Arrival in Athens: Another Ash Cloud Avoided

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Jean and I have had extremely fortunate lives. Lately, this has been especially evident in the weather patterns surrounding our recent travels. In the week previous to our departure from United States airspace of Europe was completely closed due to the ash cloud from Iceland. It reopened the day before we flew.

We were scheduled to fly to Athens out of Heathrow airport in London on Monday at 11:50am. This past weekend the airports in Ireland and Scotland were closed due to continued volcanic activity. As the ash cloud moved south across the British Isles, the London airports ground to halt Sunday night. Gatwick, another London area airport announced it would not resume flights until Monday afternoon.  Heathrow offered nothing definitive

We got up early Monday to find that Heathrow planned to reopen at 7am. Colin and May drove us to the airport where we breezed through security and got into Athens exactly as planned and booked in at the Best Western.

We spent most of today of doing fun stuff like getting applying for an overpriced Indian visa, hanging out at fragant bus stations looking at indecipherable timetables, getting lost, and wandering the back streets and suburbs of Athens. In the afternoon, we were able to make the hike up to the Acropolis. Tomorrow we're off for Kefalonia.

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