From Athens to Rhodes

Friday was our last day in Athens, and first day in Rhodes.  In the morning we set out for the olympic stadium (panathenaic stadium), which was built and rebuild many times over the centuries, most recently for the first modern olympics in 1896.  They also used it as the grand finish to the marathon in the 2004 summer olympics in Athens.  On our way, we picked up some donut balls on a stick.

We wandered from the stadium back through the plaka to look for some souvenirs, and then back to the hotel before checkout.  Then it was off to the airport via metro to catch out flight to Rhodes.  The Athens airport was upgraded for the 2004 Olympics and is in good shape in general.  But, they have some kinks to work out with their security procedures.  They seem very disorganized and confused and don't have procedure in place for much of anything.  If you are unfortunate enough to be stuck in a line with a stickler of an x-ray technician, you will be there a long time, for each and every person that goes through, the staff will have to pick through your bags to find random items and then they will discuss it amongst themselves for a while, argue about it, have one person put it back in your bag (usually in a different place), then another person will take it back out, and examine it.  They will tell you that cameras are ok, then get angry that you didn't take your camera out, so they will send your bag through again and again.  This slows down the line even more because they don't pull people to the side when they check your bags, they just stop the entire line in place.  This is all compounded by travellers who seemingly have never flown before.  They don't separate out liquids, they bring 5-6 plastic shopping bags full of stuff (clothes, etc), and of course have to go through the metal detector 3-4 times, each time removing another large obvious metal item.  In any case, we made it through and on our flight.

The flight was extremely short, and a big plane (3 and 3), but they still managed to serve beverages and even croissants with chocolate in the center, for those that the cart made it to (flight was so short they couldn't finish).  There was some drama as an old guy got sick and they asked for a doctor on board.  An ambulance met the plane on the runway.

A charming English fellow met us at the airplane and whisked us to Old Town Rhodes in a tiny vehicle.  The vehicle had to be tiny to navigate the small streets of Old Town.  After getting settled, we wandered around Old Town until Kevin and Laurel's flight got in and when they did, we all went out to dinner at a nearby Greek restaurant.