May 12, 2025
We woke up ready to head to the airport so we could deal with any issues. It was not possible to check-in to our new flights online so we expected some chaos at the airport. As we were leaving the hotel the kind manager took the boys over to the breakfast buffet to grab some snacks, including a nutella crepe, much to Lenny’s delight.
When we arrived back at the airport there was quite a line at the British Airways counter but it moved quickly and we got our tickets without issue. They did make sure we had done the UK ETA registration before giving us our tickets though. That had been a battle for a week as the app was always down but it eventually worked.
We struggled to find one of the airport lounges we could access and eventually just bought some breakfast before heading over to board our flight. Then we were off! Roughly 8 hours to Athens, an hour to change crews, roughly 4 more hours to London.
Once we were boarded the flight crew gave an explanation for everything that happened. One of the captains got sick yesterday and had to go to the hospital in Mauritius. The requirements around flight time to crew ratio on the plane required another captain to be onboard for a flight of this length. Since that was not possible they had to delay the flight. The reason we had to go to Athens was to switch the crew since the current crew size would be at their flying time limit after this much time in the air. It was not possible to do this last night since it was so late it couldn’t be coordinated in time.
Luckily the internet on the plane was great and allowed Kayleen and I to catch up on things while the boys watched their iPads. The plane also had screens in the seat backs which had countless movies, TV shows, and games for the kids. I’ve watched the boys living their best screen life. Lenny holding a full size bag of chips shoveling them into his mouth watching his iPad. Ollie watching his iPad while playing Angry Birds on the seat back screen at the same time. Lenny also thought he had to answer math questions for one of the shows on the seat back screen, like his iPad learning games, so he keep trying to press it to answer. When we landed in Athens and Lenny found out we had to stay on the plan for another flight he screamed with joy!
We finally arrived at Gatwick airport around 9:30PM local time which was just past midnight really for us. None of us has slept at all in hopes to battle jet lag! Immigration was quick and we got to our Uber by 10:30PM, then an hour ride to our AirBnb in the Chelsea neighborhood of London.
The boys feel asleep almost as soon as they sat down in the Uber. Kayleen and I stayed awake for the hour ride and meet our AirBnb host Serge who was waiting for us to arrive. He gave use keys to our garden level apartment and we dropped the kids in their bedroom and soon followed them to bed ourselves. Our unwanted extra adventure was complete!
