Farewell to Arabba

The journey home from Arabba yesterday felt a bit surreal to me, probably because I slumbered through a lot of it. We got on to a minibus at the ungodly hour of 5.30 a.m. but didn't leave the village for another half hour because some people from a neighbouring hotel had managed to leave a rucksack inside their hotel and then could not get back in to retrieve it because the doors had locked behind them. They managed to awaken a friend inside the hotel who was presumably on a later flight, who opened the door for them. I do understand that these things happen (it's the kind of thing I would do!) but I did feel that a pleasant apology to the rest of us on the bus might have been appropriate; however this was not forthcoming. I then dozed fitfully on the way down the mountain. I knew that we were still at altitude because when I half-opened my eyes I could still see high banks of snow at the side of the narrow, zig-zagging road, and I could hear the scraping sound of the minibus grounding as we rounded each corner. The next time that I woke we were in a lay-by on a dual carriageway in a wide valley, being transferred into a bigger coach, which was rather chilly around my legs, so not so conducive to sleep.
When we arrived at Verona airport after about three hours of travel, the first thing we saw was huge queues waiting for the Manchester and Birmingham flights. My blood ran cold. However when we went round the corner I was delighted to find almost no queue at all for the Edinburgh flight. This was a tremendous bonus because it meant that we had plenty of time to purchase much needed coffees and snacks before our flight. All went smoothly and our flight left on time. I still felt pretty tired though, so I decided to try to have another nap. I put my bag at the small of my back and reclined my seat; this position proved to be extremely comfortable and I had a really good sleep for at least an hour. Soon we were saying our farewells to Heather and Ewan after our brilliant week, and heading home. As we journeyed along the M8 in dreich weather we reflected on our scary journey through the snow in the other direction eight days ago. What an amazing week it has been.