Tractors arrive without a hitch
Five Austrians, including one of Greek origin, arrived in the northern town of Vergina yesterday on antique tractors following a three-week road trip aimed at promoting Greece as a tourist destination. The philhellenes, all members of the Oldtimer Club for owners of vintage vehicles, left their native town of Poysdorf, on the Austrian-Czech border, on May 1 and have attracted much publicity on their slow course to Greece. Nikolaos Manolakos, a 70-year-old honorary citizen of Poysdorf who lives in Vienna, told Kathimerini that the trip aimed to counteract negative publicity about Greece stoked by the debt crisis. «This was a unique opportunity to advertise the fact that Greece is safe and beautiful,» said Manolakos, who has worked in tourism for 20 years. The group, four men and one woman aged between 50 and 70, are to continue to Thessaloniki today before heading back home via Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary. They are due in Poysdorf on June 6.
