The Traveling Martens

Not again- almost stuck in London!

We got to London Heathrow plenty early to catch our Hellas Jet flight to Athens. With all the extra time, we went to a French cafe in the airport to play cards and drink wine. Relaxed and ready to go, we followed the sign to the Hellas Jet check-in and waited around for someone to show up. Not seeing anyone about an hour and a half before our flight we started asking around, and found out that Hellas Jet, our airline, had gone bankrupt during our trip! Amazingly, this was the second time this has happened to us, in 2001, our airline went bankrupt on just a 5 day trip to Amsterdam. No worries though, British Airways picked up our flight in Amsterdam, and Olympic Airlines, the Greek national airline issued us new tickets this time. Racing on foot over to the Olympic terminal, we checked in to our new flight, leaving London at 10 pm and getting into Athens at 4 am. No problems with the flight, and we arrived at the new Athens airport which was built for their recent Olympics. The new airport is amazing and was super nice. We crashed on the floor and did a crossword puzzle while waiting for our 6 am flight to Santorini. On take-off, we lifted up over Athens and the hilly surroundings and immediately headed out over the water. It was only a half-hour flight, but we flew over numerous islands on our way to Santorini. It was cloudy and still dark when we left Athens, but we saw the sunrise peaking through the clouds during our flight. Santorini's small airport is on the opposite side of the island from the cliffs, but it was still hilly, so the small plane flew right above the water, and then banked hard and landed between hills at the last second. We walked down the steps from the plane onto the runway and walked to the small terminal. It was a cool, crisp morning and our hotel owner (who looks distinctly like a Greek Elvis) met us in front and took us the short drive to the hotel. We went to our room and took a much-needed nap.

posted by Mel and Stacy Marten @ 6:25 AM