Five Star Greece

May 24th I love crossing over to Koufonisia from Naxos. Forget the hydrofoil and the Superfast – call Captain Costas Prassinos to sail over from Koufonisia to pick you up in his Kaiki. Koufonisiotes were famous for having being brave and insouciant pirates (until probably not that long ago…) and Costas has the hawk nose, bright eyes and clear, open face … Read More

Five Star Greece still on the road – May 24th  We just made our ferry to Naxos – we left the bashed-up car at the Paros car rental with an airy “Magna Travel will pick up the bill” (This is why we love Nasos and Co.) and boarded the “Aeolos Kenteris,” named after the Greek Olympic … Read More

May 22nd to 23rd Evi and I turned up bleary-eyed at 7.00 in the morning at the port of Rafina for the hydrofoil to Paros. By 8.00 we still hadn’t left which is very unusual for the hyper-punctual hydrofoils. “The captain’s car has broken down and he is waiting for a taxi” said the second captain. … Read More

My favorite part of the job that almost makes up for having had to learn how to tweet or twitter or whatever it is called… On Sunday I leave for Greece and have a wonderful trip to see villas on Paros, Antiparos, Amorgos, Koufonisia, Sifnos and Mykonos, before ending up for a week at home on … Read More

What a relief – the Greek government yesterday confirmed that they would NOT be selling off islands like Rhodes or Corfu, or monuments like the Acropolis to pay off the national debt. They asked if people would now please kindly stop saying that they were. Time for a super-injunction? Oops, as the English papers have … Read More

What is going on in the Ionian? Corfu, Zakynthos and Kephalonia have all been pretty well discovered/exploited/developed, but below the radar, quietly quietly, keeping low profiles, large concerns and private buyers from the north are buying up big chunks of land on the smaller and less well known islands. Lefkada, an island of stupendous beaches and … Read More

Five Star Greece on the road… Poor Evi has been on the road inspecting houses. I say “Poor Evi”  without a hint of irony even though that is normally the part of the job that I look forward to the most, and I had not been pleased when she said to me, “You stay and man the office and pay the … Read More

  Easter 2011 For those who were wondering, my Tsoureki (Easter bread) turned out just fine this year, although the ends of the braid did look a bit peculiar and the red egg in the middle of the bread for some  strange reason exploded in the oven.   I turned it (the egg)  upside down and  no-one noticed, … Read More

Five Star Greece Today is Palm Sunday, the beginning of Easter Week or “Megali Evdomada” Easter is the high point of the Greek year, much more important than Christmas – to my father who was of an older Greek generation, Christmas was just a day when his devout mother would try to impose yet another … Read More

Five Star Greece recommends  the Jerusalem of the Aegean. We thought we would feature Patmos this week as we have taken on two really lovely houses on the beach. The only places to stay until now were beautiful but not frightfully comfortable village houses.  Now we can offer you air conditioning, pools and beaches nearby; … Read More