Over the Pole and London

 16 March 2024, Central Bright Apartment, Athens

We arrived in London two days ago after a long flight with Japan Airlines, The first leg, from Brisbane to Singapore, was a code share with Qantas and the other two, through to Haneda, Japan and on to Heathrow, with JAL. Seems like a crazy route, but at a price 70% of the Qantas return fare, it was worth the trouble. 

The final leg from Tokyo was 14 hrs 30 mins, arriving at Heathrow at 3:30pm. By then, our poor addled minds were spinning. A good dose of European beer and a couple of very average burgers from the Airport Bowling Alley next door to our favourite Heathrow Ibis Hotel, however, gave us a reasonable night's sleep.

JAL uses the Polar Route, probably because of the war in Ukraine and problems in the Middle East. We flew this route in 1987 with our kids, at night. This time we caught up with the sun just over half way into the flight. The views over the Arctic and Greenland were spectacular.

Travelling from the Heathrow to local hotels used to be free. Now, the London Transport buses charge a standard fee of  £1.75. This is a flat rate for anywhere in Greater London, so the buses are a very cheap way of getting about. The hotel "Hoppa" bus charges £6.80 for the same service. As always, it is  worthwhile looking at public transport options.

Our single day in London was mainly to allow Janita to attend a show, a birthday present from our children. In the city well before the show started, we had a couple of hours to wander about. 

We were last in London about 2018 and several times before that, so we thought we were a bit over the usual tourist sites. But once we had found the theatre where the show was staged, we sauntered up Charing Cross Road into Trafalgar Square and played tourist for a while among the small crowds of off- season sightseers.

The non-theatre goer then had a few hours to explore, which he did following his favoured tourist trick of just strolling about. In doing so, he ticked off:  the Tower of London; the London Eye; Tower Bridge; St Paul's; The Monument; views of Big Ben the Globe and the Thames at a particularly low tide. The latter isn't as gross as it might seem, because areas of long-abandoned wharves emerge from the mud and courageous people venture out, looking for treasures that might have been exposed by the retreating waters.

A long haul home on the tube and a local bus had us ready for a good sleep before we hit the deck at 4.00am to grab the 423 bus to Terminal 5 for our flight to Athens.

Athens Airport is way different to what we encountered here on our first European trip in 1976. Yes that long ago! In those days, there was no seat allocation on flights leaving Greece. The locals were pressed against the gates, waiting for them to open, so they could run to claim the best seats. What a change. The airport was smoothly-run and well-signed, with a fast metro connection to the city.

We have driven in Athens on a couple of occasions, not in little sedans, but in large motorhomes. We survived both visits, just! From our observations today, it is still a little crazy, but now lane markings operate at least as "guidance" rather than puzzling lines on the road. In a few days, we will see, when we pick up a hire car and head off onto the Peloponnesus, how much things have changed.

17 March 2024, Athens

Hiked up over 200 steps this morning to the funicular to Mt Lycabettus to meet up with Paul's sister Barbara and our brother-in-law Costas, to enjoy fantastic 360 degree views of the city on a clear and mild morning. It’s a holiday long weekend in Athens and, though many businesses are closed, the locals and tourists flocked to the alleyways and streets around the city. Crowds increased around the middle of the day, with restaurants and cafes doing a brisk trade. While it was busy, the crowds were not overwhelming, in fact they added to the atmosphere. Sadly, the weather took a short turn for the worse as a thundery storm dropped light rain down for most of the rest of the day. We took shelter in the National Gallery which was on our way home. Three floors of interesting art from artists, mostly unknown outside Greece, kept us busy for the remainder of the afternoon.

Athens has changed a lot since our last visit in 2000. Since then, Greece has gone through some tough economic times. The 2008/9 Global Financial Crisis all but destroyed the economy, with Greece having to be bailed out by the EU, essentially Germany. But over the last few years, she has turned a corner, performing well as measured against her peers. These changes are reflected in better infrastructure and simple things like cleaner streets and vastly improved public transport.

Today, even though there were a lot of people about, they were mostly locals enjoying a holiday weekend. We are already appreciating our decision to come to Greece in what is the tourist off-season. We can only imagine the chaos around some of the areas we strolled through today once the tourist hordes arrive.