We were up early this morning for our summer trip out to Northern Cyprus to stay at Villa Rockheart. Our flight was at 1050 from Gatwick with Turkish Airlines so we set off from Folkestone at about 7am, a little later than planned. Traffic was pretty good along the M25 and we got to Gatwick around 815. And made a mistake….

Our flight was from Gatwick South Terminal but Bob had booked parking with Holiday Extras and for some reason we were going to Gatwick Holiday Parking which was at Gatwick North and then taking the shuttle bus to the South Terminal. Anyway, we got there, parked, unpacked the bags and I went to the bus stop while Bob went into the office to drop off the keys. After about 5 minutes he came out pretty quickly, and said we were in the wrong carpark!!!! We were booked with them but we’d booked in the Long Stay at Gatwick South, which of course made a lot more sense….. Just not sure how we’d mixed it up…. lack of paperwork I think. Anyway, we drove round again and parked up and the bus was really quick and in no time we were checking our bags in with Turkish Airways.

I’d forgotten how nice they are as an airline. There’s even a guy at check in who offers to take your bags from the head of the queue to the desk for you. It was quiet at Gatwick. We literally romped through security and were soon having breakfast at Itsu, airside. Liked Itsu – it’s sort of Japanese. We had tea and these egg pots which were 2 perfectly poached eggs in a pot with some sort of accompaniment. Utterly delicious.

Flight was on time and a nice new looking plane. Pretty full. They served us a really nice 3 course hot lunch with wine or beer or soft drinks. I chose aubergine salad with yoghurt cream, meat cutlet with rice and tomato cream gravy and the most delicious chocolate mousse. Had a bit of a sleep. Read. And 3.45 hours later we were in Istanbul.

Wow you could feel the heat through the windows and the gangway. 30C outside. We had 75 minutes there between planes. Just long enough to walk from one gate to the other. It’s the most enormous airport and like a luxury shopping mall. All the big designers are there: Chanel, Louis Vuitton…. so many plus lots of food outlets too.

The second flight to Lefkosa was also on time and comfortable. This time they served us a chicken and vegetable hot panini with drinks. It was a 90 minute flight and we arrived in Cyprus at 755pm. Still hot. Amazing sunset. Our bags all arrived which is always a relief.

Gunray sent a lovely van to pick us up and he got us to the house in about 40 minute. We unpacked the food suitcase, unpacked our clothes and then sat out by the pool and had a drink. So good to be here. I haven’t been since my lone visit last year. Bob was here in November.

All seems well at the house, will look forward to seeing it in the daylight tomorrow. Read along with our trip……