A mere 20 days after our superb cruise in Iceland, we found ourselves rising at 5.30am to get showered, shampooed and into clean clothes, ready to leave the house at seven o’clock for the 30 minute drive to Newcastle Airport.
Yes! Once again we are setting off on holiday; a week spent on a land-based tour exploring all the famous monuments and archaeological sites of mainland Greece, followed by a four-night cruise island hopping. The best of both worlds. ☺
Over the years, we have cruised around many Greek islands but we have largely neglected the mainland, only travelling to Athens and Piraeus in transit for a cruise elsewhere. Therefore, we booked this escorted tour, called “Ancient Greece Uncovered”, so we could make the most of the wonders of the ancient world, and learn all about the amazing achievements of the ancient Greeks as well as a little of the fascinating Greek mythology.
We set off for the airport and parked the car in the long stay car park, before trundling our cases round to the main terminal building. We were flying to Athens via Heathrow Airport. At this time of the morning the airport wasn’t too busy, and we were able to check our cases in straight away. We had brought two larger cases to go in as checked baggage, as well as Trevor’s rucksack and a smaller wheeled suitcase that was deemed “cabin friendly” and contained essential spares such as a change of clothing, toiletries and cosmetics.
When the lady on the British Airways desk saw my carry-on case, she said “That will have to go as checked baggage as the flight today is very full.” “No, it won’t” I retorted. “Last time we flew out of Terminal 5 at LHR we didn’t see our luggage for eight days!”
The lady looked at me. “I’m sorry, you’ll have to check it in” she repeated, “There’s no charge”. “There doesn’t want to be!” I replied, “I have my laptop and my essentials in this case. I don’t trust that BA won’t lose our luggage again!”
The woman weighed my case and then had a change of heart. “OK, you can carry it on” she said. Good! ☺
We proceeded through security without any problems, then made our way to “Bar 11” as we had a good hour and a half before our 09:35 flight. We procured a good seat so we could watch the aircraft arriving and departing, and we each enjoyed a cold pint of Guinness. I know it was not yet eight o’clock, but when you’re at an airport the usual rules of “is it too early for a drink?” don’t apply. ☺
Soon the departure board showed that all passengers for flight BA1327 were to make their way to Gate 2 for the flight to London Heathrow. We finished our drinks and fell into step with the crowds of people heading to their various departure gates.
On the aircraft we located our seats and found that, contrary to what the lady on the check-in desk had told us, there was ample room in the overhead lockers for the rucksack and my small suitcase. We settled in our seats and clicked our seatbelts shut, and waited for takeoff. As the aicraft taxied its way to the runway, we watched the usual safety demonstration, then the engines gained momentum and the aeroplane roared along the runway before taking to the skies. ☺
Shortly afterwards, cabin crew came around with a 250ml bottle of water and a small flapjack for everyone (BA really push the boat out!). We drank the water to try to stay hydrated (the flapjack was gone in two bites).
Presently, we noticed that the aircraft was losing height, and out of the window we spotted the London Eye, the Houses of Parliament and Buckingham Palace as the plane followed a holding pattern before it was our turn to land at T5, London Heathrow.
Soon we were on terra firma once again, and after taxiing around to our arrivals gate, we deplaned and hurried through the airport crowds towards the “Crown Rivers”, the JD Wetherspoon pub at T5. Trevor had a pint of Ruddles while I enjoyed a refreshing Aperol Spritz to get into the holiday mood. We got talking to a lone traveller at the next table, a guy who was Albanian by birth but had lived in Canada for several years. He told us he was on his way to visit relatives in Tirana. Trevor and I wondered how many hundreds of people we had crossed paths with, from many different nationalities, over the years. Ships that pass in the night.
After a while, the departure board announced that all passengers for the flight to Athens had to proceed to the departure gate, so once again we made our way to where we could see the Airbus A320 waiting on the tarmac for us. Again, there was no problem taking my case on board and there was plenty of room in the overhead locker. In fact, I saw several bags that were quite a lot larger than mine.
The scheduled flight time to Athens was three hours 55 minutes, so we wondered whether we would get a meal this time. Evidently not – it appeared that you only get complimentary meals on flights over four hours, otherwise you have to pay.
As we had only had the flapjack since breakfast, we were actually pretty hungry. We looked at the comestible offerings on the menu and each made our selections, as well as the drinks to accompany them. We could see that the refreshments trolley wasn’t too far away.
Just then, one of the stewardesses came over and said “I’m afraid our machine has stopped working and we can’t fix it, so we’re unable to sell you any drinks or meals.” (They don’t take cash). “WHAT?!” I exclaimed. “You expect us to sit through a four-hour flight without anything to eat or drink? That’s preposterous!”. The girl looked contrite. “We can offer you complimentary tea or coffee and a small snack.” “Never mind tea or coffee” I protested. “Bring me a glass of wine!”. “Oh, I’m sure we we can let you have some wine” she said. She went away and, a few minutes later, returned with a couple of 200ml bottles of Sauvignon Blanc and several packets of peanuts and other snacks. Once again, she apologised profusely. Slightly mollified, we settled back and devoured the snacks and quaffed the wine. When the stewardess saw that we’d finished our wine, she brought us another bottle each. Can’t say fairer than that! We thanked her for the way she had handled the situation. ☺
Around 6.00pm Greek time (4.00pm UK time) we noticed that our aircraft was on the final approach into Athens. Looking out of the aircraft window, we could see the arid, fairly mountainous land below us, interspersed with whitewashed houses.
