Greeks bearings gifts

Sunday and Monday morning. 

So my fourth trip to the Greek islands begins. The first of this journey’s islands has me leaving at a different port in Greece and flying to Athens on a different airline. We have both chosen Aegean for reasons of cost, but I must admit the flying experience was as good, if not better than BA, and given the latters recent IT outages and flight cancellations… maybe they are not the worlds favourite airline anymore..

Aegean fly from Heathrow’s new terminal two, but I take my usual train and bus combo to get there. At the terminals entrance is a very strange metallic sculpture which the internet tells me is Slipstream by the artist Richard Wilson.

It is very busy in departures and it’s not immediately clear to me, given the throng of humanity, which direction to go to get past people trying to check in, I already did so online and have my boarding ticket. Security is a sluggish affair, people are rolling their eyes in dismal obedience, with a few having to tip out bags to reveal hidden cans of Red Bull, bottles of water and so on. 

But the new terminal is not bad, and it doesn’t take long for us to be on the shiny new Airbus 320 neo which will not shed as many co2 molecules as it’s predecessor, Aegean are replacing their older planes it seems. A few spots of rain appear on the outside of the window by me, and we are off. Unlike BA, we get a complimentary sandwich, snack and drink, the lunch is in a cardboard box, the cup also, and when it has been consumed I see one of the stewardess compressing it, at least it will swiftly rot in the ground, if it’s not recycled.

In Greece, there is a strike today. Buses and ferries included. No matter as I take a taxi to Rafina where on Monday my ferry departs for Andros. The southern tip of Andros actually nearly touches the Northern one of Tinos, where I was last time. Rafina is a much smaller affair than Piraeus, and when I get to the hotel after checking in, I am escorted to my room, which is unusual. “ Is the room and bathroom ok?” I am asked. It seems more than adequate to me, and I am then told dinner is on the house. This seems exceedingly generous, and I then am told, the reason for this generosity, is that my original room was needed for another guest, and given that I am on my own, I have been located in a smaller one. 

Before I have dinner, I take a walk to the port, all quiet of course. But there are three ferries there, each displaying their itineraries for the next day. Worryingly my ferry is not present,  but the ferry office assures me tomorrow all will be well. 

The next morning, I go down to have the complimentary breakfast, is that a smell of diesel in the air? If it is, it means that something is happening at the port. After an excellent breakfast I walk down to the port, it is windy and c.loudy. Rain is forecast, but hopefully Tuesday will be a better day. On my way along the waters edge I come across what looks like a memorial, a sea disaster maybe?

My ferry has miraculously arrived and I get on it and wait it’s departure, looking out onto the town. I would have liked to have tried, one of the local tavernas, but it would have been churlish to ignore the generosity. The ferry leaves on time, the frenetic loading you see in Piraeus is not present here yet, but when the holiday season finally gets going.. I am in my way to Andros.