17 – 18 May 2023. Adelaide – Melbourne – Abu Dhabi – Athens

Deb was up early, silly early, she will sleep well on the flight.

I took Louis for a couple of walks around Veale Gardens, giving him a last sniff of familiar places before his holiday with Elise, Randal and Winter in Burnside. I dropped him off at 11am and waited a bit for him to calm, a bit! Elise had everything in control so I headed home to finish packing and helped do the last things you do before you leave your place for 8 weeks. It was strange leaving Louis, knowing he won’t be with us for such a long time. This is why Deb didn’t/doesn’t do the drop offs when we go away and leave him with Sitters.

We got an Uber to the airport and checked in. That’s when the person checking us in found that there was a slight issue with Deb’s passport. It looks like at some point in the past a portion of a visa stamp got transferred onto the main page of her passport, we think in China, which was a few holidays ago!! They decided it wasn’t an issue as we weren’t going to Bali or other countries with a person to person immigration. (Apparently they are very officious in Indonesia).

Anyway, we got all checked baggage going through to Athens and we have all our boarding passes. Next stop was the Virgin Lounge, it was strange turning left and heading away from the Qantas end of the terminal! Our first time in the Virgin Lounge, it’s a new lounge at Adelaide, very spacious but minimalistic. To my disappointment they don’t service spirits in the lounge. My customary Bourbon and Coke will have to wait until Melbourne.

Boarding at 2:15pm., we pushed out at 2:45pm and we are away. Melbourne is 1:01hrs away.

This trip, because of all the news of lost baggage etc, we have put Apple AirTags in our main bags and backpacks. Deb is amused by these, tracking the location of our luggage, (and she tells me, later in the trip). One bag was very late being loaded in Adelaide and another didn’t make the flight from Melbourne to Abu Dhabi which raised her stress levels! Fortunately the bag appeared in Abu Dhabi!! Hopefully this OCD will pass as we progress. 🤣

5pm and we have reached the Etihad Lounge in Melbourne, it’s not well sign posted. Bourbon and Coke by 5:05pm, it’s now official, we are on holiday! 🙈🍻

We had dinner off their a la carte menu, cheese risotto followed by a panacotta , much better than buffet dining.

Boarded our flight at around 8:20pm, its a Boeing B777-300, the business cabin is full. First impressions are not that good. The seats are smaller than others, and firm. The cabin feels jam packed. The entertainment system offerings are conducive to sleeping, not a lot of interest there. Lucky I downloaded some Netflix movies and Deb always reads.

In the air at 9 :15pm, a 14hr flight ahead of us to Abu Dhabi. There’s the odd person coughing, but nothing too spicy so far. It’s funny how you listen to coughing in a whole different way since Covid-19.

I got around 5 to 6hrs sleep on the first leg, Deb got around 6-7hrs. The food on board has been good, I can recommend the Lamb pie. To kill time I watched a couple of movies and listened to an audio book, Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis.

We landed in Abu Dhabi at around 5am, it ONLY took 13.5hrs and 11,790km. Temperature in Abu Dhabi was 29C, when we took off it was around 40C.
In the lounge in Abu Dhabi, Deb told me she was “a bit concerned” that the Airtags hadn’t logged her bag onto our flight. A quick check here and she breathed a sign of relief, all bags accounted for in the UAE. OCD present and correct. 🙈

Coming into Abu Dhabi 5am

You know you’re in Abu Dhabi at this time of the year when the advertising features unmissable Ramadan Popup clothes shops and Michelin-starred Iftar. I love these things about travel. And the departure board destinations are so exotic compared to home, with flights to Cairo, Dhaka, Muscat, Medina, etc

Our flight from Abu Dhabi to Athens was OK. As with our flight to Abu Dhabi the plane and facilities were ordinary, but the staff were excellent.

We touched down in Athens around 1:30pm, breezed through immigration, no customs to go through, found our ride Into town and were in our hotel room by about 3pm. After unpacking a little and getting things sorted a bit we were good to go. It was time to chill at the rooftop bar in our hotel. Sitting outside with a G&T for Deb and a local lager for me, we sat back and had a cheers to being in Athens and looking up at The Acropolis. We spend time up at it tomorrow, but this afternoon it was great to be able to sit back and relax looking at one of the great historical buildings of the world. We decided to get some bar food for dinner. We finished up ordering a platter of Greek cheeses and cold meat cuts with cranberries. It was delicious and just enough for us.

A quiet early night for us today. Deb worked it out, this was the longest “day” of travel we have done since our arduous trip from Rio to home!
Our exploration begins tomorrow.