The aircraft landed right on time at 6.30pm and we deplaned and made our way through immigration without any problem. Then it was off to the luggage carousel where our two suitcases arrived more or less straight away. Then we trundled them outside, where we could see the usual crowd of taxi or minibus drivers holding up boards with people’s names or holiday companies written on them. Spotting the “Newmarket Holidays” board we made a beeline for it, where a lady called Olga ticked our names off a list. Apparently there had only been seven people on this flight booked for this holiday; others had arrived on earlier flights. Consequently, it didn’t take long at all before all seven of us were all present and correct, and we all wheeled our suitcases outside to where a large mini-bus awaited us, the driver stashing all the luggage in the back.
It only took half an hour until we reached our city centre hotel, the Athaenium Smart Hotel, which was located on a busy, eight-lane road. We couldn’t wait to get inside and take a refreshing swim while relaxing with a cocktail.
We checked in and were allocated room 204. When we asked where the pool was, the person on the desk apologetically informed us that they did not have a swimming pool! What kind of hotel doesn’t have a swimming pool?!
We took the tiny lift to our room, then dumped our cases. We had been allocated room 204, which was a large but plainly-furnished “Travel Lodge” type room. We would be staying here for two nights, and we hung up any clothes that were likely to crease.
It was now after 8.30pm, so we decided to find a nearby restaurant and have something to eat, as we’d only really had nuts and crisps today.
We walked along the uneven pavement as the traffic thundered past us on the highway. We hadn’t gone too far before the spotted the bright façade of an Italian restaurant, with some tables and chairs and a menu board outside. Right next door to it was an authentic Greek restaurant called Masina. We briefly considered each place – do we enjoy some pasta or pizza, or do we go Greek and enjoy some meze or gyros or stifado? We decided on the latter – we are in Greece after all! 🙂
The restaurant was bright and cheerful and we were instantly welcomed and shown to a table for two. It must have been a popular place as it was doing a roaring trade; not only were most of the tables full but there were people coming and going to collect orders; obviously it was a takeaway as well.
Trevor ordered a large jacket potato with bacon and cheese, while I decided on a pork gyros wrap. We each ordered a cold pint of Mythos with which to wash it all down. The beer went down very well indeed. 🙂
The food was delicious and the portions were just the right size for this time of night. After we’d finished, the waiter brought us a complimentary dessert, which was slow-cooked quince in a sticky sauce. I gave my portion to Trevor as I found it too sweet.
Once we’d left the restaurant, we decided to look around and find a little tucked-away, dimly-lit bar, the type that the locals drink at. We knew we would be more likely to find something like that down a side street rather than on the main road.
We set off walking, enjoying the balmy evening air, as we turned the corner, walked a bit more, then turned another corner. Soon we saw some tables and chairs set out on a pavement, bathed in the light that spilled out of a nearby establishment. Some locals sat around drinking beer and smoking. As we entered the place, the proprietor said “We’ve stopped serving food now”. “That’s fine” we said. “We were after some drinks”.
Trevor ordered a large Alfa beer, and I asked the proprietor if they did wine. “I have some local rosé wine” he said. “I can sell you a litre for six euros!” While I wondered what kind of wine you could get for six euros a litre, I asked the bloke if I could just order a quarter of a litre carafe for now. As we took our seats at a table outside, the guy brought out the drinks as well as a dish of ready salted crisps. 🙂
I tentatively tasted the wine, which was a deep pink colour. At €1,50 for a 250ml glass it was very palatable indeed! 🙂
We sat there in that happy holiday feeling you always have at the beginning of another great trip. We enjoyed our drinks so much we ordered the same again. The whole bill came to under 10 euros! We knew we’d be coming back here tomorrow night! 🙂
After thanking the proprietor and saying goodnight, we set off back to the hotel and decided to go in the bar for a nightcap, as it was not yet 11.30pm. When we asked on the front desk where the bar was, we were informed that they didn’t have a bar! What kind of a hotel doesn’t have a bar?!
We therefore just headed upstairs to room 204, where we got washed and changed and into our jammies. We had to be up early in the morning, around 6.30am, as the coach was collecting us at eight o’clock to take us on our full day tour of Athens.
I read for a short while and Trevor used the TV remote to flick through all the channels to see if there were any interesting English-language programmes, but there were none, so we just decided to settle down for the evening. One thing we noticed was that the noise of the traffic coming from the eight-lane highway was quite loud, so earplugs were a must for a good night’s sleep.
After setting the alarm on my phone, we turned off the light and lay there in the darkness for a while before drifting off to sleep, looking forward to whatever tomorrow would bring.