Sven's first long range trip was to the Greek island of Crete. Airport delays meant the journey took twice as long as it should have, but Sven managed to pass the time by having a sleep....

When he arrived in Crete Sven soon found a little beach near his hotel, and he soon staked out a spot on the golden sand to top up his sun tan. He'd better watch out that he doesn't get a sun burned beak....

Luckily Sven realised he couldn't spend all his time lying on the beach. He covered up his neck so it wouldn't get sunburnt (A serious problem with a neck the size of Sven's) and set off in search of cool stuff.

Sven didn't have to look far to find signs of Crete's turbulent past. In the trees at the back of his little beach Sven found two little concrete bunkers like this one. These were built during the second world war to stop any army who tried to land on the beach. Not quite as impressive as the towers on Guernsey though.

One of the great civilisations of history came from Crete. The Minoan culture was there around the same time as the Ancient Egyptians and there is a lot of evidence of contact between the two races. The Minoan's built a magnificent palace at Knossos. They were buried in pottery coffins like this one, and there are lots of these coffins in Museums all over the island.

Showing a respect for history which even Eric the Penguin would have been proud of, Sven tried one of the Minoan coffins for size. Sven soon came out of the coffin when he saw what it used to contain...

Unfortunately, not everyone shares Sven's spirit. He can't help noticing that whenever he's doing something he shouldn't, some of his friends try to stay as far away from him as they can

The highlight of Sven's trip to Crete was his cruise to the Island of Spinalonga, which is an amazing little Island which was fortified by the Venetians, and more recently used by Crete as a Leper colony.