Monday – London to Athens

Our journey South yesterday, from North Yorkshire was straightforward and relatively uneventful. We found the hotel (Mercure Hotel) where we would be staying the night, and the car will be spending the next two weeks, without any problems at all.

This morning, we were up at 8am, and ready for the Airport Hoppa when it turned up at 9:15am (we decided to skip the £16 per head breakfast, figuring they’d feed us for free on the plane). A 15-minute shuttle bus journey brought us to Terminal 2 at Heathrow Airport in plenty of time to check-in our luggage. Hurrah for Hoppa buses! The roads around the airport are an absolute nighthmare; it was nice to be able to hand over that responsibility to an experienced operative who can probably navigate them with his eyes closed.

There was an anxious minute or two as the check-in clerk weighed our bags. Having packed the two suitcases, then unpacked and re-packed them again several times over on Saturday evening, desperately trying to get the weight down to under 23Kg, and having double-checked them with a newly-bought luggage weigher from Mountain Warehouse on Sunday morning (because our bathroom scales kept changing its mind), we were relieved when the clerk slapped tickets on the suitcases and send them through on the conveyor belt. We were equally relieved when he slapped a green ‘Cabin Luggage Approved’ label on each of our pieces of hand luggage (fortunately he didn’t weigh them…)

At 1pm, roughly 45-minutes later than scheduled, we took off and were on our way to Greece. At 6:15pm local time (we had to advance watches by two hours), we touched down at Athens Airport, where we were greeted by a Swan Hellenic Representative who had us loaded onto a bus to take us to Pireous Port, in no time at all. By 7:30pm, we were on board The Minerva.

First impressions were that the Minerva is almost certainly the poshest ship we’ve been on – certainly the smallest (at only 350 passengers maximum capacity). It’s so posh that there are dressing gowns provided in the cabins! It’s so small that, there was a printout of all the passengers names in our cabin. As we walked through the Verandah Buffet Restaurant, which is the informal eatery, both Tracey and I thought… this is the buffet?….. Very posh!

It didn’t take us long to check out the whole ship. It has the usual lounges and facilities; all very classy decor and a slightly high-brow feel to it… but very nice. Both of us were very tired after our long day, though, and could only muster enough enthusiasm and energy for a couple of relaxing drinks before hitting the sack.