Homeward bound - June 1

Pity we had to leave our hotel so early this morning as it is ideally situated along the coastline and would have provided a lovely walk, but it wasn't meant to be. We were up at 5.30, suitcases repacked and locked for the last time, down to breakfast at 6.30 just as the restaurant was opening, back to the hotel lobby by 7 and our driver arrived right on time at 7.15 to get us to the airport which was a 30 minute drive. Thankfully none of the horrendous traffic we experienced earlier. At the airport our check in was easy enough. Our cases will go all the way through to Adelaide, but we have to collect our Qatar flight boarding passes on arrival in Athens. We had been able to finally select our seating for the Qatar flights 2 days ago, but our travel agent has since changed the Doha to Adelaide seats so that we were both backwards gacing! Ugh! In trying to change the seating back to our original choices, the site wouldn't accept the changes and so with no selected seats made and very few seats still available we have no idea where on the plane we will be sitting. As this is the longest leg of our journey at over 12 hours, I am really teed off withthe travel agent, and is just one more reason I won't be using her again for any new bookings. However, once booked in, we made our way to the Business lounge which was a bit hard to find but we did it! As the first ones in a bit after 8 we thought we may have the lounge to ourselves, but being the trendsetters we are, in minutes there were more travellers trickling in. Plenty of time for a very light snack and then to make our way to the gate to board our Aegean airways flight to Athens. We are on board and just hope that our luggage is too as it is supposedly booked all the way through to Adelaide but we only have boarding passes to Athens.. Flight time is 1'25 and we are seated in row 4 with a spare seat between us. I certainly didn't expect to be fed as well as we were for such a short flight. Some amazing views too of the countries below.

Arriving in Athens we are bussed to the terminal - as business class passengers we had our own bus with only about 8 other people on it! We had been advised that someone would meet us at the terminal to advise where transfers occur, but that was definitely not the case and we had quite a time finding the Qatar ckeck in counters, thanks to Julie eventually finding them. Check in was easy so we made out way to the business class lounge where we thought we had more time to soak up the atmosphere - Okay...also to eat and drink more, but as it took us so long to find where to check in we didn't even get to finish our first selection!

A bit of a rush to the gate and we were able to board immediately, all set for our 4'25 flight to Doha. We sat on the tarmac for ages though aso were late getting away. It was a very comfortable flight and we were very well looked after in seats 1A and 1B. Great views again, especially of snow tipped mountain ranges.

A later arrival into Doha meant that we didn't get a chance to go to the Business lounge (bugga) so once we got through the scans we headed for our gate. Once on borad we found ourselves in middle pods facing backwards (thanks to our travel agent changing our preferred chosen seating. At least we were on the flight! Anyway, we were once agin well looked after and there was so much food offered that I abandoned even looking at the menu after my tomato and basil soup starter and a main of 5 spice beef short ribs that I could barely make an impression on!

Managed to get some sleep during the 12'40 flight, ariving back in Adelaide about 3.30pm. Remembered to collect my duty free on the way after passport control and then through Customs once our luggage arrived. I need to put it out there, that my sole suitcase did come in slightly heavy at 24 kilos, but Julie had to buy a second bag for all her purchases (mainly from Venice) and she already had a wheel on cabin case so let's be really clear on who is the shopper between us! Anyhow... Julie's son was right on time to pick us up and I was home well before 5pm. And that dear armchair travellers brings to a close our adventures in Morocco, Portugal, Italy and Croatia. It defintiely wasn't a shopping holiday for me, although I am still bemused with myself over the mosaic fountain purchase that should arrive in about a month and I did buy something a little bit special in each country to remind me of my holiday, we definitely fitted so many one-time experiences in and revisited a couple of previously seen places.

Don't despair that this holiday has ended. It has been lovely having you along, and don't put your passports away as we are all booked for our next adventure in October. Stay tuned...