Today is a travel day. After a very pleasant breakfast on Santorini and a checkout process where we get comped some our beverages from the past couple of days and where Jeorgia is given some small gifts, we are off to the airport. The driver regales us with a history of the island as we find ourselves in the less glamorous parts of the island - the flat land where the airport is located. As we enter the “recently renovated” terminal we find a sea of humanity and airlines we’ve never heard of. Only 6 gates but SO MANY people.
We take a flight delay and fret over what is already a tight connection to London once we get to Athens. We finally are ‘boarded’ at the gate only to find ourselves in a death march to a bus to take us to the plane. We witness the good (helping a single mom with a stroller navigate getting on and off the bus) and the bad (some tourists acting very entitled). The plane takes off somewhat late but not as late as feared.
Once in Athens we are treated to yet another bus ride. We are taken to a section of the terminal where we have to go through the whole customs, immigration, and security drill again because we are leaving the EU - Brexit is not our friend at the moment! Our perceived concern about being late for the flight leads us to bypass the hoped for duty reclamation process. We arrive at the gate only to find that, yes, it was the very same gate at which we had just landed on the flight from Santorini. It is half an hour late in the boarding process and we actually push back half an hour late due to some “problems over Germany” - hey, the last time there were problems over or “with” Germany things got messy . . . .
I am seated next to Greek woman on the way to visit her two sons who reside in London - she is ordering copious amounts of alcohol and sharing some wine she extorted from the fight attendants. She is fun and after 15 minutes I think I know more about her life than I know about my own. Fun fact, she shares a birthday (not year) with my mother - May 17. Oh, and her name is Oxana - her English is quite good due, in no small part, to having lived in Texas for a number of years - a place where I understand English is occasionally spoken when Texan is not. Another fun fact she owns some land on the same Greek island where Tom Hanks has built a house - I guess that makes them neighbors.
After some alpine induced turbulence we finally arrive at Heathrow somewhat late but at lease we had an extended baggage claim process to compensate us . . . Oh, and a traffic clogged taxi ride into London where we learn of the “planned” rail strike on Saturday and United’s strong recommendation to get to the airport 4 hours early. Heathrow in June - what more could you hope for?
We arrive at the hotel and make an executive decision to drop the theater plans we had in favor of some pub hopping and a casual dinner. On the way, we are able to stop by a location we were unable to view on our visit a couple of weeks ago:
Our first stop is a pub not far from the palace - Jeorgia enjoys a Swedish cider. Our second stop was the Brass Monkey - bags of potato chips, tequila shots and a playlist Jeorgia appreciated - win! We end the evening with a casual dinner at a Giraffe restaurant - a socially conscious restaurant chain with an eclectic menu - totally serviceable! We grab a taxi back to the hotel and decide to call it a day.
Grandma and J with gorilla friend at the Brass Monkey.