Cretan Vista Site News Archive June 2006

Cretanvista Site News & News Reviews - JUNE 2006 Issue 40
No links to sites with adult content accepted.	JUNE WEATHER ... Some very hot days - heat wave weather, but also a couple of cloudy days with the threat of rain! In general we are warming up very nicely but still not absolutely settled.. Latest Crete Weather Link. _____________________________ SWISS HOSPITALITY SUPREME 220605020x02.jpg Copyright:Cretanvista Photograph: Buochs. Switzerland. The reception of the Postillon Hotel, an absolutely superb stop - casual or resident. Overlooking Lake Lucerne. Superb views; superb food and superb staff.... CLICK HERE TO ENLARGE. Astratigos Village Life... Will probably continue long after the end of the world.... It certainly seems unstoppable right now, though you can't actually see anything happening! Two days ago I rang Honda in Chania, who had supplied our CRV, in search of a new spare Key. We are about to go on holiday. Losing ones only key over the side of a Greek ferry will not amuse the crew. Especially if I am parked on the single file exit ramp blocking a couple of hundred other vehicles! Or something equally exciting. New key? No problem... 2 days! Two days! Must be a miracle worker. I had lost my spare in the UK a little while back and waited three fruitless weeks - listening to various excuses from the local Honda agent - before being told that he had failed, was about to go on holiday and that my best bet was to ring Honda! I did. They said that they would have to get the key from Germany (for a UK built car) and that my best bet was to wait until I reached Greece again and ring my local Honda agent.... So (not being normal) I did.... In Astratigos, the second day dawned with an early call from Honda - my key had arrived from Athens! Could I collect it? Certainly could, but oh' - that life could be so simple.... Full of excitement and good humour, I arrived at Honda. My key was handed over. But, wait a moment, it was blank! Seriously uncut! "You must take the Key to Chania and have it cut to match your original" was the message. "Where?" I enquired. "Anywhere in Chania" was the smiling reply. We arrived at our favourite car park with good speed but hit the first snag. Secure parking. The car is parked for you and so is the key.... No key no key cutting! I solved that without effort.. No problem! Just watch me... The first key cutter turned pale when he saw the key. He advised me to go to another at 61 Marco polo... Which turned out to be a superb pet shop! At the rear of which was a 22nd Century key cutter. Computerized 'cut it now look no hands' equipment. Done in a few minutes as the cutter taught his rather young son the tricks of his trade... 'Now you must take the key back to Honda' says he....'for programming'... I did, they did, and the workshop foreman declared it a baby elephant and gave up - it was 'no good' - would not fit the lock!! We would have to take it back to the pet shop!! OK.... The car park was now beginning to catch on - they park the car and give me the key. I take the key to the pet shop where the key cutter demands an explanation from his computer - which analyses my key and declares it 'bad'... Same diagnosis... Well, I think to myself, I am still about three weeks faster than the UK and I do have a spare key now, even if it won't fit the car! Onward. While his family sells pet food and pets, my key cutter gives my key back to his machine, punches in some new numbers and we all get back to the weather. While his machine, I fear, eats what remains of my new spare key and de-activates my good one for seconds! Oh. ye of little faith.... Key cut, we are instructed to return to the car and try the key in the door. If it works I am to go back to Honda. If it doesn't I am to take the whole car to the pet shop's (no parking) kerb! The car park attendant grabs the new (wrong) key from my hand and leaps into the car. I couldn't think!! Panic was set in!.. (well, do you know the Greeks for 'Don't put that dog into the ignition it will wee on the carpet?') I Froze. The receptionist laughed uncontrollably and radioed the errant driver before he killed my car for keeps with the still 'bad' key!! I gave him the right key and tried the new spare in the car door. Eureka! (He was a Greek too and look what happened to him when his bath water ran over..)... But I had won. Sincere and heartfelt thanks to the great god in the sky. Praise be... It had been an exciting day, but now I had my new spare key.... Well, almost. The almost overwhelming sense of relief I felt really is indescribable. The obstacles I had overcome that morning; the heat of the day; horrendous traffic in Chania; following my beliefs and daring to go to a pet shop to have a compterised car (expensive) key cut a second time by the machine that had failed the first! Olympic Gold..!! Now you must take the new key back to Honda, said the smiling receptionist! Now how did she know that?........	