26th January 2023.
Tricky post to write, this one, as you’ll see at the end.
I’d booked a train for the four hour trip from Thessaloniki to Athens at lunchtime, which took out most of a whole day but at least meant arriving in the capital in daylight, and gave us time to explore the local art.
Didn’t those children star in a ’60s Sci Fi film ?
And we had time for a posh breakfast by the port in MONO Unique Fresh, which has lost a bit in translation from the Greek.
The calm seas of Friday had been replaced with a blustery squall I made Mrs RM endure for 10 minutes rather than get to the railway station 10 minutes early.
After that she needed a last Americano of the morning. This piece of kit is indicative of how seriously the Macedonians take their coffee.
Now, there are three inevitabilities about Mrs RM and my travels;
1 I’ll be told off for not wearing my rucksack properly
2 One of us (no names) will have either TOO many or NOT ENOUGH layers on
3 One of us (no names) will leave something in their room, forcing us to divert back to the hotel room to collect Mrs RM’s glasses
We didn’t expect much from the train, but it was fantastic. Clean loos, a smooth ride, our own little room with curtains we could draw and drink our train beers in secret (top).
Just as we passed Mount Olympus I fancied a chocolate croissant. Actually, that may have been subliminal advertising as the announcer had just advertised a coffee and croissant for 2 euros deal.
The refreshments put our UK trains to shame..
Half a litre of beer for 3.50 euros, paninis 3 euros,
a set 3 course meal for 8 euros.
If only there’d been free WiFi it would have been perfect, but Mrs RM reckoned it deserved a glowing review, even if the Athens graffiti extended to the carriage.
Tragically, that train crashed with a freight train two days later, with 57 dead. Such a sad waste of life.
retiredmartin 
Sad story that one. Beautiful looking carriage you were in.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I feel I had to say that the trains worked perfectly, as there’s been a barrage of criticism painting the Greek trains as 3rd world, and I’ve had train journeys in the UK that were appalling recently. Not that that excuses the human error in Greece, obviously.
LikeLike
Mount Olympus would have reminded me of Much Wenlock.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I see the resemblance.
LikeLike
I think most of us have experienced the types of travel mishaps that you list. I left my phone in the room of the Holiday Inn, at Stansted airport, shortly before an early morning flight. I only realised when we got into the car. Slightly embarrassed, I returned sheepishly to reception, to ask for the room key back, in order to retrieve the phone.
It took a long time to live that one down with the rest of the family!
On a much more serious note, the picture you paint of the Greek railways, is a rosy one, which is reflected in the photos. This almost makes the appalling rail crash, just a couple of days later, seem even worse.
Blamed on human error, but this unfortunately is the cause of most accidents, errors and incidents the world over. There but for fate, go you and I, because we’re all human, after all.
LikeLiked by 1 person
We’ve all made those mistakes Paul ! Even worse, the lovely hotel receptionist phoned me to tell me but I assumed a scam and blocked the number, so it wasn’t until Mrs RM looked in her bag for her glasses cases that it clicked.
“There but for fate”, indeed. I think if I’d heard of the Greek crash without having been on it I would have assumed “eastern Europe inefficiency” but that wasn’t the impression we had at all. In fact, Greece as a whole was efficient and easy to navigate.
LikeLike