We are leaving this little village of Gavalachori this evening with a late-flight from Chania to Athens.

One of our original return flights for July 6th had been canceled and we still have this new reservation for July 5th to confirm. We tried calling three different numbers (given to us by an Olympic Airlines employee), but nobody answers the phone. I’d suppose they are still on strike.

We will be spending a very short night in Athens as our flight is scheduled to leave at 22:55, which in Olympic Airlines’ terms means at least a 40-minute delay. If we are lucky, we get an announcement explaining the delay. If we are very lucky, we even get an apology.

Nevertheless, we might depart tonight by 23:30, arrive then about 0:10, stand in line once more for at least half an hour to get a hotel room from the Olympic Airlines hotel desk, and then wait for our transfer to the hotel – which probably includes another 30-minute bus ride. We expect to get to the hotel at 1:00 a.m. at the earliest. This means three hours of sleep as we have to get up at 4:00 to make our way back to the airport to catch our 7:00 flight to Frankfurt. And then we have to keep our fingers crossed for tomorrow morning’s flight Athens-Frankfurt to take off.

Well, three hours of sleep in an A/C room in an Athens hotel is better than hanging out at the Athens airport, where yesterday’s temperature was 41° C.

Yesterday after a one-hour drive back to the airport, it took us another 45 minutes at the Olympic Airlines desk to make a new reservation after our initial return flight had been canceled by them.

When I asked for a hotel accommodation (sponsored by OA) due to their cancellation of our flight, the clerk was very surprised and wanted to know who told me I could get this service. I just told him to read the EC 26 regulations.

And – they will call our rental home proprietor in case there is a change….

At the moment Olympic Airlines spells = All flights are subject to change

Nevertheless, our holidays have now begun. After having to go to Chania anyway, we decided to spend the rest of the afternoon there. We had a very good lunch at a seaside restaurant and also went to the beach. Found a good spot in the shade, because in this heat, sitting in the shade or water are the only tolerable places for me to be.

Driving around on Crete

The courtyard of our rental home

Morning and evenings are best around here. We are in a little village called Gavalohori with hardly any tourists at all – the way we like it. The ocean is beautiful, the cicadas are abundant, restaurant prices are fair, and our rental home is perfect.

Looking up into the sky above Crete

Another drive along the coast

View from our seaside restaurant in Chania

This restaurant owner advertised fresh fish…

Another walk through our village

It is 8:10 Wednesday morning and in 50 minutes we will get picked up by our airport taxi to start our journey from Frankfurt via Athens to Chania/Crete.

Yesterday evening we were informed by our travel agent that our connecting flight, Athens – Chania, has been cancelled for unknown reasons and we have to spend the night in a hotel in Athens. This has already been arranged by Olympic Airlines.

Nevertheless, we had to write another e-mail to the vacation home owners to inform them we would arrive a day later. My travel agent offered to notify the rental car company of our day-late pick up.

We get to spend an evening in Athens, but have to catch a very early flight the next morning at 5:50. This would not have been my choice….

Will we get dinner reimbursed this evening? What about breakfast? We shall see.

If things go well, I will not have to check anymore on the airline’s liability for a cancelled flight.