In the News Reviews...Continued.. Red Arrows back in Athens... Rhodes born Dick Patounas leads the British Red Arrows back to Athens again for another show on June 1st. Link to Story. Photo Story. Crete ferry vandal jailed & fined... An AEK club fan was jailed for 2.5 years and fined 600 euros after a riot on board a ferry following a cup final in Crete. Other rioters are awaiting trial.... Link to Story. Polish stabbing in Iraklion... Polish man admits stabbing fellow countryman following an argument in an Iraklion park... Link to Story. Anyone for Golf?... Greek Tourism minister Fani Pailli-Petralia tells Cretans (and anyone else listening) that "Crete is an ideal destination for all those people who play golf"..... Link to Story. BBC gives Greece it's voice back... But only on 2,000 CD-Roms. After closing down the BBC World Service Greek news last December the Greek parliament receives a silent gift. In favour of an Arabic language channel.... Link to story. Chania (Hania) stabbing... A 48 year old taxi driver stabbed a 40 year old off-duty police officer in a Chania cafe 'for no apparent reason'... Link to story. Greek Beaches... The EU says that 100% meet mandatory requirements. The EU average is 96.1%... (Blue flag awards are also excellent).. Link to story. And on the subject of beaches... Please be aware that sea turtles also use Cretan beaches and need protection. Have a look at this article.... Link to story. But Greek lakes are suffering badly... Polluted Greek mainland Lake Koroneia may next pollute nearby Lake Volvi unless effective action is not taken soon... Link to story. But Greek olive oil is best... Of the 400.000 tons produced annually in Greece, 100.000 tons goes for export. Get your free bottle at Athens International Airport before they are all gone... Link to story. Seaplanes are definitely back... Up and up and expanding routes. Airsea lines intend purchasing another 30 sea planes to expand it's routes. This is a venture worth supporting - seaplanes may be back in Crete one day soon... Link to story. Illegal possession of antiquities... Is something the authorities here in Greece, including Crete, take seriously... Link to story. House prices continue to rise... Which will probably hit Greece hard as the lower priced Balkan countries such as Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania have relatively far better deals.... Link to story. And other Greek Islands compete... Aegina, Spetses and Hydra may be luring prospective home buyers in another direction...... Link to story. Cretan drive-by shooting!... Cuased serious damage to prmises in the village of Tefeli in Crete, but luckily no one was injured. Link to story. Chania (Hania) stabbing... A 48 year old taxi driver stabbed a 40 year old off-duty police officer in a Chania cafe 'for no apparent reason'... Link to story. ________________________ COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT All of the material produced by Cretanvista is copyright and belongs to someone who has spent time, effort and money to produce it. We are often willing to allow the use of our material for personal (non-commercial) purposes. For example our calendar photographs can be used to reproduce the pictures for your own individual calendars, or to hang on granny's bedroom wall. We will however, take action against anyone we discover using our materials in any mass distribution exercise, especially for financial gain, unless specifically authorized by us and we are acknowledged as the source in the reproduction. ________________________ The Cretanvista Review of Carol Palioudaki's 'Cool Guide to Living in Crete' (A gold mine of information) is, like the book, available now. Out Now - Get it at www.livingincrete.net Or visit www.coolpublications.co.uk ________________________
FREE... Cretanvista is a free site. We accept neither cash nor gratuities and sell nothing. We don't carry paid for advertising. But we do try to give you information which you might want to know about. House FOR SALE... If you are looking for a house in Crete here is a private sale in SPILIA by an English couple - a house and an attached apartment suitable for holiday letting. No Agents involved. We know this couple - have a look around the house and area on the following link.. www.crete-house-sale.com Accommodation in Astratigos - For rent/Sale again.... The first house on the left as you enter Astratigos from Afrata - a magnificent cream and green affair sporting two apartments two balconies and a small pool at the front and containing two holiday apartments. Live in Astratigos maybe? . TWO HOLIDAY VILLAS... .. Another local owner has carried out some superb traditional renovation on a ruined house - and has renovated what was his own accommodation - maybe for your holidays! Book and check availability at:- Holiday-rentals.com In Kolimbari - right on the beach near the tavernas:- The Grand Bay Beach Hotel Visit Interdynamic's website. ______________ www.provencebeyond.com Well worth a visit if you are interested in France, especially the southern parts.
FERRY SERVICES. SOUDA BAY - PIRAEUS (Chania-Athens). ANEK LINES operate daily return sailings. Souda - Piraeus 21.00Hrs 05.30Hrs Piraeus - Souda 21.00Hrs 05.30Hrs Hellenic Seaways commence daily return sailings from Monday 17th April 2006 Souda - Piraeus 21.00Hrs 01.45Hrs Piraeus - Souda 15.45Hrs 20.15Hrs PLEASE NOTE THAT YOU SHOULD ALWAYS CHECK TIMETABLES WITH THE COMPANIES OR THEIR AGENTS. WEBSITE LINKS
Moving to Crete - Practical Advice.. 'Notes on Greece' is a British Embassy publication which gives information on matters relating to Greece. Obtaining a copy first hand from the British Consulate in Iraklion (Heraklion) will ensure that you have the most recent edition - and professional contacts with up-to-date and wide ranging knowledge on matters relating to Crete. Contact the consulate via:- : crete@british-consulate.gr An e-mail copy is available as a Microsoft word file - a very fast email of very useful information.

