Travel to Mallorca

The alarm was set for 02:30 but Karen was out of bed just before it went off. After a very quick and light breakfast of toast for Karen, Weetabix for me and coffee for Keith, we left Winster in the dark at 03:00 bound for Manchester Airport.
Karen dropped Keith and me off at Terminal 1 Departures along with all our baggage and drove off to park her car in the long stay car park and then catch a bus back to the terminal.
We met Boyd and Jenny Potts, Ashley Hiscock and friend Courtney, Simon Wynn and daughter Sean, who were in the middle of weighing their bags using Boyd's luggage balance when their bag dropped off the hook and the needle pinged off the balance gauge!
Anyway, I thought I had better switch my mobile phone on in case Karen was trying to contact me, and there was a waiting voice message! She was in the Terminal after getting off the bus but was on the floor below and could see no sign of us. She had asked an airport employee for directions while her phone was still on.
Karen soon found her way to join us in departures and was followed not long afterwards by Brian and Joan Potts. I then spotted Elaine Booth who had been there all the time but I hadn't seen her.
We waited until Dave Phillips arrived a she had all the paperwork for the flight as he had done all the booking on our behalf. Trish Webber then appeared followed by Dave and Pete Wagstaff as they had travelled together.
Karen, Keith and I luckily were on the same “e ticket” so we headed off to check in our bags.
We went through the usual security checks and passport control and the found a coffee bar which also sold lovely bacon butties for breakfast.
After being joined by the rest of the group, I noticed about ten minutes later that our flight was being shown on the flight information screen as “go to gate” and the time was now 05:50.
So Karen and I set off to find the gate followed by Keith and we had a very quick look at a couple of shops on the way and soon arrived at the gate where we sat to wait the call to board.
Boarding time came soon afterwards and with no sign of the rest of our group, we boarded the aircraft and found our seats.
The flight was for just over two hours and we were fifteen minutes ahead of schedule due to a tail wind.
After landing at Palm airport and going through the usual baggage claim and passport control, we set off to find the correct desk for the hire car Karen had arranged previously and soon had the formalities sorted.
It was there that Boyd discovered that the paperwork for his pre-booked hire car was for Las Palmas in the Canary Islands – not much use when you are in La Palma, Majorca!
The three of us found our hire car: a Citroen Elysee, in the inside parking area and after a quick look for any damage Karen went to unlock the door and found there was no keyhole! The car had no remote locking facility and she had gone to what would normally be the driver's door, but of course since it was left-hand drive, this was the passenger door and only the driver's door had a key hole!
Karen unlocked and opened the driver's door (the correct one this time!) and we spent a good ten minutes trying to find the correct button to press to open the boot lid (again no keyhole lock on the boot lid).
We eventually discovered that the button which we first though was the right one was indeed the right one for the boot lid but it had to be held down for several seconds in order to unlock and open the boot lid.
Once we were ready, we set off for the forty minute drive on mostly dual carriageway to Alcudia in the north where we were staying.
We soon found our accommodation at the Bellvue Appartments which were similar to a hotel but without the reception area.
We were the first to arrive and parked outside one of the various buildings making up the complex, called Minerva I, and waited for the others to turn up, especially Dave, in order to find out which building we had booked and which room.
After a short wait, Keith tried sending a text message and found that the others were at the main reception which was by the entrance to the complex and we had missed completely!
We relocated to the reception area car park and booked in with Dave's help and got our electronic door key and found our room which was coincidentally in Minerva I.
This was followed by a quick shopping trip for some food – luckily there was a small supermarket a short walk away.
There was a bar and restaurant also close by where we had a cheeseburger and chips then after returning to the apartments we found all the rest of the group waiting to go out for a meal which had been booked for 18:30!

It had been a very long day so we declined and returned to our room and I was soon in bed asleep.