The alarm sounds at 7:00am because our flight leaves at 10:50. It's Saturday morning, we step out of the hotel and notice how quiet it is compared to last night as we pull our roller bags down the street toward the Opera Metro station - seeing only a few people along the way. To get to the airport we take the red line to Cuatio Camincs, then switch to the grey #6 circle. At Nuevos Ministerios jump off and catch the #8 light purple to Aeropuerto T4. All goes as planned and now we navigate the airport. With a little help from the clerk at the kiosk we have our boarding passes in hand and have 30 minutes before boarding so we follow the signs to the AENA VIP lounge for free food. We shovel in some breakfast items and load an additional two salami sandwiches and snack mix into our bag for the flight. Our gate is K76 and they are already loading the plane when we get there - great timing! We get in, stow our carry on bags and are on the way to Greece - yeah!
In Athens we wheel our way out of the terminal. It still seems odd that they don't check our passport - Spain and Greece are within Schengen so it is not required but it seems weird to us anyway. We make our way to the bus area hoping to find the Holiday Inn shuttle. It starts to rain - Dave looks to the right and sees the Holiday Inn logo on a van about to drive away. We run out and luckily get on board. The van is full so Dave sits in front and talks to the driver who asks of our plans and offers a lot of his own travel information. He confirms that our trip to Santorini and then to Milos is scheduled just right. He says Milos is the best place to go. He and Dave talk about other places like Montengro which he also likes and he recommends Croatia and Cypress.
Check-in is a breeze so we drop our bags and go down to the bar with computer in tow. Beer gas is required to fuel our blog work. Spain was beautiful and we have not set aside enough time to post on a daily basis so we are now 4 or 5 days out. Monique edited the text for two days on the plane so now we will review and select the photos. We order food but strike up a conversation with a couple from Atlanta that just returned from Milos. They help us with lists of must do's which we really appreciate. It’s fun to swap travel stories but we talk way too long. Time to head to our room. We pack up and another couple asks us about the power cube we use for charging our devices. It turns out they are from West Allis, Wisconsin. They are on their honeymoon and are heading to Italy and Spain. Small world, right?
Back to the room for focus and wine. In the airport we bought a bottle of wine with a screw-off cap - not a cork. Every time we fly we have to ditch the corkscrews we buy - a small sacrifice. We review more photos, Monique posts them and creates the captions. Dave is writing the highlights of the day which he has kept up to date. Good thing because it is much easier to write the day's events when it is fresh.
It’s Dave's birthday tomorrow. The van to the airport leaves at 7:30 tomorrow morning for our 9:00am flight to the island of Santorini which is only about 45 minutes long so we will begin the party before noon. The island awaits and we are excited to see the new world.
We are leaving Hotel Moderno as the sun is starting to poke out over the buildings - it’s very peaceful - a sharp contrast from last night.
The eastern coast of Spain - good flying weather.
The western coast of Greece - Yassas!
Our lovely hotel in Athens - a low rate and free airport shuttle make the decision to stay here easy.