Earthquake activity in Greece was back to very low levels in June, certainly very much less than in May. However, it is worth remembering that earthquakes never go away, the shaking of the earth simply decreases for a while...

08 Jun: 4.6 Richter Scale, 05.39am. Evia.
             Epicentre 75Km NE of Athens.
                                                               Link to Story.


23 Jun: 3.9 Richter Scale, 09.00am. Mandra. Attika.
              Epicentre 20Km NW of Athens.
                                                               Link Closed.

25 Jun: 4.6 Richter Scale, 05.49am. Cephalonia.
             Undersea epicentre 13Km E of Cephalonia.
                                                               Link to Story.

We apologize for being unable to bring all the earthquake story links - some past links are no longer available whilst others are available only for short periods. We are indicating closed links as quickly as possible. Link Closed.

Earthquakes are a common feature of life in Greece and rarely cause any damage. They are, however, taken seriously, as can be seen from the recent emergency exercise for rescue workers held in Volos, mainland Geece.                                                 Link to Story.

The problem is that the earthquakes which do are unpredictable. Recent Greek research has indicated a continued advance in methods of prediction.

At least one professor (Vassilis Papazachos) believes that there will be at least 4 major earthquakes in the future.
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A Little Extra News....

Well, all good things to all men! And women and children first of course....

Especially as we are about to depart once again on one of our pilgrimages to the UK. Hence the 'women and children first' offering. That is, a good part of the trip is by boat - Greek car ferry - and although I believe firmly that our driver, ANEK shipping lines, are probably the safest in Greece, I do not like the thought of having to clamber into a lifeboat donned in a fluorescent red dinner Jacket with flashing lights, bells and whistles in the depths of a dark night. In a force 10, after being run down by an errant iceberg!

Women and children first then... I mean, it looks along way down to the water from the boat deck of even the average car ferry.

First a day crossing (first time) from Souda to Piraeus compliments of the good ship Lato. Then across the top of the Peloponnese (Piraeus-Patra) by car and a midnight departure for Venice On Lefka Ori. All ANEK Boats which we know... A week in Venice - where that car park costs nearly as much as the people (unless I really am the new owner) and where we are meeting our son and his partner Tracey before departing for a couple of days crossing Europe. A brief overnight sojourn at Buochs (Lucerne) before braving again the 17Km St Gothards tunnel. Then on to Metz in France and the Black Cat restaurant If you are ever in that part of France give it a go- a wee bit pricey but well worth it.

Calais - Dover and on to Luton en-route to our family home in Lincoln. Then four weeks pining for Crete before a roughly reversed the procedure - but this time leaving from Hull on the P&O ferry to Zeebrugge adding Epinal in France and maybe a different hotel in Switzerland (our favourite at Buochs being full) and a new stop at Imola in Italy en-route Ancona. The ANEK Lines Hellenic Spirit back to Patra. Drive to Piraeus Harbour and Lissos - to which we are firmly attached and an early morning (6.30am) coffee at the Rendezvous Cafe while the sun rises..... Home again.

It is absolute magic! And, emotionally, that early morning coffee in Souda is still as moving as the first arrival - getting on for 13 years ago now. With Christmas to look forward to! Fly to Athens (Agean); Easyjet to Luton; Christmas and January with family and friends; Easyjet back to Athens in February and a day or so waving my camera about before a fast trip back here to Crete by Agean Airlines. I like Agean so much because they are a superb airline - and because they fly Avro RJ100's..... I grew up not far from the runway of the Avro works at Woodford in Cheshire. I spent much of my time wanting to pilot, first Lancasters; then Shackletons; and then the mighty Vulcan... If you have never seen a Vulcan perform aerobatics over your back garden (in Lincoln) you have missed something serious in life! The last flying Vulcan was decommissioned from Waddington - I watched it leave for the last time...

