The other evening we went to Antiparos to enjoy the sunset from a patio bar there. They have a great snack plate at the Sunset Bar and Grill.



On the way I was amazed at how many people can kite board without ending up in a tangled mess.



Attention Bloggers: The blog traffic exchange, Blogazoo, announced they were closing down. An alternative that I am now using is Blog Soldiers. Take a look here: http://www.blogsoldiers.com/splash3.php?rid=7008

Here are another couple photos from Manfred. The church is the same one we have published before. This time the planet Venus is showing.

The second is the Aliki beach and harbour using a filter. I think that is one of his boys running. They also are familiars in our photos over the past few years.

I like statistics: The number of seats offered on flights operating this month (July) has reached an all-time high, with a capacity of 309.7 million seats worldwide – equivalent to an airline seat for the entire population of the United States.

According to the latest statistics from the Official Airline Guide, this represents 19.9 million extra seats (a 7% increase) available to travellers compared with the same month last year.

The number of flights for July 2007 has increased by an additional 129,373, a rise of 5% year on year. A total of 2.6 million flights are timetabled this month, topping the previous industry high of 2.51 million reported for May 2007, and up from 2.47 million for July 2006.

To me it is hard to imagine that many people on the move.

An interesting bit of news: Greece and Turkey on Thursday agreed to exchange electricity power. The two countries aim to complete all interconnection projects of their electricity grids by January 2008 (using the Philippi-Babaeski 400 KV line).

The Turkish Minister said: "The line expands in 268 km carrying electricity power of 137 KV to Greece by the end of July or early August. Our relations with Greece are very good with new projects constantly emerging. We will be able to receive electricity power from Greece as well".

To me this indicates more of what goes on in everyday life between countries than the attention seeking politicians and the sensation seeking news media. There is no room for animosity in buying and selling.

Our friends from Amsterdam, who started out as clients our first year of hotel operation seven years ago, are in town. Manfred used to be a professional photographer and took these two photos.

The first is of a close-in fishing boat taken from our veranda.


The second is of Karin and I playing cards with the two boys on our veranda at night. Secondary entertainment is watching the geckos catching moths and other bugs. That night we counted 5 salamanders of all sizes. Read more about the sport at our Squidoo Site: http://www.squidoo.com/Paros

So . . .
nothing interesting is going on in my life. So I will piggy back on those who are enthusiastic about Paros.

Wendy Killoran of Ontario, Canada gives an evocative account of her Greece vacation including Paros and including great photographs. Check it out at http://kayakwendy.blogspot.com/2007/07/highlights-of-greece.html

Next up Linney Lou Lou from MySpace and Seattle, WA, USA lets us see Paros through the eyes of an island-hopping 22 year old girl. See it at this blog post.

I just read the most interesting and entertaining reminiscence from Paros.

Former rock band member and island tour guide George tells of his youthful adventures on Paros. best memories from Paros island
It is well worth your time to click and read.

The photo on the left is his. The one below I took near the same spot in 2005.



For more of our story on current day Paros see our full service Paros web site
Share our Greek Island Paradise

Lately the Special Olympics has been a warm-up event for the Olympics but the sponsors from Greece have been able to convince the responsible international committee to come back to Athens for 2011 after the 2007 games in China. So maybe all those empty sports venues from the 2004 Olympics will be used again after all.

What's On on Paros? Way too many concerts, art openings, workshops, exhibitions, and the like to mention here. So check out the list at
Issue 105 of ParosLife soon available at www.paroslife.com

Well, finally something interesting has happened.

I haven't written about the one week heat wave we have been having because all one can do is hunker down and endure--though some people seem to think complaining about the heat can help.

Anyway it is over and we now have the cooling breezes back. Today the wind was quite heavy so I decided to snorkel instead of my normal exercise swimming.

In just a few seconds when I was still close in I saw what looked like a child's toy, a waterlogged sponge fish. It was bright yellow with distinct black rings here and there on the body. There were long growths sticking out all over; some looked like fins, some like tentacles. Cool I thought, this is the strangest thing I have seen snorkeling. I watched it for awhile and then moved on. About 10 meters away there was another one. They were about 12 inches long and 6 inches high I would estimate. All in all a good session with a quantity of fish and other sites including a yellow, lacy sea weed that I don't remember seeing before.

So I came back to search for a photo on the internet. Nothing I found compares; if I had an underwater camera I would certainly have had a prize photo opportunity.

The shape and design of the first photo are about right but the colors were very vivid--like the second photo except more yellow than orange. If any divers have a photo taken in Greece I would certainly love to see it.

P.S. The Latin name is Aplysia dactylomela and these photos are from http://www.seaslugforum.net/
Cheers