This article is an interesting read – both about Greek bureaucracy and the New Acropolis Museum.

As we have not seen the completed museum yet, only an early pre-completion preview, the article gives a mouthwatering must-visit description.

On Greek bureaucracy this is perfect, accurate and the story told can be applied to everything in Greece.

Go visit the museum.
Fire the bureaucrats, almost every one of them, save the few (5% would be generous) who really contribute. Life in Greece would immediately be 100 times healthier and better for all who sail under the fluttering blue and white flag.

http://globalista.co.uk/destinations/athens/itineraries/the-new-acropolis-museum-postcard

A new Building, a new era, the new Acropolis museum opens in June.

Athens has improved so much in the last 6 years from the visitor’s viewpoint.
The walk all the way around the Acropolis, pedestrianized, with outdoor-indoor cafes punctuating a stroll beneath that most impressive of monuments has been the foundation of the transformation.

Everything of immediate note and fame to see in the centre of Athens is well, there within walking distance in the centre – all major museums and sites.

Now the new Acropolis Museum Building present a the final treat.

The Grand opening on the 20th June will be followed by 3 days of exclusive admission only to ticket-holders who have purchase tickets online (available from 1 week before the official opening day).
The museum will cost only 1 Euro for admission until the end of 2009.

Next year – 2010 – the admission charge will increase to a still very reasonable 5 Euros.

Apart from the endless delights, contemporary methods of display and plethora of treasures on show, there will also be a gift shop and cafe-restaurant at the museum.

Nearest metro station (entrance right outside the museum) is “Acropolis” .

There are two entrances – from the Metro station (on Makrygianni Street) it’s just 40 metres to the Acropolis pedestrianized walkway and then another entrance is round the corner on a side street (Mitseon Street).

Information and tickets http://www.newacropolismuseum.gr

Guide to Athens http://www.cretetravel.com/Athens/Athens_mini_guide/Athens_mini_guide-Museums.htm

(or www.CreteTravel.com/Athens )

Open Doors – every year this wine event takes place in the area of a different city

This year, in fact 17-18 May weekend, in the areas around Athens. From 1100 hours in the morning to 1800 (6PM) each evening.

Free visits, tours, special offers and delights at Wineries around Athens.

Most important – the map> http://www.enoaa.gr/xartis_dr1a1.pdf

One of the estates – for information: http://www.semeliwines.com (one of the best of the bunch for visitors). But be sure to look at the winery in Stamata (not Nemea which is further away in the Peloponnese)

For details (in Greek): http://www.enoaa.gr

Athens – good fast access from the airport by metro, great walk area around the Acropolis

A good article with some tips for visiting Athens>
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/02/travel/04hours.php?WT.mc_id=travelalert

The guide to Athens if you are there for a 2-3 day visit>
http://cretetravel.com/Athens/Athens_mini_guide/Athens_mini_guide-Museums.htm

Back from Athens

This means: three great new hotels for next year’s travel to Athens, new roof terraces and dining with views of the Acropolis, low cost simple dining pleasure near Syntagma square, anorak centre (more low cost puffy jackets than you have ever seen) near Omonia and the great bazaar floor of the Fokas store where the clothes “they” didn’t buy cost less, a taxi to Athens airport can cost as little as 25 Euros when there is no traffic around….now it’s down to writing about the scores of new hotels in Crete, Peloponnese, Athens and elsewhere in Greece (this time and the first time for Santorini !) – hand-picked, personally and rigorously inspected gems for your delight when you stay in your perfect place in Greece. Oh yes, the new Acropolis museum is truly taking shape with multiple giant cranes swooping enormous marble items across the skyline from the Acropolis itself to the new museum which is scheduled and is hoped to open at the end of March 2008 (check before trundling over there though).

(Oh and by the way, from January 2008 see ‘em all on www.SuperbGreece.com and www.Crete-Hotels-Rooms.com – get ready for the happiest of travels ! )

Museum personnel will start moving the largest, weighty exhibits to the new Acropolis Museum in Athens on Sunday 14 October with the help of 3 cranes.

Today the 4th day of October a rehearsal takes place to check safety and technical strategies are all aok.

We have a great hotel which will benefit from being within 2 minutes (yes literally and truthfully) stroll of the new museum….if you want to spend time at the museum and only a few visits to all the other parts of Athens you may wish to see, there could be none better. But wait…it will be a little while before the new museum opens…the date is not yet clear.

Fly into Athens, jump on the train, arrive within 1 hour at the port (Piraeus)

From around 0600 (6AM) in the morning until about 2200 (10PM) every day the New train service runs in one direct route.

There are two trains each hour.

The evreyday low price is 6 Euros each way.

Makes flying in to Athens and tracking along to the port, to sail to your favourite – or soon to be disocvered – Greek island, easy as pie !

The new flavours of hotels in Athens are smaller, intimate, chic, romantic, smart but friendly.

SuperbGreece.com has offered Fresh hotel for some time and it is still a new and yes, fresh face in the field of good choices.

Two hotels added for your stay this year are:

-the chic, stylish and woop-modern-classy Ochre and Brown hotel near Monasteraki (buy those leather jackets, true bric a brac, stroll the new pedestrian walkway around the acropolis and go shopping, if you can prize yourself away from Ochre and Brown’s smart and mouthwatering, intimate restaurant).

-the sauve and dashing intimate club-like atmosphere on offer at Hera Hotel – on the south side of the Acropolis – one and a half minutes walk from the metro and from the soon to be new Acropolis museum (end of 2007 perhaps), and 5 minutes from the Acropolis, ten from Plaka and the shops of Ermou and the Parliament (Syntagma) Square…charming, friendly and smart rooms and suites, rooftop terrace views and bright airy breakfast room with real dog-gone-fresh buffet breakfasts

Both are chic (very – Ochre and Brown, somewhat – Hera) and intimate (both very) and stylish (both) and accessible to the centre (walking distance).

Well if you want to see more, get more info, get advice, get a personal recommendation for Your own likes and preferences to be sure you have the greatest time in Athens, head on over to your browser and join:
Hera Hotel – http://www.superbgreece.com/Hera_Hotel.htm
or
Ochre and Brown – http://www.superbgreece.com/Ochre_Brown_Hotel.htm

Getting to Greece is great – or it will be later this spring

You will be able to fly from Philadelphia to Athens with US airways and
from New York (Newark) to Athens with Continental airlines from the spring this year

We will be pleased to see you arrive in Greece with greater ease and convenience.

Olympic Airlines get a couple of cheers – Now you can fly from Sitia to Heraklion and return. A medium sized, modern, 37 Seat DH8 now plies this route with flights from Sitia also to Rodos (Rhodes), Karpathos and Kasos.

There are also occasional (not daily) flights to Athens and Alexandroupoli.

So have a look at the hotels in the east of Crete and see where you could be enjoying and dreaming, during a break from the rest of life…fly into Sitia and off you go!

Flights schedules will be updated to include these by 23 January or earlier on the great resource for flights to Crete at http://www.CreteTravel.com/flights