11 APRIL 2014
From the start, this impromptu trip was shined upon by the heavens. Our original plan had been to take a 10 am train from Stuttgart, which would put us in Baden-Baden at around 11:20, then we would still have a 15-minute cab ride from the train station to the airport (Baden-Baden is a smaller airport than even Stuttgart...hence why RyanAir flies from there). Since our flight would depart at 12:40 pmm in this scenario, everything would be cut quite close. That would have made for a very high-strung Meg.
But, thankfully, fate intervened. The kids did not go to school that day (Tim was ill, and Caro took what we call a "mental health day" in the Gallimore household). This meant we could take a 9 am train out of Stuttgart, making for a much more relaxed timeline.
And it all went off without a hitch. George had the short end of the stick in that he had custody of our shared, giant suitcase, while I only had my backpack. What a gentleman.
We arrived at the airport just before 11 am, checked our bag, cleared security (George set off the alarm on account of his belt...), then had about an hour to kill before our flight started boarding. The Baden-Baden airport has a decent cafe and outdoor seating area, so we drank coffee and sat in the sun while we waited. There are much worse ways to spend a Friday morning.
George and I had another lucky happening; for no apparent reason, RyanAir had given us "Priority Boarding," so we were some of the first people on the plane. AND our seats were toward the front, which made getting on and off the plane a breeze.
I also just want to say, for the record, that my RyanAir experience was much more pleasant than I expected. You hear a lot of horror stories about flying with them, but, based off of this trip, that reputation may not be deserved. It's certainly not a luxury experience by any means, but when you look at their prices, how much can you really expect? The service was friendly, and we made it from Point A to Point B on time. That's all anyone really needs.
The one thing I will make note of is that if you are not a resident of the EU, regardless of if you are checking a bag or not, make sure you queue up at the desk and get your passport checked and boarding pass stamped. For whatever reason, RyanAir likes to check non-EU passports twice (like Santa...hehehe). They'll do it as you are boarding the plane as well, but you will be denied access if you don't also have a stamp from the check-in people too. Yet another reason I was happy we arrived early.
We landed in Thessaloniki at about 4:15 pm, picked up our bag, then went to the Sixt desk to pick up our car. That was an annoyingly long process, with us signing our lives away to the car and GPS (mostly the GPS). Also, George thought that the guy couldn't figure out how to say "Meghann" or "Gallimore" as he referred to me as "the lady" throughout the entire process. Apparently "George" is a bit more straight-forward.
We finally hit the road at about 6:15 in a light blue Chevy Spark that had clearly seen some better days. There was a dent or scratch on nearly every part of the body. Which of course, could only work in our favor; we didn't have to put on kid gloves to handle the car, or be QUITE as cautious about what roads we took.
It was just under a two-hour drive to Litochoro (according to the GPS...I think we made it in an hour fifteen...). And even a drive that brief (in Meghann & George terms...) was enough to show us the insanity that is driving in Greece. People cut each other off, speed, drift across lanes, ride in between lanes...it's absolute madness. We also were confused as to why the GPS kept beeping randomly. At first we thought it was a warning when another car was too close, as it was happening constantly. However, we later realized that it went off whenever we exceeded the rather arbitrary speed limits.
Once we arrived in Litochoro, we began the fun task of negotiating through the labyrinth of one-way and very narrow streets of the town to find our hotel. The GPS was already proving itsel fto be worthless and we ended up asking a very nice local woman for directions.
Despite the difficulties in finding the hotel, the Villa Pantheon ended up being worth the extra effort, and was one of our favorite hotels when we compared them all. We were upgraded from a double room to a master suite, complete with a fireplace, living room, and kitchenette. Not to mention, a MASSIVE balcony that had spectacular views of Mount Olympus and the sea. Greece was already off to an incredible start.
By this point, we were both starving (or, in George's words "a bit peckish"), so we walked five minutes into the town centre to find some food. There were a surprising amount of options for such a small place, but we had our minds made up for us when a lady from one of them came out and essentially shoved us inside. There we tried our first Greek beer, Mythos. It was nice; not quite German but still very drinkable (It reminded me of Corona, but George disagrees). We split a Greek salad, George had a meatball thing, and I had veal. Both were delicious. The chef, who had taken a liking to George on account of him being British (even changing the channel of the tv in the restaurant to the BBC news...) gave us a free feta cheese croissant thing, which was actually outstanding. My mouth is watering at the thought.
Our cue to leave came when the place was invaded by, I kid you not, about thirty members of a single family. All the tables started getting pushed together, and it was very loud, and we stood out as the non-Greeks. So, we waddled back to the hotel and went to bed. Already, it was an excellent adventure.
****I promise this will be the ONLY Greece post without photos. I didn't really think about my camera on this first day, but I went shutter crazy the rest of the time we were there. It won't always be just text.
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