this may be a big post so sorry!

Before I start, I swear that I'm going to have a tattoo on my forehead that says "don't ever do night flights again"!

anyway here's an overview of my two weeks.

Dorada Palace - lovely hotel - walk into town takes 5-10 mins, though nearer 5 if you're willing to risk life by running over the dual carriageway towards Carrer de Saragossa. Buffet for 12euros each was ok but not much veggie choice. (for the better half - I was loving the grill, and all the meat!) We were self catering and the one bedroom apartment was great. Shame the pool view I asked for didnt materialise but hey-ho.

weather - seven nice, hot days - seven shocking, heaviest constant rain i have ever seen pretty much. when the sun was out it was hot and I've tanned nicely. From Tuesday - Friday last week. It rained. and rained. did i mention it rained. However at no point was it cold, and you could wear tshirts and shorts pretty much all the time. got a little nippy some nights but not overly so.

resort - great. beach lovely. sea - warm enough for swimming for sure. I was in everyday i could. Struggled to find good restaurants. I did like the Orient Express. Sure if was food for Brits abroad but at 8.45euros for a three course meal (less than £6!) it was a steal. However it closed for winter last Sunday

Bars - liked Danny Boys, 007, Red Lion, Charlie Chaplins, the Stella Bar (where you could at least get a nice 5% beer at only 3euros a pint - though some bars who are on the verge of closing up are selling San Miguel at 1euro a pint!)

everywhere was starting to close up for Winter. Kiss closed midway through. Charlie Chaplins was winding down.

Didnt think there was much to Cambrils. Was going to go to Aquapolis (it was open until 14th) but weather conspired against us.

Barcelona by train is a doddle. don't bother going on organised tours for anything between 17euros to 67euros each! Its 9euros each return on the train. Salou station is easy to find in the old town, and the ticket staff spoke English. Don't worry about the millions of train operators there are, the ticket staff will sell you the tickets for the Regional trains which are the cheap ones. ask for a timetable from the Information office.

When you get to Barcelona - if you want to be able to zoom off everywhere get off at Sants, otherwise stay on the train to Passeig de Gracia. If you do this, don't jump on the metro straight away, go up to streetlevel and familiarise yourself of where you are. There are about six stations all called Passeig de Gracia - but not all of them have links to the trains back to Salou. You want Passeig de Gracia - Arago - which is further up the road from Placa de Catalunya. Park Guell is my top tip for Barcelona. You can get the metro from Passeig de Gracia to Lesseps then its a 10-15 minute walk (uphill!) fantastic place and views of the city are fab.

the saviour of our holiday because of the weather was Port Aventura. we bought 14 day passes before we went for £53. This was so good. Even when the weather was diablicol - you could slap on your Universal Studions poncho (5.50euros but durable) and go on the water rides and get wetter than you already are. The park was open until midnight on Saturdays and 8pm other times. IF you go between 6-8pm or after 10pm on a Saturday there is barely anyone there and you can stay on rides for ages. Hurricane Condor is awesome. only lasts about five seconds as you plummet to earth. you have to do it. Stampida, Tutuki splash, Templo del Fuego - all awesome. There were also parades on Saturdays as it Halloween until November - and the park is decorated as such. It looks great. Dont bother with the indoor section of Costa Caribe. Its so rubbish. One pool. One big slide. One small slide. The end.

I was surprised with the number of children in resort. With the greatest respect to those of you with children, I must say I didnt think I'd see so many of them who were taken out of school for a holiday. I thought I might have read somewhere that is isnt possible to take kids out of school these days for a holiday but then again, I have no kids so what would I know! Its not that I dont like them. Bless them as they run up and down the corridors in their flip flops shouting to their brothers and sisters at 9am is charming! After I've only had a few hours sleep it was a bit much! Mind you as other people have posted on this forum before, the Dorada Palace has paper thin walls.

now, the nightflight. We arrived at 4.30am to the hotel, which is fine - on the way out I dont mind. We had to check out at 10am yesterday morning and we were being picked up at 1.20am. (though the poor people going to Glasgow were being picked up at 3.30am and still have to check out at 10am). They wouldn't let me keep the room on so we had fifteen hours to kill (and yesterday was yuk weather wise), so we killed 15 hours. Then picked up. Reus airport is so tiny. eight check in desks, four gates - imagine July/August!) 8.5kilos over our baggage allowance, but with a little spanish sweet talking we were ok! I knew learning Spanish would have its uses!

so finally boarded the plane at 4.30am, took off at 4.50am (50mins late) landed at Birmingham at 5.45am - shuttle to the train to Birmingham New Street, then the 7.10am train back to Nottingham - cab home and was in bed by 9am. But that meant 25 hours of being awake. I've just woken up from three hours sleep and feel like someone has been kicking me in the head.

The gripe I have is, on our first night, we check in at 4.30am and have to be out by 10am when we leave, so one of our "days" in the hotel lasts for 5 and a half hours. I'm going to write to First Choice (I know it will get me nowhere - I would have put in it the questionnaire on the flight back but there wasnt room for any comments, just simple things - were the crew nice, were their hair bobbles straight etc etc.

anyway there we go. Really good holiday. No more nightflying. ever.

if you're going soon, have a great time.