Bob and I left our housesit in Tunbridge Wells and the sweet Nellie on Tuesday. Our very generous homeowners made a car reservation for us to take us from Tunbridge Wells to the Hampton Hotel at the Gatwick Airport. It seemed to be a good sign that our driver was from Portugal and the hotel receptionist was from Madeira (our Portugal destination).
to the Sainsbury’s grocery store and then walked across the way
to the Smith and Western Hotel/bar.
the Hampton, North Terminal Gatwick
Once we started on our journey today (after a good workout for me in the Hampton fitness center and then a free breakfast), it was a quick 5 minute walk to the EasyJet gate. We had asked for special assistance with Bob’s hip, so after we got through security, we waited in the special assistance lounge until 1:00 pm when we were taken by a special assistance hostess all the way on board our flight. It pays to be disabled,
It wasn’t as handy once we landed, as we had to wait to debark until the very end and then we were walked quite a ways to customs, where we went through the new enhanced EU screening before picking up our luggage.
to claim our luggage
We grabbed a cab ( number three in line that would take credit cards) to take us from the town of Santa Cruz to our hotel in Funchal (about $50). Once in our room, we unpacked while enjoying a free bottle of sparkling wine from hotel.com through which we had made the hotel reservation,
Peckish Travels 