We left Williamsburg, Virginia around noon on the 15th of December. We had loaded everything into the suv and uhaul, cleaned the entire house, left thank-you gifts for the hosts, and were on our way! We drove straight through and arrived at the airport hotel around 10:45 pm. It should have only taken about 6 hours, but we hit terrible traffic.
After I went to check in at the hotel, we found a porter who was the most helpful and amazing guy on the planet. Well, this is how I felt after being so darned tired and just wanting to get into bed already. Together, we helped him load all of our stuff and placed it into a locked storage room (no way was all that fitting in our hotel room). We had about 10 cart loads by the time we were done. After that, the kids and I went into the room, hauling one cart piled with our backpacks (stuff we needed just for the night), while Jared went to return the uhaul and rental car. The porter guy told Jared NOT to go by himself, as it was a very bad neighborhood. He was off work in 20 minutes and would escort Jared there himself. Seriously, we tipped that guy well!
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| Unloading everytihng into the hotel. |
We all slept well that night, relieved that this journey was finally underway. How we would manage getting all our stuff to the airport and checked in? Well, we would just see how it all worked out.
The next morning, we had a nice breakfast at the hotel and took the kids and Sunny out to a grassy area to play in the snow. They loved making snowballs, rolling them down the hill, and watching it grow larger as it gathered more snow. Pretty fun to watch.
Later that afternoon, I reserved a shuttle to take us to the airport will all our stuff. The clerk asked why we had so much stuff and I gave her a brief rundown of our story. She excitedly asked for our blog info, as her dad has a boat and she loves being out on the water.
After a quick dinner, we checked out of the hotel and started loading all our stuff into the shuttle. The driver was another amazing guy, who loaded everything in cheerfully. We all climbed aboard, over and around the boxes and settled in for the short ride to the terminal.
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| Yes, this was a huge amount of work, but we did it! |
We must have been such a sight! After paying the porter and his friends (we ended up paying $60 still, because of the extra guys, but whatever, we just wanted it done), we began the check-in process.
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| There is this pile and another behind me as I took this photo. |
With Swiss air, we were only allowed a MAX of 4 bags per person. Thankfully, this was all sorted before we got to the airport. After reading the fine print on the booking page that we would have to call and get permission to bring that many, I went ahead and made that call. So, while on the phone back in Virginia, I went ahead and paid for 20 bags ahead of time (you get a 10% discount if you do), which meant we had 7 left over. I was initially told to call the cargo department regarding this problem, but after speaking with them, they said to just send an email and would send it on the manager to see if we could just go ahead and check in the remaining bags without using cargo.
Marc, the manager of "space control", was great. "No problem" and "I'll email the team to let them know ahead of time, so you will be all set". THANK YOU MARC!!!!! I printed out this email in case we needed it at the counter. Once our ticket info was brought up, the clerk had the notes and email along with it, so we were allowed to check-in everything. We also had Sunny's crate and had crammed that full of her stuff (bowls, food, etc), as well as Matt's backpack, jackets, and anything else we could shove in there. Why? Because we didn't have to pay for her crate (as she is a service dog) and that meant we didn't have to pay for anything inside the crate! Saved us a few hundred dollars by doing that! After printing and sticking on all the labels (and restacking the boxes as they were labeled), we then had to move them all to the "excess sized baggage area). They would not let them on the conveyor belt for whatever reason. Again, we needed to find another cart to do this. The kids and I found another cart, but of course, another porter said it was his and that we would have to pay. After figuring out the cost of renting one of those smaller carts, I just decided to go ahead and pay the $20. We got it all done in about an hour.
Next, we still had to pay for the 7 extra bags, but this would have to be done at a different counter. We got in line, settled the kids down to play on their ipads and waited another hour to get this done.
Finally, it was time to go through security. As we approached, we saw a gigantic line and were worried about missing our flight. We still had two hours to go, but still, it was a really long line! The security saw us approaching with our dog and waived us into the priority line--NO WAITING! Thankfully, we got right through, found our gate and some snacks, and settled in to wait to board the plane. There was a pet relief area nearby, so Sunny was able to go potty before the 7 hour flight. We had taken her before leaving the hotel, but it was nice she could use that before the plane, as well.
We were allowed to board FIRST again, as we had children and a dog. The plane was nice and we found a blanket, headphones, and a pillow at our seats. We settled in for the long ride. After sitting about 30 minutes beyond our departure time, the captain made an announcement.
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| Finally on the plane! |
I immediately began making arrangements for our later arrival. I let the Airbnb know that we'd be arriving later than planned (no problem, they said) and also our reserved taxi service. They informed me that if we missed it, we would forfeit the cost and have to rebook another one. At this time, we were hoping it would be a short layover, so I told them I would call once we got to Zurich.
We took off about 2 hours after our initial departure time. We were surprised when the flight attendants began serving dinner. Seriously, it was a lovely hot meal of chicken, stuffing, and vegetables with a little piece of apple cake and a hot bread roll (there were other options such as chicken with pasta and vegetables or a vegetarian pasta dish). They came around later with pieces of chocolate. And the food? It was GOOD! It was also part of the ticket cost, so that was lovely and something we had never experienced before on other airlines. A few hours later, they served breakfast (time zone change). Again, it was lovely.
