Day 15 Wednesday 19th October Genoa then Gatwick
The good news about our journey back to the UK was that our suitcases had been taken from outside our cabin the evening before, taken to the airport and checked onto the BA flight without any input from us. This was unexpected as we had been prepared to be collecting our luggage when leaving the ship.
We went for our tickets for the BA flight in LeClub but BA hadn’t sent them to the ship at 8am as scheduled. Breakfast was exceptionally busy and while queuing we were told that the Italian authorities had not given permission for anyone to leave the ship.
By the end of breakfast back at LeClub our boarding passes were ready for collection. Then it was a wait till we could board our coach to the airport in the early afternoon.
The quayside was very busy with trucks loading the ship with supplies for its next cruise. I counted six artics from the UK as well as several Italian registered ones.
Watching from the Promenade deck we had a grandstand view of the comings and goings …
… as well as when a pallet of tomatoes were tipped over as they were being loaded onto the ship.
From one of the restaurants we were then lead out to a coach to take us to Genoa airport. This driver carried out telephone conversations most of the way there including managing to find his next number in his phone’s memory! Being able to drive one handed while using a mobile phone is clearly mandatory for coach drivers in Genoa (see our first day in Genoa when that driver was also on the phone the whole journey).
Once airside it was soon apparent just how small the airport terminal was with not enough seats for the passengers already waiting never mind the ones arriving with our coach.
After takeoff we passed over the the harbour at Genoa.
There were some great views of the Alps on the flight to Gatwick.
Once at Gatwick we quickly(!) passed through immigration and picked our luggage up and were on our way home.