The Road to Athens (In The Air)

When planning our trip, we first selected our flotilla route (Saronic), length (14-day) and dates (June 10-24, to coincide with Chris's business associates' - and now our friends' - chosen holiday dates). Next, we had to determine how to get from Austin to Athens.  I researched flights and narrowed it down to either British Airways/American or Air France/United, in order to get the most efficient and cost-effective routes.

As with a cruise, we wanted to get to Athens a day earlier than our flotilla departure, just in case there were any delays that could cause us to miss our Sailing Holidays coach on Monday the 10th.  (As it turned out, this was a good idea, since our flight to Athens on the 9th was delayed a couple of hours.)

We left Austin on Saturday the 8th at 2:30pm, flying American to Dallas.  There, we met our transatlantic chariot.

Our first ever flight on a 747!

I worked with a travel agent and was able to use our American Express points to upgrade us to Business Class for the voyage.  Business Class includes the following:

- First Class on US domestic flights
- Access to airport business lounges prior to flights
- Priority boarding
- For the transatlantic flight, fully reclining (180 degrees) seats, with a pillow and quilt
- Champagne before departure, 4-course in-flight meal, a second meal (breakfast or tea, depending on time of day), unlimited cocktails in lounges and in flight, and a "kitchen cafe" while in flight where we could help ourselves to fruits, small sandwiches, ice cream, etc. (transatlantic flight)
- Unlimited movies from a selection of over 100, television, and noise-canceling headphones (transatlantic)
- Amenities kit (toothbrush and toothpaste, cleansers, toners and moisturizers, and "flight socks") (transatlantic)
- Complimentary 15-minute back massage or facial at Heathrow upon arrival

Our seats for the transatlantic faced each other with a little divider screen between us, which we left in the "down" position.

Oh, to be honest, these weren't our seats.  They were the ones in front of ours, since we had already settled into our seats when I decided to snap a photo.  But ours looked just like these! (Imagine that!) It was a pretty cool set-up. And as comfortable as I suppose you can get on an airplane.

We left Dallas at 6:45pm and arrived Heathrow at around 9am local time.  There, we visited the "Galleries" lounge and used our amenities kits to freshen up and grabbed a bite to eat.  Then we had a full lunch at a pub in the airport.

Our flight to Athens was delayed about 90 minutes, finally departing around 2pm and arriving Athens close to 7pm (we lost 2 hours on that leg).

Our travel agent had put together a package that provided all of our airport transfers (we needed 4 for the trip), our hotels for the nights before and after the flotilla, and a tour of Athens.

Our driver, George, met us at the airport and loaded us into his taxi.  On the way to our hotel, he gave us some good tourist information, and talked about the economy in Greece in general, as well as how they LOVE American tourists for a variety of reasons.  We are helping their economy, we tip (even though we aren't supposed to - our culture is accustomed to it and it's a hard habit to break), and Americans are enchanted by Greek culture, architecture, and food.

The drive was about 30 minutes, and George pointed out several prominent landmarks along the way.  In what seemed like no time, he was dropping us off at our first night's hotel.

Next, did the jet lag get to us?  How was the hotel? And most important, did we see the Parthenon?