hail- and thunder-storms

Sitia

Saturday

Travel plans in jeopardy

Next morning I wake to hail and thunder storms, and discover there's been a power-cut in the whole town from 6 to 9 am; so I'm wondering again if I can rely on the boat I'm booked on to take me back to Piraeus for Athens airport on Monday morning - it didn't go at all last night ... the alternatives would be
- to take the boat a day earlier and have to spend the Sunday in Athens
- fly on the Sunday, 500:- SKr / 50 USD extra cost:

Getting a place on a plane should be OK, it seems there are 15 flights Herklion-Athens on Sunday! Either way I have to find somewhere to sleep in the crowded city that night, and neither is what I would ever choose ...

Mid-morning, the hotel manager says "the weather is over Athens now"; but the travel agent next door says it's not stable; the boat company, Minoan Lines, say on the phone that their boats are all new so that, if it goes at all, it only needs 6 hours, even though they're scheduled for 8, so it will arrive on time; but they won't know till 7 pm if it'll go Saturday night.

click for a larger view!

Then the travel agent says cheerfully that it's not good that I'm booked on a Lufthansa flight, because check-in for Lufthansa in Athens is two hours before departure ... in that case the boat would be too late anyway; and then I would have to sleep in Athens Sunday night.

There is actually a direct boat Sitia-Piraeus - it goes three times a week, on Thursdays and Sundays (that's what they said); but of course I have to deliver the car back in Herkalion anyway.

At some point I simply have to decide, and with a certain amount of trepidation I decide to stick to plan A ...