Mezcla

Introduction

I suppose I should begin by relating why The Boss and I moved to the Costa Blanca, because it wasn't for the usual reasons. Sun, sea and sangria were all additional bonuses that didn't really figure in our initial decision-making. For us, well, for me anyway, it was all about Alicante Airport.

You see, all through the eighties and nineties I was contracting in the aerospace industry all over Europe. That meant I did a lot of travelling by budget airlines, getting home to England as often as I could. Now, you would think that, as our nearest airport was Manchester International, there would be no problem with that, but you'd be wrong.

Many of the places where I worked were quite out of the way and I could hardly ever get direct flights to and from Manchester. I was forever having to catch connecting flights, which was not only nerve-wracking but also ate up a lot of time.

But no matter where I was, or which airport I happened to find myself in, the departure boards all listed direct flights to two places, one was Paderborn, which I'd never heard of but, judging by the number of airlines going there, must be an extremely popular place. However, beating Paderborn by a country mile for flight frequency was ... good old Alicante.

That planted the seed of the idea. Alicante was obviously the center of the universe for airline route planners.

So I mentioned this to The Boss and the idea wasn't dismissed out of hand. In fact, the more we discussed it the more appealing it became, so we did what everyone does in that situation ... we procrastinated for months.

Until the day I had to carry a duvet across Paris ...