Oh what a morning. Waking up in London, cool crisp air and a beautiful day, cloudy, but nice. Coffee, some fruit and packing. Making sure we can get what we need in the right places at the right time and and bags the right weight as well.
Our experience with the transportation from Gatwick Airport to the flat in London was not the best. An hour ride was over two hours and the driver was very disconnected.
We have the same service picking us up. Our fingers were crossed.
He came, he was great and the trip was an hour this time. We were also sweating the timing of our flight. It seems that at 9:01 p.m. Today the air traffic controllers, in Athens, are going on strike. Flights that get in after 9:01 are being canceled. We arrive in Athens at 8:20 p.m. So I think we are going to be just fine. We are in the air anyway. We may end up landing in Italy, who knows. But we’re on our way.
Our other option was to leave this morning and take two trains and a ferry. That takes about 24 hours. But the trip would have been beautiful. Through Germany, Switzerland, France and an overnight ferry ride. So there was no down side to our plan B.
So for now, we fly. Thoughts of everyone at home. Today is my daughter Nadines Birthday. She’s doing so well and we are so proud of her. Happy Birthday sweetheart. We’ll sing to you when we find a WiFi connection that works. Pat and Katie at home. We are wishing that they were here, but life happens and they had to cancel. We miss you. Also Judy that couldn’t make it with us too. We know that you’d be having a ball and laughing a lot as we are. Wish you were here.
In any case, I’ll finish this up when we get checked in later tonight or first thing in the morning. Now time for a quick nap…
So after disembarking the plane and anticipating a long wait in customs, we ran across a little shack that said, “Passport Check.” We showed our passports to the guy, he scanned ’em and that was that. We were in Greece. That was that. A simple process with a friendly face.
Our driver was waiting for us. He was a big guy named Johnny. He grabbed our stuff and we walked with a slight run really to keep up with him. He loaded all of our stuff and we were off to the the Piraeus City Hotel. What a great ride. We know know a lot about what’s going on locally and a lot about his family. This is the guy you want to meet in a new place in the world. Thank you Johnny. We appreciate you a lot.
Piraeus is a great city. It’s like all the pictures of Greece. Duh!
So once checked in, we were hungry and it was a little before 11, the roof top restaurant here at the hotel was open. We took the elevator, that only fits two people, got a table and had our first Greek meal. Wonderful it was. Now off to bed.
Tomorrow is a laid back day. No tours booked and a new city to explore. This adventure is going just fine…
Capt. Paul
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Ramblings: CellGrasp Photography, Sailing Magic & Ukuleles' 