Farewell to Venice - day 11

Sadly we had to leave Venice today.  We got down to breakfast early and had a small amount to eat as our flight was leaving at 12:15.  We tried to pay our small mini bar bill, but as usual it was waived. Said goodbye to the lovely staff and walked the short distance to the water stop.  We wanted to be first in the queue for the Alilaguna boat as it is sometimes pretty full by the time it reaches San Stae.  It came on time and we got on okay.  Some other guests behind us then got the last 4 seats. First photo on the collage shows the last  view of the city as we set off across the lagoon. Venice airport is a bit of a pain as the boat arrives at one level, the check in desks are 2 floors up and then you have to go down to the level below to go through security.  Fairly swift process though so we did some duty free shopping and then booked into the Marco Polo Lounge. Other photos are the views of the planes from the lounge and Fin's "snack" before take off - the photo doesn't do it justice!  The basement gate was like a cattle pen as usual, so we sat away from the queues until they actually started boarding. A swift flight and back at Manchester on time.  Then the air gate malfunctioned so we couldn't get off the plane!  Engineers were called and we were told that it would be about 15 minutes.  An hour later and we were still stuck on the plane. The types who always leap up to grab everything before the seatbelt signs haven't even gone off were not happy!  Eventually they managed to "pinch" some stairs and 2 buses from other flights and got us into the terminal, but quite a few people had missed connecting flights and trains etc.  We had fasttrack passport control tickets issued with our car parking, so bypassed all but 2 others from the flight to get quickly through to baggage collection.  A chap from Jet2 had taken all the brightly coloured cases off the carousel and colour coordinated them at the side!  Spotted ours easily and away to the car park.  Scanned our voucher and the locker with the key lit up.  All very efficient.  We were away and onto the motorway in minutes.  We did have a few sections at 40mph and one complete standstill, but not too bad for the time of day. Home later than expected, but not too bad.  Already missing my favourite city!