Day 9 was a big travel day for us. Luckily we did some packing prep the night before so the morning of our departure from Riomaggiore wasn't as hectic as it could have been.
We woke up and finalized the last pieces of our luggage and ate the last bits of food from our fridge. I'm glad we bought that pizza for the morning and for our travels. Our hotel host offers assistance with luggage from the hotel to the train station, so we waited for our helper to arrive. (Link to our hotel, Creuza de Ma)
When our helper showed up I hoisted my 50 lb suitcase on my shoulder and followed him down our hotel stairs as he carried Deanna's suitcase. We wound our way down the path and into the marina. We bobbed and weaved our way back up the hill into the town hallways for the last time and onward through the "underwater" tunnel. We finally emerged on the other side of the mountain at the Riomaggiore train station. I gave him a little thank you and we took our place on a bench waiting for our train.
It was already pretty hot out at 10am, so we were glad to see the train show up with out too long of a wait. We jumped on and found a corner to stand in by the stairs and entryway. La Spezia was just the next stop away, so it was only about a 5 minute train ride.
When we arrived at La Spezia station we hopped off and started walking through the thick crowds at the station. People were congregated in large tour groups and it was difficult to get to the exit. It was quite frustrating, but we eventually popped out the other side into the town of La Spezia. The goal here was to pick up a rental car that I had reserved online. The rental car place was only a few blocks away so rather than get a ride I decided we'd walk. We began rolling our luggage along the sidewalks and down into the main promenade of the town. This area was really cute. It was full of shops, fountains, art, and a generally nice vibe. I wish we had known what La Spezia was like, it would have been worth spending some time here.
We found the Budget rental place and went inside. At this point my entire back was covered in sweat as well as the place on my shoulders where my backpack straps rested. Inside the car rental place there were already people at the counter and some people waiting. The folks working the counter desk were one man and one woman, both probably in their late 60s or 70s. The woman was only answering the phone and talking forever and the man was taking mental pauses here and there and getting distracted by little things the woman would say constantly. It felt like an hour for him to finish the current customer that was at his window, but he eventually did and the next person started getting help. It probably took him about 20 minutes to process him and get him his rental.
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| Deanna waiting in the front of the rental office |
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| Sweat |
When it was my turn I went up to the counter with all my documents out. They both were very excited to see that I was from San Francisco. They mentioned in broken English that they had been to Sausalito many years ago and loved it. They also mentioned a restaurant by name, but I don't remember what they said. After a few minutes of the man going through my reservation he said "oh no, problem, we don't have your car." I wasn't surprised to hear this, so I just rolled with it and said "ok, no problem, I'll take what I can get."
I was observing their systems while they worked and noticed that they would take a copy of everything and put it in a never ending "to be filed" stack. They would then take another copy of some forms and put them over in the back on top of a filing cabinet also in a rather large stack of other forms. Then the lady would look through her basket of keys to see what keys they had. So apparently they weren't tracking their cars at all on the computer, but only through the basket of keys in front of her.
When our order was complete we both followed the man outside as he lead us about a block away to a really small and uninspiring looking car. We piled our stuff inside and got in. This car was as stock as it could be and stick shift. So I started it up and backed out of our very narrow spot and into the very narrow and crowded street behind us. I shifted back to 1st gear and we were on our way. I quickly remembered how to drive stick liked I had never stopped.
Our road trip wound through lush green valleys, by small towns, through deep tunnels, and through well known places like Parma. We stopped at a highway side Automart to pick up some food and drinks before getting back on our way. It took about 3 hours to get to Milan. At the Milan airport I think I did 3 laps around the airport before finally making it to the right rental car return driveway. It is not very clearly labeled for Budget returns. The dropoff was fast and we got our luggage and started into the terminal.
We arrived probably about 4 hours before our boarding time. We made our way to the baggage check in area but nobody from Aegean airlines was there. I asked a nearby employee from another airline about it and they mentioned that you could only check bags within 2 hours of your flight time. "oh." So we went upstairs with all of our luggage and had some wine and a snack while we waited for time to pass. When it was around 2 hours away from our boarding we went back down to the Aegean airlines gate and hung out in front of the line. 2 ladies appeared soon and started prepping their lines. Within a few minutes a line of about 30 people was already formed behind us. Thankfully we were first!
The lady called us forward and we were on our way in about 2 minutes after dropping our suitcases. We were both hungry so we stopped at Wagamama to have an early dinner. I had a curry chicken katsu and Deanna had what appeared to be pad thai, but she didn't order that. It all tasted pretty good and I had a sake with my meal.
We went over to gate A3 which was indicated by the departures board and our paper tickets that we received. We bought some chips and waters and took a seat by an annoying kid and his dad. Our gate was currently boarding a different flight and airline so we sat by and watched as they were all loading. As time passed something started to feel a bit off, so we went over to the gate to double check that we were in the right place and boarding group. The gate description had not changed to our Airline or flight number. It still said Ryanair or something else. Panic started to set in for both of us. Our flight was boarding in 19 minutes!
We walked over to the departures board and watched as the Athens line item updated and rotated between the various Athens flights. Our flight popped up and the gate indicated was A78! YIKES. So we started a very brisk walk through what felt like the entire airport in search of gate A78. Along the way we would stop and double check our flight again to make sure nothing changed. Still A78. We were sweaty and stressed but pulled up to our gate with 2 minutes to spare before they started calling for boarding groups. Disaster avoided. When we got on the plane we were seated in the emergency row that was only 2 seats, which was amazing. I had forgotten that I was able to make changes and get us good seats for that flight. That took away all the stress of having to run across the airport to make our flight.
When we landed in Athens and made our way to the baggage claim I stood there while I received 2 phone alerts about our gate change to A78 from A3. Then I received an email about the gate change. Thank you for the prompt updates Aegean airlines. lol.
We grabbed our bags and proceeded out of the airport exit and found a gentleman with my name on a sign. I confirmed he was our ride from my scheduled taxi service and we followed him to his waiting Mercedes taxi cab. The cab was very clean and smelled nice. Our driver put his foot to the floor and got us to our Athens hotel in pretty quick fashion.
Our hotel, the Niche Hotel Athens, sits atop ruins from the Valerian Wall (click for info). We checked into our hotel and went up to our room. The room was very nice and clean. We called downstairs to ask for them to bring up an extra luggage stand for our suitcases. I'm not sure why every hotel room doesn't already provide at least 2 luggage stands in the rooms. It's logical to assume that more than one person will be in a room and that more than one suitcase will want to be off the ground. We constantly have to ask for these when we travel. It's annoying.
We were pretty tired, so we didn't go out and were already mostly full from our early dinner at Wagamama. We decided to go to bed.
That is the end of day 9.
Remember all photos will be linked here: Full Photo Dump
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