Wading through deep water is hard work. Paddling and dipping toes into the frothy edge of an azure sea is a delight!

Likewise, to be offered treats on a platter is vastly preferable to steaming in the Kitchen!

Just so, just so…with travel.

Now CreteTravel.com have added some 15 new gems to their selection of the most beautiful places to stay in Crete and increased the choices for your sheer delight in Athens http://www.superbgreece.com/Athens/hotels.htm – add to this the legendary service, knowledge and real down home help in choosing the perfect vacation haven – well this is gift wrapped travel!

After romantic moments? Magic moments rolling along one after the other, the flickering candlelight, the twee village, the view where that kiss lasted longer and is remembered for eternity? Then try tasting romance at http://www.crete-hotels-rooms.com/Reservations/Romantic/index.htm

To mark, celebrate, help you enjoy and experience the August full moon, many archaeological sites across Greece and around Crete will stay open tonight ( Wednesday, August 9 ) until 1.00 AM ( on Thursday morning ).

Amongst the sites to see the sights at:
-Acropolis ( Athens ) see the guide for information http://www.cretetravel.com/Athens/Athens_mini_guide/Athens_mini_guide-Museums.htm
-Ancient Olympia ( see some delights of the Peloponnese http://www.superbgreece.com/Peloponnese/index.htm )
Nemea (also in the Peloponnese)
-Delphi
-Sounio (in the aftermath of Lord Byron )
-Aptera (just east of Chania on the island of Crete)
-In other areas and islands ask around or just linger later over your iced espresso or zesto elliniko.

Fly Athens to the island Kalymnos on Olympic airlines’ new route.

Olympic are offering 10 flights a week.

Some flights are direct others land at Astypalia on the way.

INFROMATION on: Other flights of fancy, interest, joy or practicality to and from Crete can be found at http://www.cretetravel.com/To_and_from_Crete/Flights_Crete.htm

A new bridge allows you to glide gracefully in an unhurried manner, above and across the traffic fighting itself around the port of Piraeus (Pireos) - Athens’s port – as you cross from the Metro suburban railway station to the port enclosure.

You can arrive less shaken and stirred, the readier to relax on your ferry to the island of your choice.
Gone and banished is the need to steel yourself to sprinting with hefty luggage, in front of aggressive drivers bent on casting you aside as they race around the port while you humbly, try to cross the road.

The new bridge, complete with elevators (“lifts” for the Queen’s subjects) spans the main road from the Metro station to the port area.

They are models, depictions, sculptures, and fun images.
The “Cow Parade” comes to Athens. A moving feast of an “art” event, first created by Walter Knapp in Zurich. Now after several cities have been exposed to sponsored sculptures, figures and representations of….cows, Athens is not be left out.

From May 8 major squares, the airport and some metro stations will cow-down to cows and this whimsical festival will have everyone in a very dairy mood….

On the Shipping News Front: Shipping owners have finally had enough. Understandably so. Even though we hate strikes. This time shipping companies are to keep their ships tied at port on May 16 in protest at the slow liberalization, to allow free competition on ferry routes within and to/from Greece.

The criticism of slowness and a lack of liberalization (encouragement of free enterprise) can be levelled fairly and squarely at all areas of Greek government, yes – even the current supposedly/allegedly enterprise-friendly government.

We can only hope that this government is slowly (but clearly too slowly) extricating itself from the outdated practices of its discredited predecessors.

Meanwhile laugh at the cows while the ships are in port.

Just added to the SuperbGreece.com (the rest of Greece by CreteTravel.com ! ) website – it’s Athens! Hotels to stay in while enjoying the city.

The revived Olympic city of Athens is a wonderful place to visit or enjoy as a stop-over on the way to the hundreds of must-see places in Greece .

You just have to dine in Plaka, see the Acropolis in front of you, walk around and absorb the many sights of the city and stop at cafes, feel the atmosphere of this historic centre.

There is so much that is new, so much that is ancient but renewed!

These are the first of our selection of perfect hotels to use as your base for exploration and enjoyment.
This is where you choose where to stay in Athens with real warm human help, knowledgeable advice and real consideration for your preferences and wishes. (It is Not another robotic booking site).

Visiting Athens – then visit http://www.superbgreece.com/Athens/hotels.htm and do read the words of wisdom as to Why you should organize your stay and choose where, via SuperbGreece.com at http://www.SuperbGreece.com .

Also take advantage of the information we are happy to share with you in our guide to Athens: http://www.cretetravel.com/Athens/Athens_mini_guide/Athens_mini_guide-Museums.htm
Of course it is good to stay at the ideal location and this is a good way to choose that place:
http://www.cretetravel.com/Athens/Athens_hotels.htm

Welcome to the city of myths, dreams and romance. Not to forget the odd game of backgammon!

A Cretan restaurant we hope to try – Alatsi in Athens.
Using ingredients and recipes from Crete – sounds authentic and tasty – try it and enjoy at Vrasida no.13 near the Hilton hotel (phone 210 721 0501)

Snow fell “all at once” as it always seems to do….much of the country was snow-covered to some degree – including a late-to-work-because-of-the-snow Athens on Tuesday.
Mountains and hilltops over 300 metres were snow covered even in Crete. Crete received months of rain in a night and a day, causing temporary lakes to appear in some parts of Chania while some south and eastern areas saw little of the wet stuff.

Crete has had few rather cold days with daytime temperatures sometimes straining to exceed 6 degrees centigrade. Things, the meteorological soothsayers tell us, will start warming up on Thursday
Perhaps integrity will descend across the land on Friday….! Ho Hum.

First and fast: New trains for the Athens>Thessaloniki route (Inter City 50 and 51) now take a smaller bite out of the day – just 4 hours 15 minutes. This will improve to 4 hours flat in 2006 and 3 hours in 2010. Running now – ready for use and your convenience…

Romantic rail: The Filia / Tostluk train now runs between Thessaloniki and Istanbul and the rail voyage lasts eleven and a half hours. A first class — why not!? — sleeper berth for one is 84 Euros – a bargain for these times methinks.

Make it even better – a couple of tips:
Of course perhaps you will stay the night in Thessaloniki?
Then you will enjoy and benefit from the advice at http://www.superbgreece.com/Makedonia/Thessaloniki/index.htm and be able to choose (with personal help to decide what’s best for you) on which hotel to stay in http://www.superbgreece.com/Makedonia/Thessaloniki/hotels.htm .

Or adventurer and exotic admirer that you are, you may want to stay at the fabulous one-of-a-kind-in-Greece monument hotel in Kavala en route
http://www.superbgreece.com/Imaret.htm

Lufthansa offers fares to Athens as low as $724 today only on their http://www.lufthansa-usa.com website.

We’d love ya’all to visit! Then when you have the flight we’ll help you find the Greece you’ll love at http://www.SuperbGreece.com or the Crete You Are Looking For (TM) at http://www.CreteHotelRooms.com

OK – ready to travel!

Best wishes on a 36 degree (centigrade) day in Crete!

Something else, another view, impression and suggestions about Athens:
http://www.spectator.co.uk/article_archive.php?id=5566

And the evergreen guide to Athens if you are going there (and surely you are ?) >
http://www.cretetravel.com/Athens