A 5:50am departure from Cardiff (CWL) means a 4am taxi and that means a 3am alarm call. The price in human suffering paid for travel!

Our flight to Amsterdam (AMS) was on-time to the minute and arrived 10 minutes early. If the taxi to the terminal wasn’t so long it could have been 25 minutes. AMS has always fascinated me. The taxi time is about 20% of the flight time. Why is the runway in Belgium 😂?

Passport control at AMS has improved since our last experience. Now just 30 minutes for we fully Brexited-Brits. Not too bad really, considering how airports worldwide are a constant source of complaint.

A couple of relaxing hours in the KLM Crown Lounge (25). Average to good coffee, breakfast pastries & breads, comfortable chairs and free/fast wifi.

Yes; it all proved too good to be true. Our flight to Athens left nearly on time and arrived 2 minutes early. Unfortunately, along with 36 other bags, our luggage didn’t’ come with us. Because of the number of missing bags, there must have been 100+ people lined up to report their luggage. A very long wait time! 

Fortunately, judicious packing by M, meant that apart from a few critical items (including my camera) we had enough stuff in our carry-ons to see us through a few days, Viking provided complementary “bathroom” kits. Our cabin grade includes free dry cleaning and laundry, so we’ll survive.

However, because so many bags had been “lost” the queue at the airport for reporting was enormous. As a result, it took nearly 3 hours from landing to arriving on board.

Athens port (Piraeus) is a  nightmare. Located in a grubby suburb of Athens, there seems nothing to commend it. The port is massive. You’re obliged to take a shuttle bus for, in our case, a 200m trip from terminal to ship. They’re Greek with no sense of urgency. Maybe jaded by the airport fiasco, we’re totally unimpressed. We’d say, ”Avoid Piraeus unless Athens is a ‘must see’ destination.” 

Still… That’s travel in the 2022’s. It’s still completely screwed post-Covid. We’ll get over it.

Viking on board ship, at least, do their best to soften the blows, although their Port Agents at the airport were the next best thing to pointless.

Tomorrow is another day… Looking forward to it.

Athens Weather