Reminiscences supreme... Apologies. So what about Cretanvista? No problem - the whole team will be beavering away. Paul Smith watching the birds in case they are stolen.... Colin Turvey taking pictures of them for the insurance company... Ann Lisney attempting to convince herself that my demands really are unreasonable; Klaus Thill thinking out why my new demand for a gallery of the photo-book on Chania he has yet to complete is difficult (..he has yet to compile the book!).. and their partners wondering why I don't pay so well!! The reason is because money would only make them all unhappy - so I don't give them any!

And what about Bob Manousakis - the dentist currently displaying my latest artistic efforts in his Chania surgery? A man of steel nerve. (Or is that Iron?). Want to see my efforts before he sells the pictures (or donates them) for the benefit of children here in Chania? Easy, go on, make a kid smile - have a tooth out!!

Cretanvista, bringing the sunshine - keeping the rain off!..

Kalos Ithate Stin Kriti
WB.
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Site News.
More additions: But not a lot of site changes this month. Having said that new May diary from Paul Smith on bird watching went online online early in June; photographs for new pages in the bird gallery are awaiting addition; new additions pending to the flower galleries are still in the queue; preparation of the new Athanasios Sakoulis nature gallery continues; two further copies of Carol Palioudakis to give her CD book about living in Crete (current issue competition) are on the desk; a new recipe is prepared (and the results have been eaten)...

So what are we waiting for? The answer to that lies in "A Little Extra News".... immediately below the Earthquakes report opposite left.

Books & Good Reading - Latest Reviews.
New Addition. Our latest book is 'Greek Island Hopping' by Frewin Poffley. Ann Lisney, our reviewer does not want to miss the boat and adds this Island Hopping 'bible' to her reviews.

Read the review:-

Greek Island Hopping.
Frewin Poffley. Thomas Cook Publishers.

It is very well worth a look, or perhaps even a buy if the review appeals. Not from us, but details of suppliers are on each review. Tip: The publisher has a very good current price...

The people behind the books: Every book review has an introductory paragraph about the author/s. We have decided to go a little further and where possible, include profiles of not only these talented authors but also, where we can, of people behind them.

Good examples are 'Patouchas' - Ioannis Kondylakis (Read the review) and 'Who Pays The Ferryman' - Michael J. Bird (Read the review) These profiles will be attached to relevant book reviews. Watch this space...

Photo Galleries Still at the MARCH 2006 additions..
Wild Flowers: Stands at 192 different wild flowers. 99% have been taken right here at the base of the Rodopos peninsula. We are continually working on these galleries and will soon been adding further pages, including detailed reference pages and more photos of each specimen. There are now more than 4,000+ flower photographs in our databases. The galleries will rise to 216 specimens ASAP - an additional 24 are still in the workshop! Detailed descriptions will follow soon.

Bird Galleries. Gallery Page 3 pending...
The first page of our first purely bird photograph gallery went on line on 26th March 2006. Colin Turvey (see February News) has now added a second page and we are now working hard on adding page 3 - more of Colin's bird photographs - a big plus for Cretanvista.

And More - Athanasios Sakoulis, who contributed the magnificent gallery from his book on Cretan wildlife to our site Moments of Cretan Nature has now contributed 18 pictures of birds for addition to a gallery. We will attach this to Paul Smith's bird-watching page in the near future. Something worth waiting for... Just a little longer, we are very busy right now..

But that isn't all... Anastasios Sakoulis has also given us permission (and supplied the photographs) to produce a gallery of his latest book. A book of 20 superb postcards of Cretan wildlife called Naturally... Crete. Ann Lisney will also be reviewing the book in the near future. What can I say - another first en-route, watch this space!...

Special Gallery. A first! Klaus-Dieter Thill - author of Minaturkapellen auf Krista, a real photo album detailing some of those enigmatic roadside shrines of Crete. Klaus has supplied photographs for this gallery which is now on-line here at Cretanvista. There will also be, of course, a review the book...

Insects.. In prepartion..
We have built up - and are still adding to - an extensive collection of photographs from which we are producing galleries for our wild life page. The next of these will be insects - about which we have received few queries, but many of which are supremely photogenic. We have some beautiful reptiles too...

GENERAL: There are now 13 galleries featuring aspects of Cretan life, including sunrise and sunset pictures; Souda Bay War Cemetery; and the gallery of magnificent wild-life pictures by Anastasios Sakoulis, author of "Stigmotipa Tis Kritikis Freesis" (Moments of Cretan Nature); our infant gallery about house renovation; and of course our annual calendar galleries containing 60 or so pictures of north western Crete about to increase by 12 - for 2005. The 2006 calendar gallery is on-line. LINK.

