RAF Centenary Celebrations

We knew there was to be a flypast today, to celebrate the centenary of the RAF.  Of course, it had existed in other forms - notably as the Royal Flying Corps - for some years before then; my great-uncle, Michael Topham, had been a member and had been killed in April 2017, flying back from a raid near Lens, in France.  His name is on the RFC memorial in Arras cemetery.

However, today was about the RAF.  We hadn't realised there was to be a service in Westminster Abbey, and turned the television on just in time to see the Queen coming out of it, looking as though she ought to be using a walking stick but didn't quite like to in public.  We watched the parade and so on for a bit, trying to decide where best we could go to see the flypast, and finally decided that, if possible, we would get a 59 bus to Waterloo Bridge and watch from there, as it was recommended as a good place to see it from.

Because we thought the traffic might be terrible, we left longer than necessary and arrived at Waterloo Bridge with a good 15 minutes to spare.  It was already busy, and got busier! 

The flypast started punctually, and we enjoyed watching the planes come past, although we weren't quite sure which was what.  Chinook helicopters are fairly obvious, of course.

as are the bomber/fighter formation that we so often see at these things:

The flypast continued, with various aircraft past and present, concluding with some wonderful formation flying

 the last of which got a huge cheer.  But the largest cheer was reserved for the very last formation - the beloved Red Arrows:

It took a long time to get off the bridge after they had gone past, but eventually we managed to walk down to Waterloo Station and a much-needed sandwich in Pret a Manger before heading home!

Stoupa Reunion, 1 July

And so the last day of the holiday dawned.  Our coach was due to pick us up at noon, which gave us time to pack and to have a last coffee with our friends.

We ended up waiting 25 minutes for the coach, as they said to be ready 10 minutes in advance, and the coach was 15 minutes late, apparently looking for a couple who had decided to take a taxi to the airport and hadn't bothered to say so.

The so-called "priority booking" channel took ages, but at least they didn't print our boarding-passes again, deeming the ones on my phone were enough.  Security was very quick - I had put all my liquids in a plastic bag, but didn't have time to get them out of my rucksack, and they didn't ask me to!

We boarded the plane 15 minutes late.  Not bad.  But then we sat, and sat, and sat, and the Captain came on the PA to say he was very sorry but one of the computers was down and he'd sent for the engineer to come and fix it.  But when that happened, the other computer went down.... at which point, they said we could get off the plane if we would like, and go back to the terminal, which many people did - the seats there were more comfortable and we could buy sandwiches.  I must shout out the staff in the café - they must have hoped their working day was almost over, but instead they stayed on and made sandwiches for everybody as fast as they could  Very impressive!

Finally, we were called back on to the plane (loud cheers), and eventually it actually moved (even more cheers).  After that, it was straightforward - we arrived at Gatwick at about 9:30 pm local time, and there was the usual lengthy queue for  passport control.  But they have now made this automatic - you put your passport down on the scanner, and look at the screen, and they match them up and you walk straight through.  We waited 10 minutes for a train to Clapham Junction, and then ordered an Uber to take us home, and were home almost exactly 2 hours after arriving at Gatwick.  We did a minimum of unpacking, and flopped into bed, exhausted! 

Stoupa Reunion, 30 June

Sadly, after the delights of yesterday I found myself too exhausted to move today, and ended up doing nothing but lounging around the apartment, apart from a trip to the bakery to get sandwiches for lunch and one to the supermarket to get sausages for supper.

But yesterday was worth ask the exhaustion and discomfort of today!

Stoupa Reunion, 29 June

For once, the sun was shining when we left the apartment to join our friends at the car hire place for a trip to Ancient Messina. There were 9 of us, and we had a lovely day wandering round the site  I was amused when we realised we were all old enough for the senior discount - one does not think of a group of school friends as senior citizens but of course we all are.

After walking round the site we went to a cafe in the village and ate salad (the food here is so delicious, much nicer than I expected), and then went to the tiny museum associated with the site which was mostly statues (usually headless) that had been discovered there.

By the time we got back to Stoupa, including  a photograph stop at a lookout point

there was just time to have a beer and a shower before another communal meal, this time in the Kalogria Beach Hotel. And more farewells and promises to meet again, for although many of us don't leave until Sunday, others are leaving today.

Stoupa Reunion, 28 June

The Swan Whisperer went for a short run this morning, but by breakfast time it was pouring again so we had a quiet morning.

Then we walked over to the Kalogria Beach Hotel to join friends for lunch - I had calamari again, and too much beer (Greek beer is very more-ish) - which took up most of the afternoon, somehow.

And so back to the apartment for a siesta while the SW went for a walk, and then it was time to change into our glad rags and head over to the Enigma bar for the main dinner and drinks of the reunion, the centrepiece of the event.

We ate, we drank, we (or some of us) danced, we talked... And, sadly, said our first goodbyes to those who are moving on tomorrow....

Stoupa Reunion, 27 June

The Swan Whisperer had been going to go for a run this morning, but it poured, so he didn't. We had arranged  to hire a car, so he went and got it and we were away by 09:45.  We were headed to Sparta. The Sat-nav said it was far quicker to go up the motorway and dien the other side, but the cross - country road said no tolls, and we didn't fancy motorway tolls so went on this horrible, horrible road with hairpin bends everywhere, worse than the road between Die and the Vercors, worse even than that road in the Dolomites!

The Sat-nav took us to the wrong entrance to ancient Sparta and  by the time we got there it s raining again and lunch time and the SW, who had a quick look, said he really thought one would learn more from Wikipedia.  So we came away and found a cafė where we had a delicious lunch and then came home not over the mountains - I slept most of the way.

In the evening it was the first of the two official reunions, at our friend's house. It had stopped raining by then and we had a very pleasant evening with food, drink, and Greek dancers who performed traditional dances from all over Greece. And lots of chat with friends....

Stoupa Reunion, 26 June

The weather forecast, which has been predicting rain and storms ever since we got here, finally got it right and it rained on and off most of the day. And I stupidly took an anti-histamine this morning - I bought the Boots ones didn't affect me but I was obviously wrong - and ended up sleeping most of the afternoon. So rather a nothing day.

ETA It would, of course, have helped if I hadn't accidentally bought Loritidine tablets from Boots - I know Loritidine knock me out.... thought they were the other kind.