Newsletter March 2021
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Newsletter Issue 15: March 2021 Well March is here, meaning Spring the weather is warming up after snow (well a snow storm) in February which was so cold it even dipped to 6 degrees, yes, I know how sorry for me you must be feeling We did have the normal Halcyon Days in January though when it is so warm and the sky so clear, an almost piercing blue unlike the powder puff blue of the summer. This weekend should be Carnival and the fact that it would not happening for a second year it so sad hopefully next year! “And the Spring arose on the garden fair, Like the Spirit of Love felt everywhere; And each flower and herb on Earth's dark breast Rose from the dreams of its wintry rest.” Figure 1 Naoussa May 2018 (taken by ― Percy Bysshe Shelley, me) Coming up Well, you endured my film selection so I thought I would follow it up with books! Also, hopefully now we are getting more positive news I will stop boring you to stupefaction with old news, so just the one story combined with the life of a famous islander, and the story of a famous tomb (sorry!). 1 Our News Sadley another year will past with no carnival and I am 100% sure that going to fly kites on the beach on Clean Monday is against all regulations, (have just found out it is not against regulations as long as you inform the authorities in the normal way and walk not drive!) The PM has convinced everyone that Easter will be celebrated this year at least. The vaccine program is rolling out and has sped up following with two super centres one in Athens and one in Thessaloniki, and islands with populations of less than 1000 are having all their jabs done in one or two days. We have seen a steady increase in booking in the first two months of this year and during meetings with other travel agents (by dreaded zoom!) they have reported similar experiences, especially for August and September onwards. Although we still know there is a lot of hesitancy out there and lots of people are awaiting the outcome of the UK government review of international travel, with the report due on the 12th April. From the Greek side the Greek tourism minister has stated that British tourists will be allowed to start arriving from late May, how this is going to “pan out” we don’t have exact details yet, but if you want to know more do not hesitate to contact us. If you are one of those people who understandably is waiting for the UK government’s announcement in April but are hoping to come this year, it would be great if you can let me know beforehand so we can prepare something ready for you, as this will not involve any cost but planning itineraries is time consuming and if it is ready before hand, it is so much easier, sorry I know I go on about this a lot but those who have brought holidays from us in the past know how long the planning can take. Also, a reminder we sell package holidays which means you are protected under Package Tour Regulations by law Figure 2 Spring Tinos 2018 2 News Some up-to-date news to start with as things return to normality the old news will hopefully disappear! Santorini/Mykonos Airports Relief! Fraport have completed work on Mykonos airport ahead of schedule (the one thing the pandemic helped with!) and completion of the works at Santorini are imminent. Mykonos now has it’s VIP lounge back and not the gaping hole in the roof that was there last season! We will be at both airports soon and I will post pictures – from what we have seen online Mykonos is very different to the run down 1970’s style it boasted previously! Figure 3 Church Santorini (can’t remember when!) Bicentennial of the Greek Revolution (1821) An open-air exhibition entitled “History Has a Face” is the first event of celebrations happening this year. From February 8th the portraits of 22 of the heroes of the Greek War of Independence are adorning the walls of the National Gardens facing Vasillissis Sofias Avenue. Also, a new museum dedicated to the Philhellenes Who Fought in Greek War of Independence will open its doors in Athens as soon as it is deemed safe to do so! One old news story to follow! 3 Figure 4Aperianthos Village, Naxos (well it's better than a picture of the Swastika on the Acropolis!) Youth native of Naxos and his friend remove Swastika “It was a large flag and when it fell it covered us. We got it off us, hugged and danced a little, right on the spot,” During the night of May 30 1941 Manolis Glezos and his accomplice Apostolos Santas (both aged 18) armed with just a lantern and a knife entered the Acropolis hill via a cave, they climbed the flag pole on the top and tore down a giant Swastika flag which had been flying over Athens since 27 April that year. The pair made a successful escape, evading a group of German soldiers who were drunkenly “celebrating” the Third Reich’s capture of the island of Crete. By way of explanation as to why he was so late home Glezos gave his mother a square of the ripped flag, the rest they had cut in to pieces and buried. German authorities in Athens immediately issued a death sentence in absentia. it wasn’t until 1942 though until he was arrested by German forces, imprisoned and tortured. 4 Biography of Manolis Glezos “No struggle for what you believe in is ever futile,” Manolis Glezos National hero, Greek Veteran leftist and World War II resistance fighter Manolis Glezos was born in the village of Apeiranthos on Naxos in September 1922 Over the course of four decades, Glezos was imprisoned numerous times by the Germans, the Italians and then by Greek rightwing and military governments, was tortured and put in solitary confinement, lost a lung as a result of TB contracted in prison, sentenced to death numerous times and spent time in exile. Yet this remarkable man remained politically active both nationally and locally throughout his entire lifetime. His interest in the war years in Greece never faded and he was considered to be the greatest authority on the resistance movement in Greece, writing two massive books on the subject. He served as mayor in his native Apiranthos between 1985 and 1987. His initiatives included the creation of four of Apiranthos’s five museums, a library in his name, which comprised some 20,000 books, and the foundation of the Aperathou Women’s Traditional Crafts Cooperative, In the 1990’s, he masterminded a solution to the village’s water shortage problem with the creation of low dams He also launched a small experiment in participatory democracy in Apiranthos. Everyone in the village over the age of 12 had the right to speak and vote in a new village assembly. About 150 out of 1,000 villagers regularly took part. It was, he said, “a much better system than when we were just seven councilors taking all the decisions”. He was a vociferous critic of austerity measures caused by the crisis in Greece and at the age of 91 in 2014 became the oldest ever MEP following the European elections. As he got older, he was revered in Greece among people of all political persuasions and when he died at the age of 97 on 3rd of April last year, plaudits came in from all sides It was recently reported that a room will be named for him in the European Parliament building. 5 Books by island (rather tenuously!) I can’t imagine not having my Kindle with me even when I go to the supermarket, I just love reading. So here is a mixed bag of books that you may enjoy reading now or when you are on a beach somewhere with a cocktail in hand. Some books have fairly tenuous links to the islands but I have tried “It's a great blessing if one can lose all sense of time, all worries, if only for a short time, in a book.” ― Nella Last Figure 5 Taverna Tinos - 2019 Athens The Parthenon – Mary Beard (2003) I have recommended this book endless times, especially to client’s who will be staying in Athens. An interesting not too academic read about the history of Greece’s most famous building, Marbles. The House on Paradise Street – Sofka Zinovieff (2012) This is an incredibly moving book, historical fiction at its best. Set in Greece during the occupation and civil war, as well as the present time it is the story of family conflict. Tinos Target Tinos – Jeffrey Siger 2012 One of Jeffrey Siger’s Chief Inspector Andreas Kalidis series of books, this is beach reading especially when you are on a beach in Tinos! I can only see this book is available as an e-book but I am happy to be proved wrong. – other books in the series are set on the other islands and in Athens. Alice; Princess Andrew of Greece - Hugo Vickers (2003) Ok so this book only has a tenuous connection to Tinos – Princess Alice (better known as the mother of the Duke of Edinburgh) spent some time as an Orthodox nun on the island. 6 Sifnos The Sifnos Chronicles: tales from a Greek Isle - Sharon Blomfield (2016) A very amusing travel memoir which makes you feel like you are in Sifnos with the author., there is also a follow up novel.