Day 4: Bordeaux to home

It looked like a rather wet and grey day when we woke up in Bordeaux on Monday morning. We knew it was going to be a long day, regardless of weather, because our flight back to Gatwick wasn't setting off until 22.15. We therefore weren't in a hurry to check out of the hotel in the morning, making the most of the breakfast buffet for a final time. By the time we needed to check out the rain had stopped, though it was still quite wet underfoot and the sky was cloudy.

We strolled into the city centre, soon finding ourselves in the vicinity of the main square.

We were booked to go on a boat trip in the afternoon, which meant we needed to have a relatively early lunch. We found a restaurant not far from the waterfront which had a good deal on their lunchtime menu; pasta, a mini chocolate mousse and a coffee for EUR 18 each.

The service was a little bit slow, but that conveniently filled the time until it was time for us to head to the river and queue for our boat.

We were going on a 90-minute river cruise on the Garonne.

The trip included a little local cake called a cannele to try. We'd actually already tried these on the breakfast buffet at the Mercure and weren't hugely impressed; they're rather chewy!

We also got a glass of wine, which was more fun

It was quite a civilised boat, with chairs set around little tables.

As we set off, we had a nice view of the main square from the river.

We soon came to the part of the river which had historically been industrial. Today these former warehouses have been converted into offices and restaurants.

We passed under one of the bridges across the river; this one can be lifted to let through larger boats.

This unusually shaped building is the local wine museum...

...while this wooden platform would historically have been used for dredging the river.

We passed under what is apparently Bordeaux's equivalent of the Golden Gate Bridge...

...and then it was time for the boat to turn around and start heading back in the direction from which we'd come.

On the way back our guide continued to explain interesting facts about the river. Apparently the colour is due to the fact that Bordeaux is relatively near the estuary of the river and the Atlantic tides cause sediment to wash backwards and forwards, resulting in a colour which could be described as murky.

Locals would apparently be happier if you described the colour as "caramel" or "cafe latte" instead  

Throughout the boat trip the weather was getting progressively better and better. By the time we were back at the main bridge, it was a positively sunny afternoon.

After we got off the boat, we went for a stroll across the bridge to explore the suburb on the opposite side of the river.

We just had time to see this rather unusual lion statue...

...and this pretty church...

...before it was time to think about getting dinner and catching the tram back to the airport.

We got to the airport two hours before our scheduled flight time of 22.15... only to find that our flight was delayed. The EasyJet app kept changing its mind about how long the delay was going to be, so we queued up to go through security and figured we'd just sit and wait on the other side. Unfortunately, we were in a small terminal of the airport which seems to be predominantly used by EasyJet, and there were three separate flights to the UK that evening, all of which seemed to be delayed. That meant there were a huge number of people stuck in a small space waiting for news of their flights, and nowhere near enough space for everyone to sit down. We ended up sitting on the floor outside passport control for a considerable amount of time, which was not terribly comfortable!

We eventually boarded our flight some time after 23.30 and received the fantastic news that we couldn't take off because we didn't have a slot to land at Gatwick for another couple of hours. There seemed to have been really bad weather in the UK which had thrown everything into chaos. There was nothing we could do but sit and wait for more announcements, the outcome of which was that we eventually took off around 1am French time.

By the time that happened, I was actually pretty thrilled because there had been a moment where I'd thought we weren't going to be able to take off at all. The delay had meant one of the flight attendants were outside of their legal flying hours and so the cabin crew were a man down. There were 152 people on the plane and they only had enough staff left to fly 150, so they asked for volunteers to get off and fly tomorrow. I thought we might have a sticky moment where no one was prepared to move and the entire flight had to be cancelled. Luckily, two people did volunteer, persuaded by EasyJet's offer of £300 cash each!

We eventually landed in Gatwick around 01.30 UK time, where we faced another short delay due to a shortage of airport buses to meet the plane. By the time we'd taken that bus, got through passport control, caught the bus back to the airport parking, retrieved the car and travelled home, it was nearly 5am   I think this will definitely count as one of our most tiring travel days - and today has definitely been a tired day back at work! But overall we had a lovely time in Bordeaux, which is a really beautiful city, and we'd like to visit this part of France again. Just maybe not flying EasyJet from Gatwick next time!!!