back again. Today I’ll be mostly sounding like someone trying to kick start a seal.
Many moons ago, Mrs Fogg spent 12 months learning Greek in our attempt to relocate to the Peloponnese. So here we are Tylosos about 30 mins outside of Agia Pelagia, to visit some Greek ruins, which are shut and for the Mrs to order two hot coffees in her bestest Greek. Well that paid off then didn’t it, nice iced frappe.
And the local toilette which has no seat, a swimming pool for the locals and a SAW toilet rating of 7 out of 10 (based on SAW 1)
Lunch courtesy of Steve’s Pub….or was it? Sadly Steve cannot cook or figure out how to serve warm or even edible food. So a sharp stage left for us and on to the beautiful Venetian harbour for a meal watching the little fish and the big tourists!
Built on 4 levels, with a gym in the basement (and pool table, ping pong and drum kit), next floor has 4 spacious bedrooms with 2 en-suite, the 3rd floor is the main living / dining area, with the final floor containing yet another en-suite bedroom and a study. This place will easily sleep 10.
On top of that is a pool and, manicured gardens, BBQ pit and numerous terraces.
After the quite abysmal emirates trip to sit in Dubai and play where’s wally with our luggage, we are trying again, this time to a 5 bed private villa in Crete.
Leeds Airport is a dump! Dirty and plain horrible. Grumpy Mode engaged. Park up and look for the non-existent signs to the bus, queue to check-in, be told to go to desk 41, just as the person walks off for a well earned tea break. Go to the Fast Pass security to witness the Silver Fox assistant moving at snails pace that Fast Pass actually became Slow Pass. Take all your electronics out ready, to be told you don’t need to (yet you do in Manchester, Heathrow and Gatwick), take your belt off, take your left shoe off, hop through the microwave scanner. And then wait 20 minutes for a coffee as the girl figures out how to make one.
And finally….. on Tuesday this week our cases finally came home! They’d been on holiday in Dubai, managed to visit Singapore (despite us not!) and even had a city break down in London before a road trip back home. we hope THEY had a good time!
Despite being TSA locks on both, the locks have been cut off and our cases clearly opened and looked through. Begs the question of the benefit of TSA locks…nothing looks missing, yet but I’ve not unpacked…yet.
Yet another complaint raised to Emirates now for ruined cases.
And finally, the opening greeting from the delivery driver as he beamed at Mr Fogg from the van “Hi mate, did you forget to collect yer cases then?”
Welcome to that well known airline currently playing where’s wally with our cases. Latest and greatest just leaves you mind boggled…….
On Thursday Heathrow airport made contact to say one bag had arrived, can you come get it. Nope send it to us or somewhere within less than 200miles! Ah but no sign of the other case.
The airline’s own web tracker is showing one case delivered to London and the rest of the team scouring the world to find the other (yeh right).
On Saturday the central airline team then emailed us to asking us to confirm we had received our luggage, which was met with a polite NO!
Bali Airport then reached out on Sunday confirming a case was sent to London and we need to collect it, which was met with a less polite, “Are You Having a Laugh”. Closely followed by Bali asking for our address and nearest airport to direct the luggage, then followed by “can you send photos of your luggage, so we can find where it is at present”, if I could do that I would already have my sodding luggage!!! Then followed by can you now complete this form detailing the exact contents of each case so they can start to looking for the cases in Bali that they say are now in London!
Cue latest from Heathrow, apparently both cases are with a courier to deliver on Tuesday, closely followed by yet another email from Bali apologizing and advising luggage will now go to my address in Manchester airport!!
After having got excited at seeing the pics of our bags in Singapore we’ve been emailing the baggage team back to ask about next steps. Still silence. And then, an update on the Emirates app:
Your bags are on the flight from Dubai to London which will arrive 9 May. Due to customs you might need to collect in person.
London?? From Dubai? But we have a picture showing us they are in Singapore, and we live nowhere near London
Cue an online chat with the Emirates customer service team:
Me: hi, we are a little confused why our bags are being sent to London from Dubai when they are apparently in Singapore and we live nowhere near London
Emirates: you live in the UK right?
Me: yes
Emirates: London then
Me: why can’t we get them to Manchester where we flew from?
Emirates: oh that’s a good idea, ok I’ll email someone and ask
Me: so are the bags now in Dubai? If the update says they fly to London on the 9th May won’t it already be scheduled?
Emirates: don’t know, I’ve emailed the team
Me: which team?
Emirates: a baggage team somewhere
Me: so how do we get an accurate update?
Emirates: I’ve emailed the baggage team so they will update you
Me: the same baggage team we have been emailing for 3 days with no replies
Emirates: I don’t know, I’m just back office, I have an email address and I’ve done my bit
Me: so do we have any estimated update time?
Emirates: nope
Me: that’s not very helpful. So to clarify, you don’t know if the bags are now in Dubai, the mythical baggage team somewhere are sending the bags to London on the 9th May but you’ve emailed said mythical team to ask them to send them to Manchester instead. The app is wrong with the incorrect update but you don’t know when this will be updated and we need to now wait?
Emirates: yes
Me: so who updates the app details? And what happens next?
Emirates: the baggage team who sort sending the bags do all the app updates and someone in Manchester will contact you when the bags are there
Me: the same baggage team who have the bags in Singapore – who have updated the app to tell us they are being sent on the 9th May from Dubai to London
Emirates: yes
Me: so no one really knows what’s going on then?
Emirates: can I assist with anything else today madam?
