Left Denver 8 pm Saturday 6/24/17. Arrived London & cleared customs noon Sunday with about 18 hours to enjoy the city. Our big bags were checked through to Greece so we just have backpacks to carry. London has a nifty 15 minute express train from Heathrow to Paddington Station and we booked a hotel across from the train station. We got to our room, closed the curtains and slept very hard – I’m talking drool on pillows hard — for 2 hours, then pulled ourselves out of bed and took the subway over to Westminster so Peter could see Big Ben in person. We walked along Westminster Abbey and Parliament, to the Thames River and then boarded a double decker bus for St. Paul’s Cathedral. The weather was lovely today – not hot, not cold – perfect for being tourists. And Peter learned to skip – and like with everything else he does, he needs a running start to get going. He remains ecstatic.
Left London 9 am Monday; arrived Athens 2ish. Papou met us at the airport. We loaded all the bags into his tiny car and the 4 of us into a taxi. Greek cars are not built to have 30 inch suitcases in the trunk. Knowing this, and hoping to do a little travel on our way to Athens, we boxed up clothing and other items to ship to ourselves in advance so as not to have giant suitcases. However, at the post office a few weeks ago, with said items all boxed up, we learned that Greece does not allow used clothes to be shipped into the country without a certificate from the point of origin that the clothing has been disinfected. I tried to explain that these boxes weren’t used clothes, they were just our clothes. With a sympathetic nod, the postal clerk reminded me that these were not his rules. Suitcases it is. And as long as they are less than 50 lbs, we get 8 of them checked for free. We only have 6, not including our carryon backpacks. The bags include stuffed animals, a scanner for work purposes, 2 laptops, 3 ipads, 2nd grade math books and our clothes. Pretty good on the packing eh?
The Fefes Adventure Collective 