Great to be in Greece

Twenty five hyper children and four exhausted adults are now very firmly ensconced in the Athens Atrium Hotel, tired and exhausted after a long day of travelling.  With a 7.30am meeting time at Dammam airport, we finally had all our children and necessary paperwork by 8.40am and so were able to proceed through Saudi customs at a fair lick.  As ever, the customs officers were fairly amused (bemused?) by the nature of our group, and we were passing through at a fast rate of knots - that is, until Andy decided he had a spoon in his hand luggage which caused the customs officer to recall the whole of Mr. Whitaker's group for another bag sweep.  As the last one of the group was being searched - Andy's bag for the third time - he remembered that mum had taken it out at home!

As it was, our haste was unnecessary - our flight from Dammam to Doha was delayed for an hour, which meant stright on to the Athens flight when we arrived in Doha.  No time for the promised McDonald's, unfortunately.  We had been fed on the flight though - hot chicken sandwiches.  Mr. Whitaker proceeded to eat all around him - three was Hala's count. The children soon settled down to the multitude of electronic entertainment available to them - "This is the best flight ever" was Fay's reaction on seeing all the programmes and films on offer.  The children were extremely well behaved, as one fellow passenger commented, "I've seen my friend's children and these are angels."  Hmmn.  Cagla was slightly concerned about our impending arrival into Athens, as she thought the outside air temperature (-57 degrees C) was the temperature in Athens itself.

Three things seem to have struck the children particularly on our arrival in Athens - the greenery, the graffiti and the number of motorbikes on the roads.  There will be a vast number of very blurry photographs on their cameras when you eventually get them back, taken through the coach windows as we sped along.  Hopefully their snapping skills will improve and they'll become a bit more discerning as the week goes on!  Don't panic though - Mr. Whitaker has his camera to hand so there will be some good shots to share at the end of the week.

We had a flavour of Greece for our evening meal upon arrival at the hotel - calemari for our main meal, and bacclava for dessert.  Several of our children wondered whether they were able to eat the tentacles on their plates, but all seemed to get plenty in them for the meal.  Poor Vian was practically asleep on her plate by the end of the meal and so after a bit of downtime after dinner, lights went out at 10.00pm - we've an early start tomorrow for our island hopping cruise.

                                               Mr. Suter enjoys the company on the flight
Some highlights from the first day:

• Tara getting in a tizzy when she got on the first plane as she thought she'd left her phone behind in the departure lounge. Having sent two stewardesses off to look for it, she discovered it in her bag!

• Ms. Naidoo has obviously learnt from her mistake last year of bringing a case that would fit the whole group's clothing in by bringing only a small wheely case - but she obviously didn't pass on her experience to Ms. Thomas who has taken on the mantra of Queen of the Cases!  Despite its size, she still managed to walk off to the coach without it - not sure how she missed that one!

• Just as we were about to board the plane to Athens, someone asked Humza where his bag was - he hadn't seemed to notice that he'd left it behind!  Ipek was grateful to another passenger who brought her coat off the plane in Athens.

So, the rooms are quiet, gentle snores wafting along the corridors (and that's just Ms. Naidoo).  We're up at six in the morning for our Saronic Islands cruise, so from Athens for the time being, good night!