Shortly after my announcement blog, the taxi came to take us to the airport. I had aleady performed a check-in that gave us boarding cards, but I (and many others) also had to use the automatic check-in machine to print luggage tags. What we didn't know was that the machine would only allow one to check in at a maximum of three hours before the flight, and we got there too early. So we had to hang around for 20 minutes before the machine would print the tags. What was the advantage in this? The queue to hand over our suitcase was much smaller and hence much faster. But once we had handed over the suitcase, we were like everyone else.
The flight with El Al was fine - this was probably a jumbo as there were ten seats per row and there were many rows. The flight took just over two hours, and we were served with a hot cheese and omelette sandwich - very tasty. Once we touched down at Athens airport we had to walk a fair amount before we came to passport control. The staff were prepared to recognise our British passports as EU passports, so we didn't have to wait at all in order to have our passports checked. The luggage didn't take long to come out, and very shortly after we had passed through the minimal customs and we were out of the airport.
In a similar manner to Malpensa airport (Milan), we had to walk a certain amount in order to get to the metro station. There was a train waiting for us to take us to Piraeus port, and like the train from Malpensa, it was at first packed. But many people got out at Syntagma Square and Monastiraki (about 100 metres from where we stayed in Athens1 last time) so then we could get seats. The train delivered us to Piraeus port.
I looked at our tickets (also printed after a web check-in the previous day) and saw that our ferry would leave from wharf E9. This turned out to be quite a long way from where the train station was, probably the furthest wharf of all. We wanted to leave time to be sure that we would arrive at the fery stop on time, so I booked seats on the 13:00 ferry; we were there at about 11:30 and had to wait for an hour. Eventually our ferry came, we embarked, found our seats and had a comfortable ride for an hour and 10 minutes.So far so good.
We had booked our stay in a large flat (more of that later) that apparently was near if not on the seaside promenade, but it wasn't clear how exactly we would get to the flat. We knew that it was very close to where the ferry drops its passengers. While we were on the train to Piraeus I saw that we had a message from our landlady saying that she couldn't meet us but would leave the key in the ferry office. Where was the ferry office? I walked a certain distance one way on the promenade and a certain distance the other way and couldn't find the office (shades of when we arrived in Andros). Then I noticed that behind where my wife was waiting in the shade was the office I was looking for! At first they didn't know what I was talking about but then they saw the key and gave it to me. How do we get to the flat? Go pass the cafe on the left then take the steps. ... these steps are very steep and very hard to walk up with the suitcases.
Eventually I got everything to the top ... but where is the flat? I could hear voices coming from the first door by the steps so obviously it wasn't there. I idly tried to put the key in the lock of the second door - and it fit! So I knew that this was the correct place.
After recovering from all the walking and lifting, I went out in search of a supermarket. I had an idea of where it was, but it turned to be wrong. Someone gave me instructions: go down to the promenade and walk 500 metres to the right. So I did this and found the supermarket - except that it seemed to sell only toiletries and cleaning materials.With a heavy heart, I started walking back to our flat, but decided to stop at an ice cream parlour where they sold (amongst other flavours) a gorgeous after eight mint chocolate ice cream! So of course I stopped and had a portion; whilst I was eating it, I asked the server about the supermarket. He said that the supermarket was split into two: I had gone into one half, but a bit further on was the other half that sold only food. So I bought milk, eggs, bread and a few other items - enough for tonight and tomorrow. I don't want to visit there every day (it is about 1,000 steps from the flat) but obviously another visit is called for.
It is now 18:30 and I am worn out; my feet hurt and my face is hot from all the sun. Tomorrow is another day.
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