Welcome Reception: to follow


Lunches:
Lunches, Sunday 07 ? Wednesday 10 September 2008

At Café Zoe in the hotel lobby? Café Zoë strikes just the right balance of modern international fare and classic Greek favourites in an elegantly hip setting.
For your convenience a daily buffet lunch offering a wide selection of hot and cold meals is available to all delegates at a special reduced rate.  Bookings are essential and can be made on the congress registration form.

Location: In Hotel - Lobby level
Cost: 30? per person per day exclusive of Beverages


Congress Dinner:
Tuesday, 9 September 2007, 20:00


Enjoy an evening at the seafront!
The congress dinner will take place on Tuesday, 09 September at the Balux ?Café, which is beautifully located on the Glyfada Asteras beach. Glyfada is one of Athens most luxurious and wealthiest suburbs. From the glass covered room ? hall you will enjoy a unique and fantastic sea view.

With its beautiful water and fine sand, Asteras has always been one of the best and trendiest beaches around Athens with a strong cosmopolitan flavour.
An interesting thing about Asteras is the ruins of the temple of Apollo at the back of the beach.

Buses leave 19:30 in front of the Interconti
Return at approximately 23:30
Cost: 75? per person including bus transfer and drinks.
Ticketed Event, registration is required.

Guest Tours:

Sunday, 7 September 2008: Half Day Athens City Tour

Guided bus tour with an english-speaking guide

The first stop will be at the Panathinaikon Stadium, where the first modern Olympic Games were held in 1896. Should you wish, you may run a lap!

Followed by the President?s Palace guarded by the Evzones, the bus will continue to the city?s centre, Syntagma square enabling you to see the House of the Parliament and the monument of the Unknown Soldier. The University avenue that follows is full of Neoclassical palaces and buildings; the fine house of Heinrich Schliemann, the impressive National Academy, the conservative State University of Athens and the very rich and symmetrical National Library. The Omonia Square is surrounded by a combination of modern and neoclassical architecture. The closer you come to the Acropolis, the more ancient monuments become: the fine temple of Zeus with its Corinthian pillars and the Arch of the Emperor Hadrian.

Mastering all of the above, you will visit the imposing Acropolis. The Athenian Acropolis stands alone in its unique combination of grandeur, beauty and historical associations. This rocky height, traditionally connected with Pelasgi, was the original city and the abode of the early kings and their courts. The Acropolis consists of Propylaia, the Temple of Wingless Victory, the Parthenon, the Erechtheion and the museum of Acropolis.

Costs: 45 ? per person including all entrance fees (without lunch)
Duration: 3-4 hours
Departure: 11:00 from the Hotel Intercontinental
Return: approximately 15:00 at the Intercontinental
Minimum Number: 30 guests
Maximum Number: 50 guests
Booked tickets can be picked up at the congress office on 07 September from 09:00


Monday 8 September: Full day Cruise to the islands Aegina, Poros and Hydra with lunch on board

Here you will be taken by coach to Trokadero harbour to embark on the cruise ship sailing for the Saronic Gulf. First stop will be Aegina, a verdant island known for its great production of colourful pistachios. The Island has a lovely capital full of fine neoclassical buildings and narrow alleys.  You will be able to visit the 5th century BC temple of Aphaia which is located in an area full of olive and pine trees, overlooking the deep blue sea.

You will then sail on to Poros, with its imposing historic clock visible from a distance on top of the highest hill, among prickly pears and pine trees. Poros is the island of peace, romance and jauntiness.

Poros composes of two islands, Sphairia and Kalavria. Kalavria at first was offered to the god Apollo and he gave it over to the god Poseidon in return for Delphi. Sphairia is a volcanic rock. In mythology, Aithra founded in Sphairia the temple of Athena Apatoria in honour of her encounter with the god Poseidon. In the north part of the island there are the ruins of Poseidon's Temple, which was built in 520BC.

The last stop will be in Hydra, a beautiful island lying in the archipelago called the Argo-Saronic. Hydra is situated between the islands of Poros and Spetses, near the coast of the eastern foot of the Peloponnese.
What makes Hydra unique is the fact that it has escaped modern development. Due to its strict architectural conservation laws, the island does not have any high rise developments, thus preserving the beauty of the island and adding to its cosmopolitan character. It?s extremely picturesque, full of red-tiled houses and stone-paved narrow alleys.

Return to Trokadero harbour in the evening and transfer back to the hotel by coach.

Costs: 85 Euro per person including lunch on board and all entrance fees.
Departure: 07:50 from the Hotel Intercontinental
Return: approximately 19:50 at the Intercontinental Hotel
Minimum Number: 30 guests
Maximum Number: 50 guests


Tuesday, 9 September 2008: Half day tour to the Corinth Canal and Corinth

Leaving Athens and driving South West, the tour will include visits to the Corinth Canal and the Ancient town of Corinth.

The concept of cutting a canal through the Isthmus of Corinth to link the Ionian and Aegean seas was first proposed by the tyrant Periander, founder of Ancient Corinth. The magnitude of the task defeated him, so he opted instead to build a paved slipway across which sailors dragged small ships on rollers, a method used until the 13th century. Nero, Rome?s most infamous emperor, inaugurated an attempt in 67 AD with his golden spade, but it was finally completed in 1893. You can walk across a bridge over the canal now used for smaller commercial ships and private yachts alike.

Blessed with a superb location and fertile plains making it virtually an impregnable refuge, excavations have revealed that Ancient Corinth was once a rich and powerful city. It survived numerous invasions but was ultimately brought down by earthquakes. St. Paul lived and worked in Corinth for 18 months, making converts where he could and leaving for posterity the Bible's Letters to the Corinthians. The Bema (platform) where the Roman governor tried him is still visible.

You'll see one of Corinth?s most striking ancient buildings, the Temple of Apollo, seven of whose original columns are still standing. You'll walk through the remains of the Market Place, a colonnaded square once surrounded by many small shops, and see the celebrated Fountain of Priene, which has produced water since the earliest times, and the Lechaion Road, formerly the main thoroughfare to the port of Lechaion.

A short stop at the Site of the Ancient Port of Cehries, where St. Paul disembarked, will conclude the tour.

Costs: 50 Euro per person without lunch
Duration: 6,5 hours

Departure: 08:50 from the Hotel Intercontinental
Return: approximately 15:30 at the Intercontinental
Minimum Number: 30 guests
Maximum Number: 50 guests

Terms and Conditions for Guest and Social Programme: