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A Long Day on the Road
For us, Nov 30th started at 5.00am Greek time (3.00am UK), enough time to eat, clear the rubbish, stack the car and be off by 6.00 to drive across Greece to Athens. The overnight thunderstorm, which had woken us occasionally, was still rumbling and we had to step carefully outside as the tiles on the terrace were awash with rain. I'll admit to more than a few prayers as Mick drove up the mountain road round hairpin bend after hairpin bend in pitch darkness, and I was much relieved when we reached more level ground and the odd streetlight.
In the beginnings of dawn light, the road started to level out and suddenly we were out of the storm, out of the rain and joining the motorway. Fog kept us slow for a time, but we had left it behind by the time we saw the first service station. Breakfast food and drinks were available, but no chairs or tables provided, inside or out, so we took our latte and hot chocolate back to the car, where we had sandwiches made from the last of the bread and cheese and a few pieces of fruit.
Greece has both a lockdown and a curfew. We were reminded frequently by public information boards that we must have permission to travel during the curfew. Mick had painstakingly prepared a letter of explanation for our journey - in Greek! - but nobody ever asked to see it. Curfew and lockdown had swept away the traffic, so we zoomed across Greece on a pleasant, if cool, day without seeing more than a handful of other vehicles.
The Manager of the car-hire firm told us that they were doing very little business so he would come in specially to meet us, check the car and drive us over to the airport. No problems there, so we found ourselves at the airport in very good time, so early that Air France had not yet opened its check-in desks! When we booked, we paid (quite a lot) for only one bag to go in the hold, but at check-in they were keen to take all our bags at no extra cost. We didn't put up much resistance!
We dozed through the 3 hour flight to Paris, but woke at the right moment for cheese sandwiches and red wine/G & T. Plane less than half-full, Charles de Gaulle airport well-nigh deserted. Cafes, buffets and even Starbucks were closed, but the Relay mini-supermarket, familiar from many stations, garages and side streets, provided a variety of made-up snacks or dishes plus a microwave to heat them up. Hot choc on the menu but not available so Mick had to stick to water.
The whisky shop included a litre of very decent Talisker for around £50 so we decided to indulge ourselves.
Not so many people on the flight to Manchester, few other flights landing, airport largely empty. The passport machine wouldn't recognise my face in the photo, even when I took my mask off, so I had to wait in a queue for a few minutes to see a human being. Then out into the cold Northern English night to meet Mick's son Dan, who drove us home. We arrived about 11.30pm, some 20 hours after we woke up in Stoupa.
It's Wednesday afternoon 2nd Dec now, so I am almost functioning and remembering our lovely relaxing holiday in a place which has yet to have its first Covid case. It is already becoming a dream.
In the beginnings of dawn light, the road started to level out and suddenly we were out of the storm, out of the rain and joining the motorway. Fog kept us slow for a time, but we had left it behind by the time we saw the first service station. Breakfast food and drinks were available, but no chairs or tables provided, inside or out, so we took our latte and hot chocolate back to the car, where we had sandwiches made from the last of the bread and cheese and a few pieces of fruit.
Greece has both a lockdown and a curfew. We were reminded frequently by public information boards that we must have permission to travel during the curfew. Mick had painstakingly prepared a letter of explanation for our journey - in Greek! - but nobody ever asked to see it. Curfew and lockdown had swept away the traffic, so we zoomed across Greece on a pleasant, if cool, day without seeing more than a handful of other vehicles.
The Manager of the car-hire firm told us that they were doing very little business so he would come in specially to meet us, check the car and drive us over to the airport. No problems there, so we found ourselves at the airport in very good time, so early that Air France had not yet opened its check-in desks! When we booked, we paid (quite a lot) for only one bag to go in the hold, but at check-in they were keen to take all our bags at no extra cost. We didn't put up much resistance!
We dozed through the 3 hour flight to Paris, but woke at the right moment for cheese sandwiches and red wine/G & T. Plane less than half-full, Charles de Gaulle airport well-nigh deserted. Cafes, buffets and even Starbucks were closed, but the Relay mini-supermarket, familiar from many stations, garages and side streets, provided a variety of made-up snacks or dishes plus a microwave to heat them up. Hot choc on the menu but not available so Mick had to stick to water.
The whisky shop included a litre of very decent Talisker for around £50 so we decided to indulge ourselves.
Not so many people on the flight to Manchester, few other flights landing, airport largely empty. The passport machine wouldn't recognise my face in the photo, even when I took my mask off, so I had to wait in a queue for a few minutes to see a human being. Then out into the cold Northern English night to meet Mick's son Dan, who drove us home. We arrived about 11.30pm, some 20 hours after we woke up in Stoupa.
It's Wednesday afternoon 2nd Dec now, so I am almost functioning and remembering our lovely relaxing holiday in a place which has yet to have its first Covid case. It is already becoming a dream.