EPILOGUE

We spent two nights at the five star Sofitel Hotel at the airport. We had one night booked that using Booking.com. Unfortunately the hotel was nearly full and we had to pay a somewhat greater rate for our extra night but at least were right by the airport and getting home shouldn't be a problem.

The hotel was very nice indeed. The room was absolutely quiet at night, not a sound entered and we were at an airport. We didn't do much that day except relax and catch up on the news with TV with more than just Greek channels that had been our norm to that point and a British newpaper. We enjoyed some quite nice food at the airport Food Court, rather to our surprise.

A word about food.

We enjoyed the Greek food a lot. It was very varied and there were some new things to try.

For breakfasts we can list

bread
butter
jams
honey
hard boiled eggs
cheese
yoghurt
coffee
tea.


Not all breakfasts had all these by any means. One day it was not very good coffee and toast with a bit of butter and even less jam.

For salads

beetroot salad
ceasar salad
green salad
cucumber salad
tomato salad
cucumber and tomato salad
greek salad
potato salad

For appetizers and main courses

beef
chicken
goat
rabbit
sausage
hamburger
veal
squid
fish
pork chop
lamb chop
stuffed peppers
moussaka
sweet and sour shrimp
omelette

For dessert

baklava
cake
ice cream
kataifi (like shredded wheat)
fruit salad
very small bowls of preserved fruit in a very heavy syrup and very sweet

For drinks

beer
tea
coffee (many kinds)
bottled water
spring water
white wine
red wine
ouzo
raki (not very nice)

We were up very early the day we left Greece as we had a plane to catch leaving at 0645.

It left on time for Munich and we were then to catch a flight to Frankfurt. Things got a bit tricky at this point because although we could see the aircraft sitting there, the weather in Frankfurt meant that we couldn't leave on time. We had planned plenty of time to connect to the Vancouver flight in Frankfurt but the delay was cutting our connect time down. Eventually the flight did get way and although we were late into Frankfurt we managed to get through a passport check and to the gate to be among the last to board. A good thing because the next possible flight was the next day.

We flew all that day with Lufthansa and were happy with the service. Two nice meals and friendly cabin crew. The route we took was one that meant that the flight time would be about half an hour more than usual due to the winds. It took us north from Frankfurt, along the North Sea Danish coast, over some of Norway and we finally joined a great circle route just west of Alesund in Norway. The route took us well north of Iceland and across the central part of Greenland. north of Baffin Land and eventually down to Vancouver over Peace River. The sky was clear over much of Greenland and it was a magnificent spectacle out of the window. The photos will give you a bit of an idea. We were very far North and the sun was obviously low in the sky. As we flew on it got brighter.

You can see a larger version of any photograph by simply clicking the mouse once on the image. Another click off the photograph returns you to the text.

We found out at Vancouver airport that the bags had made the same journey too and we gave credit to ground handling at Frankfurt airport for that.

We had plenty of time to check in for the short flight to Comox and arrived on time after quite a long day.