Now, to finish with the details

Day by day, Greek capital gets beauty treatment as more and more sites are treated to a new facelift

By Giorgos P. Terzis - Kathimerini

The big, important things are completed; now we’re trying to get the little things finished. The finer points in the window-dressing of Athens, which on Friday gives its official welcome to the world with the greatest sporting event ever, are proving a major headache for Athens Municipality and the Athens 2004 Olympic organizers.

The stadiums, spanking clean and new, are frequently surrounded by what still resembles a construction site. Sidewalks are still being built and the effort to brighten up the surroundings is proceeding apace.

With just a few days to go, Kathimerini went on a tour of Attica’s Olympic venues. In addition to the many police officers on patrol and groups of volunteers in training, work teams were building sidewalks and planting shrubs along Marathonos Avenue, landscaping the area around the Peace and Friendship Stadium under the new flyover on Poseidonos Avenue and trying to green the huge former site of the racetrack and the Faliron Delta, next to the new Esplanade.

Our photographer took shots of buildings yet to be revamped, such as the old Fix brewery building on Syngrou Avenue, and caught new road signs needing correction.