We had a very slow morning, a long breakfast, took in the last of the view, pack, checkout and wait for our ride to the airport. We couldn’t get a late checkout, so we waited in reception from 11am for our 12:30pm ride.
Our last mornings view of the caldera, Santorini.
Our transfer was there at about 12:25pm and we were at the airport around 1pm.
Apparently in 2019 the airport capacity grew dramatically, and since then has been able to serve up to nine planes at the same time. Its proving popular! There was a reasonable queue for check-in. But the airline, Aegean kept opening counters and the queue moved quickly.
We boarded our flight at about 2:45pm and were taxi-ing out at about 3:20pm, a slight delay due to Athens air space being busy. Our flight is full, bulging with carry-on.
We both donned masks and used our nasal spray, so many people coughing! Only a few of them have masks on or contain their cough.
Our flight landed at 3:55pm, we got off and caught the bus to the terminal, and then it took an eon for our bags to come through. An American near me counted an unclaimed bag go round 17 times before ours came out.
We were out of Athens Airport and in our hotel lobby at 5pm. We have a room on the 5th floor overlooking the airport.
The runway view from our hotel room, sorry for the poor photo.
We can watch planes taking off and landing without any of the noise. We had dinner in the hotel, and then had an early night. We have an early start tomorrow, and are happy breakfast in the hotel starts from 5am! Our flight is due to leave at 8:40, so 6:40 is check in. Our flight is due to leave at 8:40am, so 6:40am is check in.
As always, well lately, when we leave a country we have visited for the first time we try to put our thoughts and feelings down in the written word. Here are our thoughts and feelings of Greece.
Patriarchy is alive and well. The males seem to have the better, easier, better paying jobs 😔
The people are friendly and relaxed. And are wonderful hosts.
They have great produce and make very yummy food. It was easy to eat healthy here. Servings are always very generous in the Tavernas. We mostly shared a Greek salad and main, and should have always left some, but it was too good to leave! If you want to eat the local Greek food, head to the Tavernas
You don’t flush anything down the toilet other than W&P put the rest in the bin. That takes some getting used to. Apparently it clogs up the pipework, I figure that good quality toilet paper would breakdown easier than number 2’s, but as they say, when in Greece “Don’t flush it”
Usually humid in the day, then a cool breeze at night
No traffic lights on the islands, the exception being in Naxos for the road that crosses the end of the runway.
Lots of cats, the healthiest were on Santorini. Not many dogs.
We didn’t really have a favourite island they were all lovely.
If we come again to Greece, we thought we may try Crete, we have heard many good things about it.
Can’t drink the water here, our hotels provided enough water each day for us except on Naxos where we bought extra.
The quality of roads and infrastructure are poor. Reminded us of Scotland.
Athens & Naxos €4/night tax for hotel, in Milos €3/night and Santorini no tax
This is extra to what has been paid if you have prepaid your accommodation.
A young guy from Melbourne that we met at our hotel in Santorini, Alex, said he works 7 days a week 7-4pm gets 2 days off a month.
Final word, you need to bring a healthy amount of patience with you to Greece, nothing is done in a hurry. But surprisingly other than one ferry that was 50 minutes late and our luggage just now in Athens, everything and everyone else was on time.
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