We woke to the only bad weather of the entire trip. The wind was gusting up to 37 kph and rain was spitting. The wind was bad enough that the water in the pool instead of going over the infinity edge, it was blowing back in. We didn’t have much planned so we moved slowly, eventually heading over for breakfast.

Back in the room we packed up and checked out of the hotel. Despite the less than ideal weather we drove off to explore the parts of the island we had yet to reach. We headed south from the hotel to two different beach areas. Probably would have been more inviting in sunny weather, but my oh my! The drive down to each of them! Steep! Winding! Narrow! And nary a guard rail! But it gave us an entirely different view of the island. Rural, rustic, farm laden. And of, course lots of cliffs.

We still had time before our flight so we headed up to Pellonia, one of the larger towns and predominately for tourists, such as it is. Up on the far northeast corner. Jayne thought she saw a few shortcuts, but they turned out to be crazy narrow dirt roads. We made it, but just barely. The town was actually not particularly noteworthy, but we found a spot for lunch.

The weather cleared out to stop spitting rain and our flight was still scheduled (unlike the morning one which was cancelled!) so we headed back toward the port. Josie had one last gelato fix them we headed to a gas station to fill the rental car. We ought not to complain even these days about gas prices. We had a small car but to fill it even with a half empty tank cost $47! It was 2.17€ per litre.

We then drove to the tiny island airport which Josie declared not very lively. We were a handful of passengers for the two prop plane back to Athens. We were no sooner up than we were down. Once we deplaned and rode a bus to the terminal we scurried through to hopefully reach the hotel shuttle which left only once an hour. As luck would have it we reached it as the last passengers. It was to be a hotel close to the airport but it still took us a half hour drive. We settled in, then had a dinner at the hotel for our last night.

We got up early enough to have breakfast before taking the shuttle back to the airport. It was a zoo! We waited about 45 minutes in line to get thru immigration until they pulled those if us heading to Istanbul out to go to a shorter line as the flight was imminent. A short flight got us there in time for a 4 hour layover before our flight to Boston. The new Istanbul airport is immense! We walked and walked. Finally stopped for an easy, but ridiculously expensive lunch.

Finally it was time to head to the gate. We had our passports and boarding passes checked 3 times just to enter the gate. Then it was the typical boarding mess we’ve come to expect from Turkish Airlines. Nine hours later we were in Boston. And with all three of us having Global Entry we bypassed the immigration line. Henrik, Silas and Sherman (their dog) were there to greet us. Nice to be back in the U. S.

The following day was Henrik’s birthday, so we celebrated in a low-key fashion, as we were very jet-lagged. I took a flight home to Seattle the next morning. What an adventure it’s been! Not only did I get to experience a part of the world that has been on my bucket list forever, but I got to share it with my granddaughter and daughter-in-law. Definitely one to remember.

Thanks for joining me on this trip, though the posts are after the fact.