A reader asked us a couple of days about taxis in Athens. Here is a small list of details you should know:
Taxis in Athens are a very cheap way of getting round. (It is simply a difficulty of getting one). Most of the routes cannot possibly cost you more than 5 euros, unless you go really far (or you have luggage) so it can reach up to 10-15 euros. A route from the irport to the other end of Athens will not cost you more than 20 euros (so consider this as the absolute maximum price for travelling to and from the airport).
You might have haerd many things about taxi drivers that fool tourists in paying huge amount of money but the situation is much better at this stage as quite a few of those 'professionals' have lost their license. You are very safe in a taxi and apart from the traffick you will not have any more problems.
There will be two types of taxis around Athens. If you want to go to the Olympic stadia with a taxi you will need to pay a higher rate due to the special license that only very few taxi services will get (Those taxis will have to be very new and the driver should speak at least one foreign language).
By the ay bargaining with taxi drivers is not something that is done in Athens. Small tips are also up to you - and whether you feel you got a decent service. (I never tip taxi drivers unless they are exceptionally good and friendly).
An article on the first page of The Times today mantions that Britain is worried about the safety of the british athletes so it will accompany the group with British police some of which will be armed.
Naturally the Greek goverment is furious about this since it believes that it can definitely protect all the athletes and visitors of the Athens 2004 Olympics. (Britain is mentioning problems with the terrorist group November 17, which was recently rsponsible for the association of a British brigadier in the center of Athens, but of course the group was captured two years ago).
Personnaly I believe that the fears of the British goverment are a bit overrated and subject to the terrorist paranoia that is ranging the world today. I know that situations are hard and things are definitely not waht the used to be ten years ago, but we should certainly not exaggerate matters more than they should. A main weapon in the hands of terrorists is uneccessary fear. And this is something that goverments should understand and fight.
Again I must stress the fact that I believe that the Athens Olympics will be the safest Olympic games ever (and as we said in the past almost to safe for their own good).
120 days left!
It is incredible how quickly the days are getting by. The panic to finish the Athens Olympics works around Athens is getting higher and higher but it looks as if all is going according to plan. Unfortunately the cost of the games has risen by quite a bit.
If you need specific information about any of the construction work just let us know and we will be happy to report it.
As a project manager by occupation I follow one of the best weblogs available by Frank Patrick. A recent post of his talks about the Olympic stadium which is being rebuilt at the moment and there is a lot to be said about whether it will be finished on time.
The rebuilding of the Olympic stadium was actually a 'beautification' decision that will include a cover designed by the famous Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava. Unfortunately the situation at the moment does not look good at all since the buffer is only three weeks - with remaining work of the order of three months and with the high risk that work cannot be done during days of high wind (due to the nature of the work). The bad news is that June and July are months of high winds in Greece (meletemia).
This may sound very bad at this stage but I think that the organising comittee will not risk reaching that 3 week buffer. I believe that a decision will be taken which will postpone the covering of the stadium - and will simply leave the arcs over it as strange monuments to the gods of project management.
We decided to start a new portal on the Athens Olympics which will allow us to add more information and separate things according to subject and theme. If you want to have a preview look of this please visit: