Athens (Piraeus), Greece – Saturday, December 18

Day 1: Upon the arrival of your flight into Athens, you will be met by a Viking representative and transferred to your first-class hotel. After check-in, the remainder of the day is yours to enjoy at your leisure. Your Viking Tour Director is available to help you plan your time in Athens so you can make the most of your visit.

The flight leaving JFK was late leaving due to one a passenger’s bag making the flight without the passenger. It took a while to find the bag in the cargo area, which delayed us about 45 minutes. We had a short connection time to make our flight from London Heathrow to Athens, which of course made Joyce nervous. While waiting to board, we received an email that beginning Sunday, Dec. 19^th, all people entering Greece were required to have a COVID-19 PCR test within 48 hours of arrival. Since we were arriving on Saturday, Dec. 18^th, we wouldn’t need that, unless we missed the flight and couldn’t get a new flight until the next day….. More prayers winged their way to the Father, both for His intervention and that Joyce would trust whatever He ordained.(FYI – Joyce was doing the praying, Alan may have been also!) As usual, Joyce was concerned without reason as some time was made up in the air and we easily made the flight.

By now we have been traveling at least 18 hours and are on our 3^rd leg. Both Alan & Joyce were ready for this part of the trip to be finished. This leg had several children on the flight. One small boy enthusiastically talked to his dad almost nonstop, much to his father’s chagrin. Joyce had to smile, behind her mask, as the young girl across the aisle enthusiastically called to the flight attendant to show her a picture she drew of her and to let her know she had more “rubbish”. This flight was late leaving because, 1^st, the cargo hold door was still open so we lost our place in line to depart, 2^nd the French traffic controllers were staging a walkout to protest right before Christmas, so our pilot requested a route from London to Athens that did not go through French airspace. Anyway, finally we were on our way. This flight had a bit more turbulence but landed without incident.

Finally – Greek customs. Joyce geared herself up for waiting in long lines while very tired, answering the same questions, producing the same documents, etc. We were warned on the plane that passengers would be randomly selected for COVID-19 testing. Well, blessedly, our bags were on the belt when we arrived at baggage claim, the customs lines were very short, the customs agent stamped our passports and handed them back and we were through. We did get selected for COVID-19 testing, but only one of us had to do it and it was very quick. We exited the terminal, very glad to see the young man holding a sign with the Viking logo and our names.

Our driver was a taxi driver that contracts with Viking. He was very personable, sharing information about Greece, pointing out areas of interest and answering our questions. It was an enjoyable ride to our hotel, Athenaeum Intercontinental Athens. We will be here for the next 4 days on the Classic Greece pre-extension before boarding the cruise ship on Dec. 22.

We were met at the hotel by Tara, our Viking extension director. She helped us check in, gave us information about tomorrow’s agenda and answered our questions. She also recommended a restaurant with classic, not fancy Greek food, steps from the hotel.  This is exactly the ‘like mom makes’ food our taxi driver had recommended on our trip from the airport.

We returned to our room, showered and took about an hour nap. We then set out for Vassilis Grill House and Tavern. It was just the kind of place we like to visit – small, locally owned, a place where locals also eat. We ordered chicken gyros, which were excellent, very different from what we get in the US. This was pieces of spiced chicken, not cut off a spit. It was served with wedges of pita bread, tomatoes, sliced onion, Tzatziki sauce and Greek spiced French fries. Very tasty! When we asked for our check, the server returned with the check and two small Mandarin type oranges, the stem & leaves still attached. She told us the oranges were purchased today at a local market. These oranges were so very flavorful and juicy! The perfect end to our meal!

We returned to the hotel for Alan to monitor the Purdue/Butler basketball game while working on getting set up and Joyce to blog in order to stay awake until around 9 pm, so we can get our bodies on Greek time. We start touring tomorrow at 7:45 am!