In compliance with specified corona requirements and hygiene rules and packed with mouth-and-nose covers, five trainees in horticulture and landscaping at the Euro-BBW and the two employees Michael Hemmes and André Strasser will travel to Crete next Sunday to take part - as in previous years - in a two-week natural stone course of the Chamber of Agriculture.

During this course, a total of 31 trainees from Rhineland-Palatinate will continue to work together on the meditation path of the Greek-Orthodox Academy in Kolympari, which will connect the Academy with the Chapel of St. Makario and will extend over the years to the Gonia Monastery. This action is financed by the EU's Erasmus+ programme, which allows mobility abroad.

This year, the work on the meditation path will include an arched bridge and a fountain. For this project, individual stones must first be chiseled out of the rock and cut. A large part of the necessary tools could be purchased through donations, for which the participants of the course would like to express their gratitude once again. The natural stone work will again be strenuous for our trainees, but the wonderful view of the sea and hopefully bright sunshine will compensate a little for their efforts.

The Orthodox Academy of Crete (OAC) in Kolympari in the north-west of the Greek island has also suffered from the Corona pandemic in recent months, as neither conferences nor seminars have been held there since mid-March, and our trainees and colleagues are now the first guests to be accommodated there. Fortunately, it was indeed possible to organise the training course after observing the Corona situation on site and drawing up the relevant regulations. However, unlike in previous years, this year's excursions and visits will be largely cancelled and only those leisure activities will take place that will best protect the group from infection with the coronavirus.

Our colleague and tourism trainer André Strasser will use his stay on Crete also to make contacts in the tourism industry, so that in the future trainees from this sector will also be able to do a practical training on the Greek island.

We wish our trainees and colleagues a good journey, much success and a nice and healthy time on Crete!