Shortly before landing, we had a message pop up on the tv screen that everyone had been re-booked and to go to the counter to get the new passes and vouchers for food and drinks. We landed and got in line and about 20 minutes later, were on our way to the next terminal. They said it would be either A or B, but we would not know until an hour before the flight. We would not be flying until around 8pm, so I called the taxi service to let them know. While we had to forfeit the money (Swiss airline is supposed to reimburse us that cost), we had to rebook another one so we could still get to the hotel. We were so happy they would have another driver for us when we landed around 1am. Whew! Crisis avoided.
After riding the air train to the next terminal (the kids loved that), we walked around trying to figure out where we were going to hang out for the next 7 hours. I saw a sign that said Family Services, so we went to see what that was about. It was amazing! It was two huge rooms set up like a classroom with kitchen, and separate room with couches and a table. The woman was so sweet and kind. We stowed our luggage in the cubby area and the kids went to play. She asked if we needed to take Sunny outside for a break. YES! Jared stayed with the kids, so they could play and he could rest a bit. I grabbed Sunny's paperwork and found my way to the exit. I had to go through customs first, but they just waived me through after learning I was just taking her outside for a potty break. It wasn't too cold outside, or maybe I was just really warm after walking so long. It felt wonderful! Sunny did her business and we returned to the Family Services area. Sunny got used to escalators (she wasn't sure the first few times we had to use them, but became a pro after that).
We brought dinner back to the Family area and had a nice chat with the woman in charge. She is a total dog person and Sunny got quite spoiled with belly rubs. =)
Around 8pm, we packed everyting up and headed to our gate (Jared had checked a few times and finally got the information). We walked the short distance to our gate in terminal B and after about 10 minutes, we were again, first to board the plane. It was much smaller, but at least we were on board and finally heading to Athens.
They served another lovely meal, greek salad, bread roll, and I honestly forgot what else was with it--we were going on so little sleep at that point. We landed in Athens around 1am and made our way to baggage claim. I have to say, we are so proud of our kids and Sunny, as they are AWESOME travelers. They just go with the flow, no matter how tired they are. No complaining at all!
As the baggage began coming out, we were again, quite the show for those around us. We began taking everything off the conveyor belt and stacking it all up. I had our baggage claim stickers ready, and as we stacked them, I placed the coordinating sticker on the box/backpack. This allowed us to learn which pieces were missing later on. After we rented the carts (I think we had 8 total), the kids and I loaded everything up, while Jared went to the claim window to report our missing baggage. We were missing our parasailor ($12k downwind sail) and our family medical bag. These were probably our most expensive pieces of baggage and of course, they go missing! After making the claim, we started rolling the carts to the customs area. No one in sight. Our taxi drivers (there were two of them because we had so much luggage) helped us roll everything to the waiting vans. It was around 2:30 am at this point. We got everything in, squeezed us in around the stuff and made our way to the Airbnb (I had been updating them the entire trip of our arrival time and they were so gracious and understanding).
We arrived an hour later and set about unloading everything from the van into the lobby of the Airbnb building. After tipping the drivers and thanking them, we went up to the 3rd floor, talked with our Airbnb host a little, and then crashed.
I think it was around 5am at this point.
We didn't wake up until around 1pm, and were still so tired. Jet lag is serious business! Our host arrived and said he would take us to a taverna nearby for a meal, since we hadn't eaten anything yet. Matt, Cadence, and I hopped into his car for the ride, while Jared and Zach took Sunny out to the nearby school/park for a potty break. They met us about 20 minutes later.
The taverna, Zorbas, was right on the water and lovely. We enjoyed watching the boats, seagulls, and fish swim around. The fish seemed to swim with their mouths out of the water? Low oxygen, perhaps? After a lovely meal, seriously, it was so delicious! Matt had calamari and squeezed lemon on it as the watier had suggested--he said it tasted really nice. I had a chicken, veggie, pasta dish with a butter/cream sauce. Zach had a burger, Cadence had fish and veggies, and I forget what Jared had.
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| Zorbas in the Kastella district of Athens/Piraeus. |
We had a meeting with George, our boat repair contractor, and learned that our repairs were easy and not a big deal. He would also get us his contractor's discount.
The owners of the second apartment said they would help get us to their place and had a huge moving truck ready. They had used it for something else and it was lucky that they still had it! They arrived around 8pm, we loaded it up and were ready to go. Cadence and I sat up front while Jared and the boys rode in back with the luggage. The boys thought it was really exciting to do that (and totally against the law in the US)!
We arrived about 15 minutes later and started unloading everything. The moving truck blocked traffic and people were NOT happy about it. We unloaded everything onto the sidewalk and then began transferring it into the lobby of the apartment building, going as fast as we could among the honking horns and shouting.
We finally got everything into the apartment about an hour later and went to bed exhausted, but so glad we were finally done!
The next day was spent exploring, eating wonderful new foods, and learning some of the Greek language. Everyone is so friendly here and LOVES to pet Sunny. She is like a celebrity on the street!
We have learned that our boat is still in Turkey--waiting on the registration to get there so the captain can legally check out of the country and into Greece. We are hoping for the day after Christmas (fingers crossed and praying this is the case). Today, our friend Demetra (who has been a true blessing to us, brought us our missing baggage--our parasailor and medical bag which had been delivered to her home). THANK YOU!!!
We have been invited to our apartment hosts' home for Christmas dinner and a birthday party! We are feeling so welcome here and can't wait to explore more of this lovely country!
Next up: Our first few days in Greece! Lots of photos to come in that post!
I have posts about the survey and purchase process--will post those once we are actually ON the boat.
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