Yesterday morning we flew to Greece at the very civilised hour of 10:30 am, landing at around 12:30. We passed through Athens airport very quickly - our luggage arrived at the carousel about a minute after we did - in fact, so quickly that we had to wait a long time for the arrival of the driver who was to take us to Rafina port. The drive from the airport to the port seemed to go only on minor roads, which was slightly unsettling. The flora of Greece is the same as in Israel, so we felt very much at home.
We arrived in Rafina slighly before 2pm, so our first task was to have lunch. There are several tavernas on the Rafina 'strip': our driver stopped outside one, seemingly at random, so we chose this one. After ordering red mullet, I slipped away to the ferry ticketing office where I exchanged my reservation for tickets - and paid €2 for the privilege of having the tickets printed. Lunch was a drawn out affair and tasty, although I doubt that we will be ordering red mullet again (there's not that much meat in a portion).
After waiting for a few hours in a shelter by the promenade, the time came to board the ferry. We were one of the first people on board; the luggage storeroom was empty, which seemed good at the time but was a minus when getting off. The lounges were empty, so we picked a very nice spot by the window to sit down.
After a while, the ferry set sail for Andros. The trip was very smooth, lasting two hours, At one stage I walked around the boat a little, filming. The view from the back of the boat was lovely, with the sun playing on the wake: I filmed this, but unfortunately the zoom control on the camera was out of control, so the result is useless.
I sensed a change of motion from the engines which signalled that we were slowing down and approaching Andros. One of the crew confirmed this for me. The boat then turned around slowly, so that the rear end would be facing the jetty on land. We docked after some time and those disembarking at Andros did so. We had some slight problems getting our suitcases out of the storeroom but nothing that time could not fix. We were probably the last people to disembark. Then cars and people started embarking - the ferry continues to Mikonos.
Now comes the low point of the day. I had naively assumed that waiting for us on the jetty would be a representative of the car hire company. No such luck. When this became clear, I checked the documents which I had printed in order to find details about the company, and saw that I hadn't printed this. Then I turned on my mobile phone; I had not attempted to use this as I didn't have a Greek provider. But I could access all the mails which had been sent to my Gmail account, including the correspondence with the car hire company. This said succinctly that they were near the jetty. I couldn't see their sign, so I walked to one end of the promenade then to the other end without finding them. Eventually I went into a cafe where someone told me where the office was: almost exactly opposite the jetty!!!
When I got to the office, it was closed, but fortunately the owner saw me from the street. When he opened the office, we discovered that there had been a mixup with the dates (what a surprise)! I had ordered the car from the morning of 17 May, not expecting originally to pick it up in the evening of 16 May.
After filling out the forms and paying, we had a quick lesson in the car, an orange Suzuki Ignis (a fellow worker has one of these, so I knew the car somewhat). Eventually we set off for our hotel, which is supposed to be about 2.5km from where we were. We found the hotel without too much difficulty.
From the little that we have seen, the hotel gets high marks for its appearance, cleanliness and functionality. We have - in common with all rooms - a balcony with a lovely sea view. Today will be devoted to getting to know our whereabouts. I presume that we will drive to Batsi, which is a town situated a few more kilometers south from where we are.
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