One can tell where our Piso Aliki beach at the south end of Paros ranks in the scheme of things when it is August before the maintenance crews and their equipment arrive.

Though I must say that the village street cleaners do clean it regularly starting in May.

We are not sure what the purpose of this machine is but there does seem to be more sand and less rock above the water line than before.

Perhaps they were getting ready for the visit of the Club Med ship.  Early Wednesday morning Karin was sitting on our veranda reading.  Then she went inside to prepare her breakfast.  When she came back out to eat it she was surprised by this view.

If she hadn’t seen it in previous years she would have thought it was plunked down by a time machine as there was no sight or sound beforehand.  Again it looms much larger than the photo indicates.

The Athens News Agency reported on Friday that for the first 6 months of 2010 the Greek government reduced their annual budget deficit by 39.7%.  That’s right nearly 40% less deficit than in 2009.

In other words, since revenues are up and expenses are down, Greece only spent 12.10 billion Euro more than they had coming in versus 20.05 billion Euro for the same period last year.

Everyone here is very curious about what will happen as the tourism season ends in September.  Uncertainty is always bad for business and we have a very uncertain future on the Greek islands at this time.  Stay tuned.

I just realised that I have not taken many photos this summer.  We are not doing or seeing anything that is different, I am afraid.

This is a different view of Club Med 2 that visits Aliki about three times per year.

Well, I have not been blogging because I have been consumed in a project that has nothing to do with the Greek islands.

We had a pleasant evening Friday night. After dinner we drove into Parikia to tour the Holland Tunnel Gallery while listening to the jazz styling of Heleen Schuttevaer, a Dutch professional. The art was fine but we got more enjoyment from touring the 17th century building of which the gallery is the ground floor, sprawling living quarters above.

Next I had a gelato from my favourite vendor that I have raved about in previous blogs followed by the two of us having ouzo at our favourite in-town bar, Pebbles. We sit on the terrace and watch the ferries come and go from the black sea and the pedestrians come and go in all shapes and styles. We drove home in pleasant moonlight.


This morning we wake up to the beautiful yacht, Club Med 2 sailing into our bay. It was even more beautiful as it sailed away after dark with its floodlighted sails.

Life is good.

There was an exciting piece of news released the other day by Athens News Headlines. Stelios Haji-Ioannou, the Cypriot who founded easyJet, has had extensive talks with Greece authorities about expanding easyCruise into the Cyclades.

This could produce a big shake-up in the balance of power in island transportation. The news article indicated cooperation between the seamen’s union and the merchant marine ministry; no mention of the ferry companies. Each year lately has seen escalating difficulties with adequate ferry and airplane schedules to provide the major islands with both passengers and freight. The situation with the smaller islands is difficult as well.

EasyCruise has been providing economy cruises along the French and Italian Riviera for two seasons to mixed reviews. As I understand it they “unbundled” the package so that you pay separately for rooms, food, and entertainment; the same principle as “no frills” airline travel.

If anyone has any experience with easyCruise or see more information about expansion into Greece, please comment.

This photo is of the Club Med II parked off our Piso Aliki beach.

(Our villa is in the middle.)

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This photo I caption "Tom Hanks from our rooftop". It was taken in 2004 when Tom and his family spent a week on Antiparos, the island in the background of the photo. We saw the yacht coming across and knew it must be him.

A couple years before that we admired a yacht in Parikia for several days only to discover later it was Sean Connery's.

Of course many other celebrities have been here. Last summer Karin had drinks with local boy, Yannis Parios. If that name doesn't mean anything to you, you just aren't up on your Greek superstars. He has one gold disc and 2 platinums!

Every summer a big Club Med cruise ship drops anchor off our beach. That is fun to watch. Last year Karin saw this go by:



More information about the Sea Cloud here:

http://www.travellady.com/articles/article-seacloud.html



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