Well, that was intense! Train from London> Paris> Nuremberg>  Berlin> Prague> Vienna> Innsbruck> Verona> Bologna and then a flight from Milan to Chania in Crete for five days to gather my wits.

Since my first trip to Greece in 1978, I’ve always wanted to go back but never quite got around to it. There is a special vibe about Greece that I can’t quite describe, but if you’ve been there you’ll know what I mean. There’s a sense of timelessness and a lack of intrusion from the outside world – although I’m sure that’s just an outsider’s view since Greece has ongoing economic woes.

My accommodation in a studio in the sophisticated town of Chania was a world away from my youthful experience living on a beach. I did catch the occasional glimpse of the old Greece but, due to the growth of tourism, a lot of the chaos and general disorganisation (which had its own sort of charm) has disappeared. Perhaps on more remote islands it still exists. I hope so.