The gang of 10 had an early flight out of Exeter Airport on board Tui’s 737-800 to Paphos Airport.
The gang consisted of Gareth & Kelly (GK), Keith & Mandy (KM), Baz & Helen (BH), Chris & Sue (CS) and Richard & Denise (RD). We all made our separate ways to the airport for an early check-in. I had booked our parking with Holiday Extras. Turned out to be a small car park close to the main terminal building. Thankfully it wasn’t raining when we arrived so were quickly into the queue to drop our bags.
Unfortunately the airport IT had suffered a meltdown, so all baggage was being checked the old-fashioned (manual) way leading to long queues. This was our first experience of Exeter Airport and it wasn’t a good start. We got through eventually and after a quick security check, met up with the rest of the gang for a pre-departure drink.
The flight itself was about 4.5 hours long.and fine. I’d booked the extra legroom seats in the middle of the plane. Strangely and rather annoyingly when they came through the cabin with the drinks service, the cabin crew started at both ends (front & rear) so our row was one of the last served. Must remember that for next time. I had also pre-booked an in-flight meal with Tui. Both of us had the All Day Breakfast. Not sure what the sausages actually were, but it was filling and not a bad price for the money (£10 each). We also took advantage of the 3 of 2 offer on the small bottles of red wine!
On arrival we were transferred to the terminal on a bus (groan) and GK sailed through passport control thanks to her Irish one.
Baggage took an age to arrive. By then I had nipped through for a smoke and to meet up with Beth who was waiting for us with little Nayia.
So lovely to see them both although be fair, Nayia was more interested in the airport cats than me understandably!
When the others finally got their bags we all met up outside for a brief introduction as most of them hadn’t met Beth (our bride-to-be) at this point. KM knew her of old. In fact, they were the first ones to see her in the hospital when she was born back in April 1996!
KM & GK were booked into the Almyra hotel in Paphos so after saying our goodbyes to Beth & Nayia we all jumped into the minibus transfer that was waiting for us. The others are in Bar Street with a separate transfer and are hereon in known as The Bar Street Gang!
The Almyra is a lovely hotel and brilliantly located on the edge of the main harbour area.
Check-in was painless and the nice lady on reception upgraded us to a junior suite – not sure why, or why KM didn’t get it first but we weren’t complaining!
Our room was lovely with a view over one of the pools to the prom and the Med beyond. Some lovely sunsets there.
We had loosely arranged to meet the Bar Street Gang in the harbour area for dinner, so after an explore of the pool area and a freshen up, we headed off to Hondros Taverna, one of my favourites in the area.
Unfortunately they couldn’t have all 10 of us on a table but they did sort us out with a table for 4 and another for 6.
It was a lovely dinner (as always). I had the Gemista, oven-baked stuffed vegetables which is one of my favourite Greek Dishes.
After dinner we wandered back to Bar Street for a nightcap with the gang before heading back to the hotel, which was just a few minutes walk away.
Leave a Reply