Athens, Greece - A World Away

We're here - Athens, Greece - a world away from Columbus, Ohio and, arguably, the most arduous flight experience since 1998 and going to China.  The first two segments were simple:  Columbus to Washington Dulles, then DC to Montreal, Canada.  Here it got a little more difficult as we had to navigate the large Montreal airport to baggage claim to learn that our luggage (we thought we had to pick up and re-check) was actually transferred automatically for an international flight.

It isn't often that my recent past health history catches up with me, but on this day it did.  I was simply worn out by the time we got it all sorted out and navigated our way to our new gate.  I did manage, with the help of Melatonin, to crash out for five hours in a wonderful first class seat on the 8 hour flight from Montreal to Athens, and was feeling somewhat refreshed by the time we landed at 10 a.m. in Athens (7 hours ahead of Columbus, Ohio).

We found the Viking representatives from the cruise line right away at the airport and they are very well organized.  Our luggage was handled promptly and we took a one-hour ride from the airport to the port in Athens.  My initial impressions of Athens weren't glowing . . . lots of traffic and even more graffiti everywhere.  I'll reserve judgement until tomorrow when we take our first excursion.

Cheryl didn't sleep as well as I did on the airplane, so our first activity once we unpacked was to sack out for about 3.5 hours in our room.  We arose in time to hear a wonderful welcome lecture by a Cal professor of Greek Studies.  And, we followed this with a lovely dinner where we had the good fortune to sit next to a wonderful couple (Gary and Kim) from California.  Turns out he has ownership in the Reds and spent several years in Bexley so we had a lot to talk about.

Glad we're here - the airplane part is the hardest and getting harder by the year.  I can see why our dear friends ML and Ray have sworn off international travel.  But, expecting to be immersed in one of the great civilizations ever starting tomorrow.  

Comments

  1. MarianSeptember 14, 2024 at 8:32 PM

    Finally getting to catch up on your trip! We hate flying more and more as we age.

    ReplyDelete

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