You Keep Me Hanging On (23/06/11)

Our alarm went off at 4.40am; our wake-up call came at 5.00am - just to be sure - and our hosts had left us a big breakfast in our room the night before to help us on our way. So after yoghurt, fruit, croissants and cake ( there was more but we didn't have time) we took our bags to the front gate and our driver took us to the airport. It seems very strange being on a small airbus for only a 35 min flight, but suddenly we were at Athens with our luggage and it still wasn't 8.00 am. We planned to check in our bags, and had toyed with the idea of catching a bus or train into Athens for a few hours, depending on demonstrations and / or strikes. But our plans came to an abrupt halt when we found that the Emirates counter didn't open until 1.30 pm. That left us five and a half hours to kill. I fired up the laptop and started sorting our photos ; Carmel went for a walk here, then there ; and we went up to the museum upstairs. Everywhere in Greece whenever they excavate for some major works - like the metro, or the airport - they find ruins and objects that require a quick exploration, and then a littlle museum ends up on site. Here at the airport they found ruins dating back to 20,000 BC to 4 AD ; and when they moved the old church in the corner of the site they found different ruins going back to early christian days too. So looking around that passed a bit of time too. At 1.40pm the counters opened, we got our boarding pass and we were on the final countdown. The flight to Dubai was uneventful, and we arrived at 9.50pm local time. Our plane parked so far away from the terminal that it was a 15 min bus ride to get there. But once in the terminal it only took an extra 15 min to get through passport control, customs and outside to our transoprt to the hotel - a big difference to our last trip. Even at 10pm the temperature was 38 degrees C, so tomorrow promises to be a hot one !