.... And relax

To my relief I got some sleep last night, probably 5 hours which was surprising. We woke to the alarm at 3.55 and after quick ablutions and dressing and a lay check of the room we headed out with our suitcases for an early breakfast of coffee and croissants. At 4.30 we were loading the bus and by 4.40 on our way (three coachloads as other groups had joined us), to the airport. We are clearly a well oiled machine. One relatively (3 years older than us but they look elderly) said they'd set their alarm for 3! I can't think what they were doing to take over an hour at that time when we'd only been in the hotel less than 12 hours . Still we were on our way and the streets of Croatia in the early morning were very quiet. We looked down on the lights of Dubrovnik as we drove up the hills and remembered arriving, just two weeks ago. We've had a great fortnight and I don't mind admitting that I'd almost allowed the reviews I'd read  of the holiday to put me off. I'm glad I didn't. It was great and the weather apart from the first couple of days was perfect, set us up nicely for the winter. 
When we reached the airport at 5.20am, there was only one other queue of people checking in. So different to our experience in Manchester. We were checked in quickly and smoothly apart from one hiccup where they had no notification of our prepaid selected seats.
The flight went out on time, arrived on time and we were through immigration in Manchester immediately, again no queues, we were first in the luggage area and Colin's case was almost first off, mine was almost last - how can that happen?
We had plenty of time though and went to the Radisson for a leisurely cup of coffee before heading to the station for our train at 12. Our booked seats were in a completely congested coach, with every seat full and booked all the way with additional bookings added in en route. We moved to the next coach, which was unreserved and completely empty. I cannot understand the policy of filling one coach with all those who have pre-booked seats and squashing them all together and having other coaches completely empty. It's almost like a punishment for being organised! Our seats hadn't even been facing the direction of travel as we'd requested. Once we'd moved though we were in a double seat each, facing forwards and the carriage was cool and peaceful. 
We got home around 4pm after a quick and not expensive taxi from Haymarket and relaxed. Good to be home.
The washing machine has been on overdrive every since. We had a simple baked potato for dinner and were early to bed. I'm looking forward to sleeping in my own bed tonight. 
The collage is, a last shot of our plane through the dimpled corridor windows in Dubrovnik, the empty baggage hall at Manchester, a first shot of Scotland from the train and our empty train carriage. 
There's an extra of one of the Halloween decorations in the Radisson at Manchester airport too.
Thanks for the company during our trip.
My last job before bed was renewing my blip membership!