Day 1. To Greece

May 9-10. On the plane.
7PM by Mike’s watch. Which means we’re only a short way out—according to the info on the screen we’re past St. Jean and are over the Atlantic. 3852 km distance from Dulles, going 626 mph @ 38,000 ft. The outside temp is -49c

4 more hours to destination. 5:38 to land. Flight is full—or short by 2 or 3 seats. Already had dinner—not the best but a lot of it! And they serve these cute mini baguettes and no extra $ for wine!

I already watched a movie—Last Chance Harvey with Emma Thomson and Dustin Hoffman. Not bad. Then got up and walked to back of plane to stretch and use lav. The cabin lights are off. Guess I should sleep.


May 10
Arrival—Athini—Glyfada
Got luggage. Kept expecting to go through something to get passport stamped but realized we were coming from an EU country (France)—so no stamp for getting into Greece! Oh well—

So first—landed @ CDG airport and headed for terminal with D2 gates, as instructed—round and round and up and down and then smack into a crowd waiting to go through for passport check! Argh! Then this guy (an official type) yells out “D2 follow me” so we do, and finally end up in another line with no indication it will lead us to D2 but we get in line and work our way to guy in booth who stamps passports and we go through and down stairs and finally see more official looking people and a sign with an arrow and follow it and finally find our gate!! Just in time. Not crowded at all except our row which has all three seats taken. Finally they close the cabin doors so Mike moves across aisle and I move over.

I bought a new copy of Lily and the Lost Boy by Paula Fox, and have been reading it. It’s great easy-reading for the plane. (It's about a young girl living on a Greek island with her family.) So on our approach to Athens, I’m feeling like I don’t recognize anything and find out later that this is not the same Athens airport we landed at in 1988! A little disappointing, but it also means an easier entrace…e.g. no lost luggage!

We had e-mailed back and forth with "the relatives" and Lilly, who is the wife of Laki Andrianopoulos, is going to meet us at the airport. She and Laki have already met Elena when she came through Athens in February and also when Elena was there during Spring break. Just before we left, we made reservations on-line at a hotel in Glyfada which is where they live.

So after getting bags, you go through these doors where people are waiting for family etc on other side---also people standing with signs, e.g. “SESMA”. Mike bought a phone card and I call Lilly who is 5 minutes out! I tell her we are sitting in front of the HERTZ counter. I went to get H2O and she finds Mike easily because he’s wearing a Nats cap!

After we get our rental car, we follow Lilly home to Glyfada. Glyfada (or Glyphada) is an Athens suburb, about 20 minutes from Athens. They call it the Greek Riviera. She feeds us an amazing lunch and then leads us to the hotel where we check in and rest. The hotel is called “John’s Hotel” and is nice enough but already Lilly is saying she’ll find us a better and cheaper place to stay. She puts people who visit their office at a Best Western that is on the main drag, facing the water.

["Light Lunch" courtesy of Lilly Kotsonis Andreanopolis. ]








After we rest a little, we go to airport to get Elena who is arriving from Rhodes with all of her luggage and things she has collected since February. Then we came back to hotel. Our room is tiny. Three twin beds with about an inch between.

I wish I could describe the hotel. Every time we walk through the lobby, there's old Greek men sitting, watching soccer, smoking. There's supposed to be a restaurant, but we couldn't figure out how to get served, so we decide to go out walking to find dinner and walk up to the other main drag of Glyfada where the shops and restaurants are located. We stopped to eat at a place with tables outside. We ate “light” again---salad, pork and chicken souvlaki, gyro pita, grilled veggies.

We walked back to hotel and tried to get on internet for awhile. Enough to check mail and update Facebook. Then sleep.

[The view from our room. A little noisy in the morning. But we are happy to see water!
The photos on the hotel web site look alot nicer than the reality. http://www.johnsathens.com]