Travelling — Unit 16, Pre-intermediate to Intermediate English

I had planned a short **excursion** to Lisbon with my sister, and everything looked perfect at first. We arrived at the **airport** early, checked our **luggage**, and printed each **boarding pass** before buying coffee. While we were waiting near the **gate**, a screen update announced a two-hour **delay** because of technical checks. Although people complained, we decided to stay positive and review our city map.

When boarding finally began, a staff member reminded us to keep **passports** ready for **customs** on arrival. The flight was smooth, and we spent the journey listing places we wanted to visit. At the destination airport, however, one **suitcase** did not appear on the belt. We reported it at the desk, where an agent gave us a tracking number and said the bag would likely arrive on the next **transfer** flight.

Since the missing case held only spare clothes, we continued to the hotel and started our trip. If we had packed all essentials in one bag, the problem would have been worse. The next morning, the airline delivered the suitcase to reception, and we laughed at our panic. Travel is rarely perfect, but each challenge teaches you something useful for the next journey.

The **suitcase** was not the real lesson of that trip. The real lesson came on the fourth day.

We had booked a return flight home at 07.15, which had seemed clever when we booked it and seemed considerably less clever at four in the morning. What neither of us had checked was that the metro does not begin running until 06.30. There is a night bus, but it goes from a stop we could not find, and in the end we paid forty euros for a taxi that took eleven minutes.

That forty euros was more than we had saved by taking the early flight.

So I now check three things before I book anything. First, how do I physically reach the **airport** at that hour, and does that transport run at that hour? Second, if this flight is cancelled, when is the next one — because a route with four flights a day and a route with one are not the same risk. Third, what is the total time, door to door, rather than the time in the air.

I have also stopped putting anything in the hold when I travel for fewer than four days. It is not only the risk of a lost bag; it is the forty minutes at the belt on arrival and the earlier **check-in** on departure.

Lisbon was wonderful, incidentally. We are going back in April.

With hand **luggage** only.