Greek Holiday: Last Day (9/9/1983)

Friday, September 9, 1983

Breakfast and out on the beach by 9:00. The beach bum had a message board written in French, German and Swedish, and Marsha asked why he didn’t have it in English, too. He said he didn’t know how to write it. So he brought over a pen and piece of paper so that Marsha could write “Do you want to sleep with me tonight?”

We gave him a tip when we paid the chair rental, and for once it was “Goodbye, Stereo!” The beach bum also came to ask Marsha read a note written in English to Dino, the boat owner. The note writers went to Lindos and would be back at 14:00. We went in at 11:30 to shower, left a 200 GRD/$1.40 tip for the maid and left by 11:50. We left our bags by the desk and were right out on the beach again. we had drinks and ate cookies. It was so hot that I went into the water several times and was out on the air mattress a while. Marsha went out on the air mattress, and when she got back we went on our final air mattress tour. In the water you could see little pale 3-4” fish, sort of like giant guppies. I saw one “walking” along the bottom. We stayed on the beach until 16:00 and walked over to the Romantz Taverna. Marsha got a liter of beer and I had 7-Up. We had souvlaki with French fires. We left 700 GRD/$5 and walked back to the Eden Roc Hotel to be ready to be picked up at 17:30. A taxi came for us and one other couple. At the airport we tipped him 100 GRD/70 cents. At the check-in counter, the man took our names and handed us the baggage tags to attach ourselves! Then he took our tickets and gave us boarding passes.

Baggage check

Baggage tag

Rhodos to Zürich boarding pass

We went upstairs to the bar and wrote out the departure cards. We went to look for the duty-free shop, but found only a candy counter. So back to the bar for drinks. We saw the crowd of Imholz people come in. We went through airport security and passport control, and then found the duty-free shops! Marsha bought a bottle of vodka and I bought a few postcards. We were left with only 4 GRD/3 cents!

1 Drachma coin heads

1 Drachma coin tails

Greek stamp

We watched the sun set into smog-like clouds. At about 19:20 they boarded us into bus-like trailers to be taken to the Balair plane. Marsha and I had the pair of seats on the right side of the plane. It looked like the crew would be taking care of us, but then two stewardesses arrived. We, however, were served by a uniformed man. Marsha recognized he had a different Swiss dialect, but he sounded like a foreigner to me! We took off on time at 19:45. All instructions were in Swiss-German, whereas when we flew to Rhodos, the spoke high German and French. To the right we could see the lights of the island, and to the left an orange sunset. Soon it was dark and we were above the clouds. Although we expected only a snack, we were served dinner of a roll with geschnetzeltes veal with noodles, peas, and artichokes. And a piece of cake. We also had apple juice and mineral water as we were really thirsty. Marsha also had coffee. We landed in Zürich at 21:55. Went through passport control, picked up our bags, and went through the nothing to declare lane right to the restroom. Walked to the parking lot and paid 67 CHF/$33. Had to wait in line for the elevator, and finally got the car. It was about 22:45 by the time we started driving to Biel. We never had to use our cancellation insurance!

Cancellation insurance policy

Saturday, September 10, 1983

It was foggy when we entered Biel. Marsha Cotter dropped me off at the Personalhaus/staff residence so that I was home by 00:15.

Later woke up at 9:00. It was pouring rain, so it was a day for chores.

Also found a four-leaf clover.

Four-leaf clover