Where is our Ferry?!!!

Unbelievable news. It would seem that on September 7th the fast ferry Highspeed 5 (owned by Hellenic Seaways) will make its last journey between Rethymnon and Piraeus —a good six weeks before the end of the tourist season. It has not been a great summer for the high speed link, to put it mildly! There seems to have been a ‘Catch 22’ scenario in play. There have been many cancellations to timetabled sailings due to lack of passengers — ticket prices have clearly been a factor here. Cancellations give existing passengers no option but to go to Heraklion or Hania to catch ferries and generally makes people pretty upset, especially if they have to change travel plans at the last minute. Word gets around that the company is unreliable. You see where we are going with this….

So, for the first time in nearly 20 years, Rethymnon no longer has a direct ferry link with the mainland. As we reported in April, ANEK pulled the plug on its standard ferry service with the Prevelis in March. The promised RO-RO service for trucks never materialized (leading to extra traffic on the roads as regional goods vehicles were forced to drive to other ports), and as yet there has been no word on what (if any) service will be provided for the winter. Some of us are not happy about this….!

Moving Times

Work on the ‘greening’ of Rethymnon has started in earnest. One of the major projects to be tackled is the rejuvenation of The Square of the Unknown Soldier - trucks and diggers arrived there en masse on August 20th (drivers, you have been warned!). The first phase of project focuses on the inner section of the square. This involves moving the statue of the Unknown Soldier to the East side of the square and providing new granite paving, trees and benches. The deadline for completing this part of the project is the end of October (tough call!), so that the Οχι Day commemorative events can take place in the traditional way.

The second phase of the project - widening the pavements - will take place a later date, this is in order to try and keep the additional traffic disruption to a minimum (!). The ultimate aim of city planners is to create a modern and functional square with increased green space and recreational areas (see the artist’s representation to the right). Hopefully this project will go some way towards restoring this particular area of the town (which currently looks somewhat down-at-heel) to its former glory of Venetian times.

Sporting Changes

The first formal season of ‘Beach Sports in Rethymnon’ has just come to an end. After a few initial glitches Rethymnon managed to host several events at the newly created sports facilities on the ‘Old Town’ Beach. The final event of the summer was a pan-Cretan beach volley ball tournament that took place in the last week of August — the finals were taking place as we were going to press. For many years the ‘Old Town’ Beach has been something of an eyesore—in contrast to the long and well equipped beach that stretches East from the Marina. We at the Bugle welcome this new initiative, and look forward to a successful season in Summer 2009!

The autumn sporting season kicks off this month and we see some nail-biting times ahead! Asteras, our local football team start competition on September 14th with an away game at Aiolikos of Mytilini. Their first home game is on September 21st against Panargeiakos - a team from Argos in the Peleponnese. Fingers crossed! Our basketball teams have been busy practicing all summer. Competition starts for real in October and they are currently spending time warming up by playing friendly matches. The men’s team is nearly at full strength and is just waiting for the arrival of Dimitar Mirakowski who is currently with the National team of FYROM. Good luck to one and all! As to (indoor) volleyball? Who can say? On the basis of previous experience we are coming to the conclusion that the Bugle might be something of a volleyball jinx, so possibly the less said the better.

Post Office: Return to Sender

In our June issue we reported that the Main Post Office was moving to a temporary home whilst the building in Moatsou was being refurbished. Somewhat cynically, we said that we expected the work to take ‘AT LEAST three months’. Well, here in the Bugle mailroom we are eating humble pie. Work seems to have been completed AHEAD of time (pass the smelling salts, somebody) and the Post Office has moved back to its original location. The photo on the right shows our new improved ‘facility’ in operation on its first day back. We like the cycle racks, but are a little concerned to note that now there only seems to be one mail box outside the building. Before the great remodelling we had two boxes outside - one for ‘internal’ and one for ‘external’ (if you get my drift) - but it’s obviously early days. Still, it’s not time for those pigeons to go into retirement just yet, we feel. As we were preparing to go to print we had no up-to-date information whether the opening times had changed. We’ll keep you posted….!