August 5th saw us in a taxi on our way to Dalaman airport. We were due to take the 9.00a.m. flight to Istanbul then a flight to Rome where we were due to catch a connecting flight to Nice. We left Dalaman on time and arrived in Istanbul with plenty of time to catch our flight with Al Italia to Rome. We checked the departure board to find our flight to Rome was delayed 1 hour and 10 minutes. There was only 1 hour between our planes at Rome which meant we would miss our connecting flight to Nice. We went to the Al Italia desk and queued for ages. Eventually we were told there was an Air France flight but it was full however they had put us on standby for a Lufthansa flight to Munich and then a connecting flight to Nice. We were eventually given boarding cards for both flights 25 minutes before take off with our baggage booked straight through to Nice. The German flights were good and on time and we arrived in Nice just a couple of hours later than planned. We picked up our hire car and headed for our villa just dying to see our family.
We found the villa fairly easily considering it was dark. It was great to see everyone, we had a couple of drinks to wind down and then inspected the villa which was lovely with incredible mountain views from the patio.
We had a great holiday with the family the highlight of which was my birthday. We w
ent for a meal at a restaurant in the square of Seillans village. It was a wonderful atmosphere and we had a great meal and then they brought out a cake complete with sparklers. The whole square sang happy birthday even though we were probably the only Brits there. 
We visited the Verdon Gorge which was spectacular but I really enjoyed the garden at the Rothschild villa at Cap Ferrat.We also enjoyed an overnight visit from Richard and Bridget Haller who travelled from their villa.
The holiday ended far too quickly and on the 26th August we headed for Nice airport. It was hard to say goodbye and I was very upset at leaving the family. On arrival we checked the departure boards for our flight to Rome and breathed a sigh of relief as it looked like our flight was on time. We checked in, went to departures and waited and waited, we eventually boarded 45 minutes after scheduled departure time. We were now going to miss our connection AGAIN. After boarding we waited and waited for take off, by this time we were over an hour late. We eventually arrived in Rome and were met by Al Italia staff who said we would have to stay overnight in Rome but then managed to get us on a Turkish Airlines flight to Istanbul. However this did not arrive in Istanbul until late evening and we would miss our flight from Istanbul to Dalaman. We were assured this was not a problem and that there were seats on a later flight and we could transfer to that. We arrived at Istanbul to find our bags were not on the flight with us they were still in Rome !!!! We then transferred to the domestic terminal to find we had to buy new tickets, needless to say this was the final straw and to say we were not pleased is something of an understatement.
We arrived in Dalaman at 1.15a.m. and it was after 3.00a.m. when we got to the boat. We had forgotten how hot Turkey is as we sweated our way to the boat.
The next day we cleaned the dust off the boat and I spent a lot of time on the phone trying to find out where our bags were. Eventually they reached Istanbul but would not be put on a flight to Dalaman until late evening. The next day they reached Dalaman and were eventually delivered to the boat at lunchtime.
The next day we cleaned the dust off the boat and I spent a lot of time on the phone trying to find out where our bags were. Eventually they reached Istanbul but would not be put on a flight to Dalaman until late evening. The next day they reached Dalaman and were eventually delivered to the boat at lunchtime.
We met up with friends to find a number of them had flu as had most of the marina. Needless to say Ray caught it and the next few days were spent resting.
