Hello Athens

Good news. We are now in Athens. But more to the point - so are our bikes, in perfect shape after their maiden air voyage. Frank did a great job of packing them up in their bike bags with appropriate foam padding, bubble wrap, etc. Our dear friend Tannis was kind enough to offer her driving services to the airport at 3am, which really helped because the cab companies I had talked to could not promise the availabilty of the van taxi we would need because of the bikes. The only painful part was at Calgary airport where security insisted on us taking every piece out of each bike bag for hand inspection. Luckily we had allowed ourselves plenty of time so that was fine, just annoying.
Disassembled bike being packed up at home


At Athens airport, transfer to the sub-urban train was far easier than expected. The station was quiet, and there was loads of room on board the train to place our massive bags and be able to keep a watchful eye on them (you may sense a certain bike-theft paranoia here!).

Surprisingly quiet in the airpirt suburban train station.
Note wild hair due to extreme wind!

A rest break on the "dragging" route in Piraeus
Reassembly at hotel

Dragging our bike bags and luggage the three blocks to our budget hotel through the hot, busy streets at the port of Piraeus went as well as it could. My wimpy arms complained a bit but no big deal.

Bikes are now reassembled in the hotel room. However, the promise of luggage storage at the hotel did not pan out. Luckily Frank was able to persuade a kind young man in a nearby Travel  shop to store them for us, at the very discounted rate of €2/day. That was after first suffering rejection by several other businesses. Apparently most places won't store luggage for more than 24 hours.

I don't mind admitting that I've had many moments during all this bike-prepping rigmarole that I've wondered if it's going to be worth the hassle. Only time will tell. But I am hopeful that the payoff will come mostly once we reach Crete later in September. Let's see if it lives up to my expectations. But for now we're off to take in a bit of sight-seeing around Athens before we catch the ferry to Paros on Sunday morning.

Partial view of the port at Piraeus from our hotel

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