Aaah the joys of air travel.

We have been pretty lucky with our air travel over the years, with very little hassle or problems. But coming to Greece our luck finally ran out. Having crawled our way though security at Manchester airport we were called to the information desk in the departure lounge. Swiss Air was running late and would not be able to make our connecting flight from Zurich to Thessalonica. So we had to go back through passport control and customs to the check in desks to get re-booked on to another flight. But as it turned out there were no spare seats that would help us on any flights with any airline. So we crawled back through security and just made our original flight. At Zurich we had missed every flight going out and by the time we had organised a new flight for the morning and a hotel for the night the passport control folk had gone home too. Still we made it out and then jumped on a bus for the hotel. There were about a dozen people in the same position as us. Now the Swiss are known for the precision so after the late plane issues we thought that the hotel would be well organised, alas that was not to be. We were driven 50km to a small village because all the hotels in Zurich were full (the cheap ones anyway). We finally made our bed at about 0130 for a quick kip before our 0530 pick up and return to the airport, which was late and we only just made to the airport for our flight. So I can definitely recommend Swiss Air for its organisation..... Not. The new flight included a stop over in Vienna for a few hours, so all in all a quick, short hop across Europe took longer than some journeys from NZ to the UK!!!! Other than all that we are safe and sound in cousin Joe's place in Alexandropolis, Greece.

Good old Blighty!

English coffee is good! I know that’s a huge statement considering the history that England has of making crap coffee. Six years ago, the last time we spent any time here, most coffee bought in old blighty was instant and if you could find a decent espresso machine the person making the coffee would probably proclaim, as they made it, that they had no idea how one could drink such weak, bitter coffee and that they preferred Kenco instant. I would usually hang my head and prepare to argue that I should not have to pay for two coffees when I order a double shot. I would tirelessly try to explain that I was then paying twice for the (unhelpful) service, (chipped, tea) cup, (lunch room) décor, and (lack of) ambiance. Then grudgingly drink my bitter, weak, latte with cold, burnt milk and enough froth to make a pint of bitter proud. Still it still had the desired affect of preventing the future wife from leaving a grumpy old sod for another day. Now days it’s possible to wander into urban coffee houses in the Liverpool suburbs (some anyway) and ask for a double macchiato and be delivered a fine fix in a relaxing atmosphere. England has come along way! All that said, it is still possible to have a the old style experience with very little effort on your part. Having been in the UK for about a month now, in both London and Liverpool we are a bit confused if we’re in the right place. The heat for a start. I never really thought that I would consider the UK as a warm holiday destination, but that’s what it seems to be. We stayed in London at Uncle Eric’s house for the week, doing some shopping and sampling the cheap (!!!!!!) beer and amazing diversity of cheap (!!!) food. There are not many kiwis who would consider London and the word cheap in the same context. Travelling opens your eyes about life and Iceland opened our eyes about expensive!!! We spent a day with cousin Kieran doing a whistle stop tour of London city and the usual tourist haunts. It was good to finally see him again after about six years. We’ve been staying at grandmother Cec’s place again, enjoying a roof over our head and wondering around one of the largest building sites in Western Europe, sometimes known as Liverpool. Some rich Lord noticed that there was no monster shopping complex in this part of the country and decided to knock down half of the city centre and build one. Since he happens to own most of Liverpool, that’s just what he did. It’s been a month of catching up with relatives and sorting and organising. Ben’s Mum has been in the UK and it has been great catching up with her. We are off to Greece during October and have got work running a chalet in Austria for the northern winter, in a resort called St Anton.