Food, glorious food?

View from our balcony

Picture the scene. We've been delayed by three hours due to the French Air Traffic Controllers strike, one hour of which we were stuck on the plane waiting to take off. We land in the dusk and then have two hours coach travel to our hotel. We arrive tired, hungry, we've missed dinner and are told that a cold dinner awaits us in our room. I peel back the cling film to a plate of rice with ham....ham! I don't eat meat. There are two tiny rolls which I fill with the slices of tomato and cheese from the side of the plate and that my friends is my dinner. I have eaten part of a sandwich at Gatwick, a cereal bar and another half sandwich which I shared with hubby on the coach and that's it. There were no sandwiches available on the plane and no milk for tea!

Food-wise, things did not much improve during the week, despite our company rep trying her best. Our hotel simply had no idea how to cope with someone who ate no meat or fish. Each night our table had to fill in a menu sheet but because we missed dinner the night before we hadn't filled one in. So, after the soup and the pasta dish, which luckily was vegetarian, my main course was a plate of cheese with rocket on the side. I left it. The next evening the other vegetarian on the table, but who eats some fish, confused them further because he had the pasta with fish and I got his and my portion of vegetarian pasta. I thought that might be my lot so I ate most of it only to be confronted with main course cheese omelet and a few tiny potato balls which I hardly ate. During the day I was beginning to crave things and felt hungry. What annoyed me most was that no one explained what was in the soups or what we would be served. I have to say here that we were not the only ones moaning. The meat eaters on another table sent all their meals back the first night and one fish dish was described as 'catch of the day' - no one knew what it was! We laughed.....God how we laughed over the food which arrived luke warm (though the veggie dishes were usually hot as they were freshly made). Our holiday rep asked me 'what do you eat' as if I was from another planet. I said any vegetable, pasta, rice, grilled, roasted. I got the grilled vegetables, aubergines, courgettes and grilled chicory?? but dry, tasting of charcoal with no sauce or oil. I ate it because I was hungry. Over the week I was treated to deep fried cheese sandwich with a blob of spinach on the side and a potato omelet with carrots. One night we had a Sicilian evening which was a buffet. There was at least more choice but I had to pick over things and smell them to see if any fish or meat was lurking there.

There were good points to the hotel. It overlooked the beach. We had lovely views of Cefalu and  the rooms were clean. However, we came back one afternoon after a tour to find the main doors locked. We entered through the cafe owned by the hotel and there was a notice to say reception had moved to the other building! I joked to my hubby that one day we would return to find the whole place closed down! There was confusion over where to wait for our tours with the moving of the reception, including the day we left (many waited in the wrong place and several, including us, moved several times in case the coach was elsewhere). All good fun. These were some of the negatives of the holiday. I'll write about some of the positives next time, promise.