Welcome Home!

On Wednesday 5th August we drove over to Rochdale to pick up our granddaughter, Eleanor, aged twelve years. We had a lovely meal at a Table Table restaurant and then checked in at a Travelodge for the night. Sadly, I cannot recommend that particular Travelodge as we had to haul our luggage up a flight of stairs and endure pathetic double glazing which kept me awake all night.

Next morning we set off for Manchester Airport to catch the 8.35am flight to Zurich and then on to Athens. As usual, we flew courtesy of Swiss Airlines. On approach to Zurich the overhead displays gave information on which gate we needed for our onward flight. This is always hepful. We flew the Zurich leg on an A319 and then took an A321 to Athens. There were no problems with luggage transferring with us. Having reclaimed our baggage at Athens we decided it was best to take a taxi to Piraeus in order to get the 6.30pm Flying Dolphin to Anghistri. The bus might have got us there but we didn't relish the idea of waiting until 8.30pm for the next sailing. In fact, the taxi ride was extremely quick as the driver took the motorway route. The bus ride would have been in excess of an hour and could have made us late had it encountered rush hour traffic along the way.

I bought the tickets at the Aegean Dolphins kiosk and then we waited for the hydrofoil to arrive. It was only at that point I decided to check I had the telephone number for Hotel Boulas in my mobile phone. Horror of horrors, it was not there! But I had remembered to pop their business card in my wallet. The snag here was that I needed the international code for Greece! This was solved with a visit to the Greek Tourist Board Office who gave me the code.

By the time I had the code the hydrofoil was in port and we boarded it for the hour's sail to Anghistri via the island of Aegina. Once on board I telephoned the hotel and Christos answered, "Ne?"(Greek for yes) I told him we were just leaving Pirieaus and he assured me he would pick us up at the port.

In almost no time we were disembarking at Anghistri and a voice said, "Welcome home!" There, standing by the gang plank was Yannis Logothetis, the local agent for Aegean Dolphins. We had known Yanni for 21 years and it was appropriate that it was he who welcomed us to the island. Christos stepped forward and we loaded our luggage in his van before driving up the steep hill to the village of Megalohori which means "great place" in Greek.

As soon as we were in our room we unpacked the swimming costumes and went down to the pool for a refreshing swim. It was almost 8.00pm! It must have been a very hot day because the water felt very warm indeed. Our holiday was beginning! After unpacking our luggage we walked round to the main street to the Taverna o Fotis for our evening meal. As usual, Fotis was there to greet us together with his daughter, Vassu. His wife, Katerina, was round at her sister's house. A few minutes later she arrived with her sister and the greetings began again. Katerina's greetings are legendary!

After a welcome meal we went back to our room and were soon asleep.