The famous Emmantina was just across the road where the north facing rooms faced the airport, a couple of friends of mine stayed there the same week and I did manage to visit their room to see the view a couple of times - it was good!. They spent the whole week on the roof in and out of the pool as aircraft came in to land, they also p*ssed off an Ian Allan tour manager who came to the hotel with a group of spotters the same week, the prime room which my friends had was on the top floor on the north east corner so that they could also see the aircraft approaching as well as passing and landing, the tour manager usually reserved that room for himself but was too late on that occasion!
I took a lot more than these but couldn't find them , some nice exotic subjects as well, I'll add them if / when I find them but these give a flavour of the place, a sad day for spotters when it closed
this is a distant shot from the public beach , I think my hotel was the one on the right hand edge - gives an idea of the view of the aircraft
B747 (ui) KLM Athens (Glyfada) 10-1985 by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickrthese were taken from my hotel balcony , I asked for room with an airport view which surprised the agent (those were the days when independent travel was almost impossible) at least they didn't try to charge a supplement, my ex-wife didn't like the view as much as me but who wants to look at the sea all night when you've been beside it all day?
5A-DIB B727 Libyan Arab Airlines Athens (Glyfada) 10-1985 by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr
TC-JBK DC.9 Turkish Airlines Athens (Glyfada) 10-1985 by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr
SX-BHG Do.228 Olympic Airways Athens (Glyfada) 10-1985-T-T by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr
SX-DBE B707 Olympic Airways Athens (Glyfada) 10-1985-T-T by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickrand now some landers coming in over the beach, shame they weren't a bit more side on but can't win them all. starting with an Egyptair 737
SU-BBX B737 Athens (Glyfada) 1985 2 by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickrnow some 727s, a Kuwait Airways one, then an Olympic one (SX-CBI), that crashed a few years later, followed by an Air Algerie example
9K-AFC B727 Kuwait airways Athens (Glyfada) 10-1985-T by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr
SX-CBI B727 Olympic Airways Athens (Glyfada) 10-1985 by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr
7T-VEP B727 Air Algerie Athens (Glyfada) 10-1985-T by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickrand to finish off a Gulf Air Tristar, sometimes they used the short range L.1011-1s that didn't come to Heathrow but this was a Heathrow regular.
A40-TW L.1011 Gulf Air Athens (Glyfada) 10-1985-T by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickrthe travel brochure warned of possible aircraft noise which might disturb holidaymakers, 'might' was an understatement but I saw it as a positive advantage
sorry they're not the best quality but they do give a flavour of what was once a super multifunctional holiday destination!
I suppose Mike will say St.Maarten is better but I enjoyed it so much that I went back the following year but to a better quality hotel, 1980's Greek hotels were a pretty poor standard even the A grade ones.
Andy
