The Air New Zealand lounge at Sydney airport was the offering for this flight. There was a nice selection of foods.

The flight was not full so musical chairs was the order of the day. I moved to the row in front of me so I had a row to myself but the hand rails couldn’t be raised. It was ok though as I could spread out and had access to extra pillows and blankets.

Doha airport is very big and we were bussed to the C section of the airport where I navigated to find the lounge to while away the next couple of hours.

We boarded the plane at Doha and it was full. The plane was very ‘foggy’ until we took off because of the humidity.

We arrived in a wet and windy Athens. It took me about 2 minutes to exit passport control as an EU member, the non EU line was enormous (smug) and my bag was already on the carousel so from disembarking the plane to getting my Uber took about 20 minutes. I easily withdrew some Euros at an ATM still in the airport. Uber here operate as taxis. I booked through Uber App and there is an Uber meeting point outside exit 4 of arrivals. My trip cost 53 euros and took about 40 minutes to get the the Hotel Plaka. The roads are great and there was very little traffic.

I love Euro radio stations as The Cure ‘Love Song’, Duran Duran’s ‘Come Undone’ and Supertramp’s Logical Song were played as we drive to Plaka.

It was too early to check in so Hotel Plaka stored my luggage and recommended Ergonhouse, about 5 minutes walk down the road for coffee and a bite to eat.

I then started to walk around streets and kept the Acropolis as a point of reference. It looms large above the city. It was obviously part of the tourist area as I saw groups being led around and I felt safe. I ended up walking down this lovely marble based wide street that went past the Acropolis Museum and the actual Acropolis.

Time for sleep

I noticed that the Hop on and Hop off Bus tour departed from this point so I bought a ticket because I had quite a few hours to fill in before I could get into my room at the hotel.

After the Athens bus tour I joined the Athens Riviera tour.

I was challenged by the fact that my iPhone died before the end of this tour. I didn’t even think to take my portable powerbank on the day.

But I found my way amazingly by keeping the Acropolis as a reference point. And just when I thought I needed to ask someone, I found myself near the Ergon House where I had breakfast! My room was on the 6th floor and when I opened the curtains, there was the Acropolis and Parthenon… wow! Didn’t expect that.

6pm we had a meeting of the small group for our Inspiring Vacations Greece tour. Mainly older people but we do have a young couple as well. There are 13 of us plus our guide. Communication is good through a Whatsapp group plus signage in the foyer.

It was so special to sit in my room for the evening and watch the sky change colour over the ancient ruins! I needed to sleep to readjust my time clock. The ruins were being lit up for the evening. I woke up in the middle of the night thinking someone had left a light on, only to realise that it was the lights of the ruins because I kept my blinds open.

 

Time for sleep. Kalinýchta