T5 Pod Parking 1.9.26
Up early to get loaded and depart for Heathrow T5 via the wonderful Pod parking. We are early so have a wait which is extended due to our aeroplane having undergone maintenance overnight and in consequence was at the wrong end of the airport.
We board and take off at 08:50 so should not be too late on arrival. BA524 and G-NEOP which is an Airbus A321. It is not quite full and yet we hear BA staff moaning about suitcases again within our earshot, I despair at the training being delivered these days, no consideration of passengers at all, simply just customers not passengers going on a journey with the airline.
BA524 flight – data from Flight Aware
The flight is smooth and the lost time recovered with touch down 5 minutes early. That was the end of the good news as it then took a shade under 2 hours to complete passport control. We pointed out that we are registered but apparently all British passports are being rejected, hence the queue, which snakes around a large holding pen and which has clearly been in place for sometime so this is very much not a one off. It seems that once the queue exceeds 45 minutes they revert to manual processing and stamping of passports. To be honest it now looks as though it is purely and simple a device with orders from on high to prevent British entry as plane loads of Americans are waved through rapidly. Most of the others in the queue have also registered before – so why not get us through the e-gates?
Vesuvius 1.9.26
Some 2.5 hours after landing we are finally on the coach, driving past Vesuvius which dominates the landscape. Then through three tunnels and then a drive down towards Sorrento (which I must have traversed in the opposite direction and of which I have no memory) and we are delivered to Hotel Eliseo Parks in the adjacent town of S’Agnello. Book in and unpack.
Sorrento Peninsular 1.9.26
This is from the coach window as we wind down a twisting road into the five towns which occupy the coastline with Sorrento being in the far distance.
After a shower and then it is time to eat the dinner requested as we booked in. Yes it is the little known cost reduction philosophy or phenomenon of having to know what you want to eat hours before dinner time. Normally we are told that on future days we have to decide at breakfast what we have to eat in the evening. I do realise that some cost control is necessary but somehow my brain just rejects the rationality of making such decisions. How do I know what I might fancy some 8 or more hours hence.
When dinner is served we are not exactly impressed. The initial linguine is not too bad but the hake delivered to Jackie looks like nothing on earth and certainly not some form of fresh fish caught overnight and delivered to the hotel this very morning. My piece of pork is not too bad in itself but the accompanying vegetables probably saw better days once upon a time, before they were cooked to near inedibility. Not a wonderful start. Given that the hotel is an upgrade on the three star in Sorrento we are a little surprised. Visually the hotel is attractive – but the food does not feel 4 star style.
Not being amused with dinner an online search brings up Hotel Vesuvio with a sky bar and impressive looking restaurant where a booking is made for tomorrow night.
For the record the Newmarket description of the day:
Arrive in Italy, meet your tour manager and board our coach for the scenic journey to the Bay of Naples, and on to your chosen hotel, in or close to Sorrento.