A PENSIONER fed up with airports chose a novel way of travelling to her dream holiday - by paying £2,000 for a taxi from Suffolk to Greece.Instead of battling through the airport, 89-year-old Kathleen Searles and her 73-year-old friend Wendy Turner opted for the comfort of an eight-seater taxi covering 4,000 miles across Europe to visit Aristotle's School in Naousa, where Alexander the Great studied.

A PENSIONER fed up with airports chose a novel way of travelling to her dream holiday - by paying £2,000 for a taxi from Suffolk to Greece.

Instead of battling through the airport, 89-year-old Kathleen Searles and her 73-year-old friend Wendy Turner opted for the comfort of an eight-seater taxi covering 4,000 miles across Europe to visit Aristotle's School in Naousa, where Alexander the Great studied.

Mrs Searles said: “I thought to myself that I am unfortunately very elderly and I didn't fancy flying too much.

“I am not very keen on airports anymore as I don't like being taken around in a wheelchair.

“I have been in this particular taxi on a number of occasions when I have gone to London and I just thought it would be a comfortable way to get to Greece.

“I thought it would be very nice just to get in the car at Sudbury. So this is what I did.”

Taxi driver Julian Delefortrie, said: “I had taken Mrs Searles to London before and she asked me if I would like to drive to Europe.

“I said I would love too but I never expected a trip to Greece - it certainly made a change from the typical airport run.”

During a whistle-stop drive through Europe, Mrs Searles then decided to stop by Belgrade, Budapest, Austria and Germany on her journey home.