May 16, 2019
Our fourth and final leg for the next 11 days
We are back in Montreal waiting to board the flight to Istanbul. As you can see Colin can sleep anywhere. On my first blog post about this trip I showed you the seating map of the Turkish Airline flight. At check in they were not going to budge from our seats 3DE. I insisted that they do something as I had booked this last July. We were given seats 4AB. Turns out they asked a couple who had just been put on that flight a few hours earlier because their flight on another airline had been canceled. I felt bad about that for a few minutes but it was only fair.
The first course was an assortment of Turkish canapés.
The second course was a very nice bowl of creamy tomato soup. I had hoped that it would be as exquisite as the pumpkin soup we had last year when we flew to Naples. Note the lovely flickering candlelight. A romantic touch to the meal.
We both chose to have the mushroom ravioli with leek and cherry tomatoes served in a creamy parmesan sauce. The the option we could eat would have been a fillet of salmon. This course was followed by cheeses, a fruit salad and an assortment of desserts including ice cream.
We started with a Turkish Sauvignon Blanc, then switched to a wonderful Chablis from Catalonia. I couldn’t say no to a glass of this port from Portugal.
Someone asked if we were traveling business class. I think that is pretty obvious. We are using the last of our free Aeroplan points that we have been saving up for for twenty years. Last year we did a similar trip in business class using our points. We also traveled the long flight over with Turkish Airlines and both believe that we preferred that flight and service more that this one. For one thing they no longer do the dessert cart service. You can read about that flight here.
We had been in the air just over an hour and were flying over Gander.
Fruit and a small warm croissant was all I could eat for breakfast. Colin also ate about half of his omelette.
A tiny position of the large city of Istanbul.
We could actually watch the plane land and its moment of touch down. Pretty neat.
As mentioned in the last post the new Istanbul Airport is massive and claims to be the world’s largest airport project built from scratch. Once complete, it will be one of the biggest international airports in the world once the fourth and final phase is finished by 2028 – and potentially the busiest – with six runways, flights to 350 destinations and an eventual annual capacity of 200 million passengers. Right now in phase one, which just opened a few weeks ago on April the 8th, the airport can serve up to 90 million passengers per year.
So much food at so many different stations. We couldn’t eat a thing as we were so full. Sad not to be able to sample some of those Turkish delicacies. And I forgot to pick up some Turkish delight.
A general shot of the Business class lounge. Fortunately I found a trolly to shlep our carry on items which when you walk quickly for close to 30 minutes become heavy rather quickly. It was so warm and humid in the airport that I was sticky and had trouble cooling down after our first lengthy walk. Considering we have been in the air for approximately 17 hours during the past two days I still managed to put just over 9000 steps on my Fitbit Wednesday.
We had to wait for half an hour before take off so I started working on editing photos for this post. We did not expect to have the large seats with extra legroom. I just loved that I could put my legs up as if I was sitting in a recliner.
It was a very short flight, just 70 minutes yet they offered this very full dinner.
Of course we asked them to not serve us the lamb. How could anyone eat so much so fast. They served it all on the one tray at the same time. We picked at our fish, enjoyed the cheese and loved the dessert.
A lovely welcome to Athens.
I arranged for a car and driver to drive us to our airbnb. We did not want to be arriving at 9:30PM and dealing with either the metro or finding a taxi. As it turns out there is a fixed rate of 38 euros for either a private town car or a taxi. Much nicer to have a driver meet us as we came out of passport control with our luggage on a trolley. It was lovely to see a smiling face holding up a sign with my name on it. The driver immediately took control of the luggage and pushed it to his vehicle as we followed. A great way to arrive.
We were met at the car by our airbnb check in host who showed us through the large and airy two bedroom flat. Unfortunately the one bedroom is over a tavern which did go on till 4AM. We knew that going in but figured that we cold move to the back bedroom with twin beds if need be. Colin moved but I was so tired that despite waking and listening to the various noises I went back to sleep. We did not get to bed till 12:30AM local time what with unpacking and showering etc.
Out airbnb is centrally located close to the Acropolis, some museums and the Plaka, about a 15 minute walk through a very safe area. We ended up doing a 3.5 hour walk midday today. More about that in my next post. This is the link to our apartment which has photos. We have an elevator and fast internet. Life is good.
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So glad you made it to Athens safely – I miss Greece! Enjoy the lovely salads, they have the very best tomatoes in the world in my opinion (even better than Okanagan). I just caught up on your last 3 posts.
What a beautiful, airy apartment!!! That airport, plane seats, food all look great and VERY shee-shee…
I’ve always wanted to go to Greece after watching Shirley Valentine so many years ago! Super job on the blog…as usual.
Your Airbnb looks great. Nice and airy.
My geography must be better than I thought..I guessed you were headed to Greece. I hear it’s beautiful. Can’t wait to see what you’re up to!
Oh my, enjoying your posts , very nice flat. The B&B is super nice ??? enjoy ??