Not quite according to plan…
Continued from Day 7…
June 13 – Departure day … Not!
In the morning of the 13th, we checked out of hotel St. James’s in Lotharika, aiming for the Diagoras airport. I had only got the car into first gear when we got a TEXT message from Apollo – our charter company. They asked the passengers to meet at the Rodos Palace – 20 minutes north of the airport. “Birdstrike“. Didn’t sound good at all and we expected there would be a significant delay.
But OK, nothing to be done about it. We drove to the airport to return the rental car. At least one upside; while driving around, looking for the entrance to the rental company, a guy from the rental company recognized the car and jumped out in front of us. We could just walk away from the car and look for a taxi.
20-or-so minutes later, we arrived at Rodos Palace. The Apollo agent told us to check into our room, which was quite surprising. At this point in time, we thought we still would fly out the same day, so why the room? But OK – if you have to wait for departure, why not wait in a 5-star hotel, with a room at your disposal. Lunch was free, including one drink per person. Towels for the pool for free. Definitely not the worst delay I’ve experienced.
Later in the day, we got a TEXT message that said the plane would leave 23:15. Shuttle bus to the airport after dinner. So far, all good.
But after dinner, we were informed that the flight was delayed until the next day. More information after breakfast. Sigh… The Apollo agents had not been seen in the reception area since we arrived. All information came through TEXT messages. Quite a number of passengers felt this was poor service.
Still, we were far better off here than receiving this information at the airport after hours of waiting. The sunset made things a little easier…
June 14 – Departure day … Finally!
After breakfast, no information was available. Later on, we were informed that information would follow after lunch. At this point, patience was in free fall for many of the passengers. Some didn’t make it to work today and now things also looked bad for tomorrow.
But some time after lunch we received information about departure time around 5pm. Shuttle buses arrived around 3pm and took us to the airport. I had been worried about the endless queues I saw when we returned the car the day before. But the check-in went smooth. The departure did not. We stood still on the ground for one hour while waiting for the flight plan to be recalculated due to some shitty weather somewhere in Europe. But eventually we got
On the plane, I thought about the stay at Rodos Palace. A 5-star hotel. Nothing to complain about. At all. But nothing to write home about either. Mainstream. People in and out all the time. No Steve in the reception. No snorkeling just outside the hotel room. People everywhere you turn. But definitely OK for one night only…
We landed safe in sound in Oslo late, late in the evening. We took a shuttle bus to the car parking, picked up my car and began our 1,5 hour drive to Hov by Randsfjorden – where we would stay a few days with our friends Eva and Bjørn. 2 weeks of hiking in eastern Norway awaiting…
Pictures from the wait:
