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Our return to Greece was a bit reminiscent of “Trains, Planes and Automobiles”, except for us it was “Automobiles, Planes and Ferries”. Our taxi turned up at 04:15 to whisk us off to Bristol Airport, which we rather naively assumed would be quiet. It was absolutely heaving, full of stag and hen parties. We were desperate for coffee, and had to manoeuvre our way through the, “ I’m on holiday, therefore I’m having a pint ” brigade. We stood open-mouthed at a hen party, where th

We don’t know the Italian mainland that well. We had done a few fly-in, city-breaks in the distant past (Rome, Florence, Naples, Verona, Bologna, Lake Maggiore) but never been to the boot-shaped peninsular for a week’s holiday, to soak up the atmosphere and culture. Jonny couldn’t believe we had stayed so few days in Italy on our way out to the boat. So, we decided not to head home via the Balkans and eastern Europe, but to pass again through Italy. Apart from that, we had no

Missy Bear is now laid up in Lakki for the summer, and her crew has arrived back in Italy, via two car-ferries. Ancona was full up when we docked, due to a music festival. So, we drove west into the foothills of the Apennines, and found a farmhouse with modern rooms, near the little hilltop town of Santa Maria Nuova. Our charming host – the farmer’s wife - spoke no English, and we speak no Italian. I conversed a bit in French, otherwise we used our iPhones to translate. It wa

Dirsek

Fethiye Fish Market - almost empty at lunch time If you went to a supermarket in Turkey in 2014, you might have paid 10 Turkish Lira (TRY) for a decent bottle of white wine. That was the equivalent of €3.50, for a European tourist. Just over 10 years later, that same bottle of wine would cost you 600 TRY, or about €13.50. For a European tourist, that is inflation of about 4-times over that period. Which is bad enough, but pity the poor local Turkish wine-lover, who now has to