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As we have seen in my previous two blogs, you simply can’t fully enjoy sailing around the Eastern Mediterranean without an understanding of the effects of several hundreds of years of Ottoman influence and rule. As Missy Bear will be there from Season 2, we will try and discover who they were. From the 9th century, nomadic, pony-riding ‘Turkmen’ from the Eurasian steppes started drifting westwards in waves. These Turks formed the Seljuk empire. They came into conflict with th

Hizir Reis did not have a red beard, unlike his elder brother, Oruc Barbarossa (real name Hizir Reis) was born in the 1470s on the Aegean Island of Lesbos*, then already under Ottoman rule, to an Ottoman father and orthodox Greek mother. Hizir and his elder brother, Oruc, were pirates. Oruc had a red beard. Their main target became the property of the newly formed Spanish state, which was busy expelling Muslims from the Iberian Peninsula during the ‘ Reconquista ’ of Ferdinan

[DN - Written at Aubeterre-Sur-Dronne, France - November 2021.] The croissant ('crescent') was invented by the Viennese On our Tuesday morning bike rides in France, Charlotte and the gang stop enroute for café et croissants at a local village épicerie . To be honest, I prefer a pain aux raisins, but I can happily rip off pieces of this buttery, crescent-shaped pastry and munch them, leaving a pile of large, flaky French crumbs on the table, and on me, and on the floor. Exce

Odysseus trying to resist the call of the Sirens I’ve finally managed to complete reading the ‘Odyssey’!! No, not Homer’s original. Nor a heavy and testing translation, faithfully true to his work. But a lighter adaptation by Simon Armitage written as a play for BBC Radio 4. Years ago, I had tried to enjoy a translation of Homer’s ‘The Iliad’, but I never completed it, because I’ll admit to finding it a bit heavy going. Armitage’s Odyssey however is an easy, frothy romp. Alth

Missy Bear has arrived Preveza in the modern region of Epirus, which lies on the eastern coast of the Ionian Sea. If we had strayed a few degrees off course on our crossing, we would have ended in Corfu or even possibly Albania, which formed part of the ancient region of Epirus. The Despotate of Epirus (red) The area is generally rugged and mountainous, but here at the mouth of the Gulf of Actium the landscape is gentler and the sea is calm, reflecting the blue of the late au