Visitors...
May saw a slight drop on April's 24,277 visitors to our sites. 14,082 to our British ISP and 5922 to our Greek ISP. We only count a visitor once in any month. 'Hits' are something else - from the visitors to our Greek site alone we generated 43,392 'hits'... The figures are nice - 20,044 - they really mean that our hard work saw over 646 different people a day knock on our door - anyone for coffee?!!

What gives us a lot of pleasure is looking at the countries our visitors are in. Where they are sat while (or stood) looking at our site while we delivered in excess of 46,468 pages...

52 countries! Whilst Europe and the USA are home to the vast majority of visitors, we have a small number from more distant locations - India; Indonesia; Australia, New Zealand; South Africa; Taiwan; South America - Peru; Columbia; Costa Rica; Mexico; and also from the Russian Federation! Magic - Peru! Columbia! Costa Rica!
Over 200 Universities also provide visitors....

Every single visitor to our site is precious to us. For the most part we will never know who you are or what you think of us. Those who ask questions often provide us with new insights into what people want to see, why they visit Crete. In some cases why they want to live and work here. One or two get to meet one of our team - usually Paul Smith - our intrepid bird watching expert. A popular person!
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E-Mail Requests..
I receive some brilliant e-mails - really - and they are very welcome. But sometimes there is no acknowledgement that our answer has been received. We don't mind, but worry occasionally that someone may not have received an answer from us and think the worse of us! We will ALWAYS reply to e-mail so please, if you have mailed us and not received an answer - resend your mail - we didn't get it or have somehow overlooked it. Our response time is usually within 48 hours.

Personal Information..
We have been asked in the past to help locate people. We would love to be able to assist but regret that are unable to do this. There is fuller comment in previous issues of CV News.

Questions and Answers..
Quite a lot of questions are received here at Cretanvista and, as with e-mails and other forms of communication, we do our best to supply valid answers. We never respond "Off the Top of our Heads" but always research the answer - even if we already have one (things change) before passing the information on. We provide links to appropriate alternative sources where we have them. The answers are given with the proviso that recipients are responsible for any action taken by them.

Guest Book. E-mail links are accepted. Website URL, Bulletin board and chat-room style links are not. Website links are removed automatically to prevent inclusion of sites without agreement.

Book Reviews.
Because each book review is original - we steal nothing from the book covers or the reviews of others - it takes a little longer to deal with each. No point our reviewing the reviews when what readers really want to know about is the content!

The Cretan Vista Calendar Photos - Birds.
We trying to build a specialist calendar of birds - whilst we are building our own library photographs - contributions are always welcome. They will always be acknowledged and copyright will remain your own. (Please email us before sending pictures).

Bird Watchers.
Paul Smith, our resident specialist on ornithology, last year underwent unexpected surgery for what was a fatal cancer. We understand that his remarkable subsequent recovery is almost complete. JUNE DIARY on line at all Cretanvista URL's.

We remain deeply indebted to Han and Inger van der Lelie, 3815 PV Amersfoort, who enabled us to publish the June 2005 page of Paul's now unbroken series.

mailto:Webmaster@cretanvista.gr

Best Books..
Check out our easy to use 'Book Shelves' containing all our book reviews. Just point the mouse and left click in the boxes below..

BookShelf1

BookShelf2

We will be updating the appearance of this section fairly soon - particularly the Icons leading directly to the bookshelves (maybe prettier than the ones above!) and perhaps the current new book review box.

Latest Book Reviews...

Greek Island Hopping.
Frewin Poffley. Thomas Cook (Publishers) Ltd.

The 'Bookshelf' links (yellow) above contain all books.
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Can this be you.....or yours?.. This Month - wilf B.
Every so often when I am out and about taking photographs I come across someone who could be you - or something which could be yours (or theirs!!). Maybe passing in the opposite direction on a full tandem bicycle (yes, that happened); an unattended car with foreign plates; something which catches my eye and leaves me not knowing......... Either there was no one to ask or they were moving too quickly! I thought that perhaps site visitors might like to see or be able to help identify one or two 'unknowns' which have left me wondering who, or what I have missed.   Can this be yours?


                      Take one Morris Minor.....
               Now that's advertising - Real Time!
             Chania City Centre - 7th April 2005


Until next month, best wishes from here on Crete. WB