Well, round two of ones 2023 travels has begun, this time in Greece! Flying out of Bristol, it is clear that the rapid expansion is having an effect as one, now has to arrive at the airside assistance point ONE HOUR before departure to enable said individuals to provide the necessary equipment to board the plane. Despite this, we were sat on the airfield for 30 minutes in the Ambulift as someone decided to let all passengers on before muggins which is always great fun…
Anyway, 3 hours and 45 minutes of flying and circling later, one touched down at Athens International airport. For those of you who wish for a fun fact, Athens International was constructed in the early 2000s in preparation for the 2004 Olympic Games! As it is located just outside the city, it allowed space for an extensive transport network, even the suburban railway stops there in addition to the M3 metro.
Factors such as the time of our arrival (20:00) may have influenced the efficiently of the airside assistance, however, we may have just set a new world record for the time between physically landing and exiting the airport.
Of course, if there is a metro or a train from any airport in the world to the city, one just can’t resist giving it a go! The M3 runs from the airport through the city and out to the cruise terminal (quite a nifty idea!) and departs every 30 (or less) minutes. As usual, I booked a hotel a few minutes walk away from a station. One good thing about the Athens metro is that the majority of stations have elevators giving you a little more choice. As the M3 is relatively new, the majority of stations in the centre provide level access from the train to the platform. However, going out to the airport is a different story after the M3 joins the suburban railway, the gaps are very large bar at the airport station.
49 minutes later and we arrived at our semi accessible hotel…more on that tomorrow! Speaking of tomorrow, we plan to head down and take in the world famous sights such as The Acropolis, Temple of Zeus etc.