Category: Travel

French Leave

There was a temporary parting of the ways yesterday. Robert went to Mallorca to the Rafa Nadal Academy to brush up his tennis.

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Globe-Trotter

Arriving at our hotel in Crete about a month ago, the manageress said that she’d show us our room and we could deal with the luggage later. “This is my luggage.” “You travel light.”

We Shall Fight Them

Paddy L-F made his name writing this sort of prose. On Friday night there was thunder and lightning and rain. On Saturday morning it was windy with dark clouds over the mountains that threatened further rain, so we drove south away from the Cretan Sea to Paleochora on the Libyan Sea, where the sun was… Continue reading We Shall Fight Them

Easter Sunday

The Elia Hotel is owned by George Digridakis whose grandfather played an important role in the Resistance after the German invasion in 1941. Today we are en fête and will celebrate Easter under his gaze.

Griffons, Goats & Grub

We have seen griffon vultures wheeling high above us. They look quite small at such an altitude but in fact have a wingspan of more than eight feet. It would be exciting to see one close-up but that seems unlikely.

War and Peace, Part I

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery at Soúdha must be one of the most beautifully sited in the world. It is kept perfectly. The lawns had been watered the morning we visited.

Walking on Crete

These days it is hard to get off the beaten track but if that’s your kind of thing (it’s mine) Western Crete is for you. Olive trees out-number inhabitants by sixty to one; the scenery is spectacular; there is an abundance of churches and, at this time of year, lovely wild flowers. 

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On Crete

Thank you for happy birthdays in Comments and e mails. Margaret and Pam sifted the facts and correctly deduced that we are in Crete, scene of fierce fighting in 1941 (The Battle of Crete) and subsequent resistance. The Greek Orthodox Easter Sunday, this year, falls on Sunday next. And the musical birthday clue was When… Continue reading On Crete

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Pastoral

Pastoral appeared in Punch on 8th April, 1903. It is inappropriate this cold, rainy Eastertide. The weather (in the past Emphatically bitter), Seems to have changed at last. The birds begin to twitter.

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