Onwards to Spain

Flying from Athens to Madrid

Having learnt from my recent travel to Athens airport from Monastiraki, I checked the metro schedule this time.  I took the one that left a few minutes after 0600 which got me airside soon after 0700.

The airport turnstiles (both exit and entry) were left permanently open so one could have just bought a cheaper non-airport station ticket!  This was also the case last week but I thought it was just a glitch.

I chose to use a different lounge today.  It was older and less pleasantly furnished and the food was half a notch lower.  Ah well.

The Aegean Air flight from Athens to Madrid left 10 mins late from a remote gate.  Inflight, we were fed a bready bakery item with a stingy savoury spread, accompanied by a bread roll.  Too much bread on one tray.  But the Greek yoghurt with Greek honey was nice! With a slightly shorter flight time than schedule, we landed about 10 mins before the scheduled arrival of 1200.

Continuing to Salamanca

It was a very long walk from Terminal 2 to Terminal 1 on the landside.  Once I had found the bus, it was only a 10 minute wait in the extreme heat before we boarded my bus to Salamanca departing at 1300.

I had been worried about making this air-to-bus connection as a minor delay would mean I lose about EUR25.  The ticket was changeable until 2h prior to departure, so that would have only helped  me for delays known in advance.

The bus got me to Salamanca 2h45 later and it was a short walk to Hostal Tormes right in the Salamanca’s old town.  With one street thermometer showing 39 degC, the streets were deserted.  It was also siesta as I realised that things livened up when the weather cools down.

I wandered around the old town a little to see the sights from the outside.  Dinner was hard to find before 1930.  The sun sets around 2200 and last light is 2230.  Looks like I’ll have to change my early morning wake-ups to something more consistent with the practices here.