Bertie's Travelogue Part 4 - Algiers to Iraklion

After leaving Algiers, I eventually arrived at Palma Airport, Majorca. Fortunately, being a virtual flight, I didn't have to join the inevitable queue of easyJet and Ryanair cattle trucks waiting to disgorge their cargoes of holidaymakers, gagging to get to the nearest karaoke bar and a pint of Watney's best bitter. Actually, that's a bit cruel as I've been to Majorca before and found parts of it absolutely delightful. My main memory is actually from my honeymoon when I broke my arm in three places playing football!

Majorca is the largest of the Balearic Islands, the others being Minorca, Ibiza and Formentera. It boasts some august residents, both past and present, including Chopin, Miró, Michael Schumacher, Julian Lennon, Boris Becker, Rafael Nadal, Michael Douglas & Catherine Zeta-Jones.

If you ever get the urge to head down that way, might I recommend Formentera? It's the smallest island and certainly the least spoiled when I was there. You arrive by boat from Ibiza and it still retained a hippy lifestyle around the capital of San Francisco. Incidentally, I slipped a disc whilst holidaying there - just what have the Balearics got against me?

Yet another Euro country, so here are some older and more recent peseta banknotes for your pleasure.

Refuelled, and off we go to Elmas on the island of Sardinia. The actual flights across the watery sections of the Med are fairly boring until I get towards the Greek Islands but I'm looking forward to casting a glance down towards one of my favourite places - Corsica. Elmas is just outside Cagliari, the capital of Sardinia and towards the south of the island so I made a slight deviation and headed off to look fondly upon the beautiful island of Corsica. The southern part of the island holds a host of memories for me and I could almost feel the warmth of the water whilst diving off Bonifacio.

I know that Sardinia is Italian but I am still going to post a French banknote in homage to Antoine de St Exupery, aviator and author who will forever be linked with the Mediterranean and whose body lies beneath the waves.

Moving wistfully on to Naples, I was quite excited as I have never, ever been to Italy. I dutifully consulted Wikipedia to discover some interesting facts and ploughed through acres of information about Roman culture, art, history and the like. It was at this point that I remembered why I had never wanted to visit Italy - I just don't get off on such stuff! I enjoy history and visiting places but there is something about Italy that just leaves me totally cold. I'm sure that would change if I were to go there but, for the moment, there are plenty of places that take precedence. As far as Napoli is concerned, their salami and the fact that it is apparently the birthplace of pizza seem worthy of note. Why, even the notable Neapolitans through the ages are all foreign!

Hanging my uncultured head in shame, I passed swiftly on to Palermo in Sicily. I always tend to video my landings in the hope that I might eventually get one more or less OK and here is the effort at Falcone-Borsellino Airport.



Sicily is of course synonymous with the Mafia although there is a lot more to the island. Sicilians (for that is what they think themselves - not Italians), are a proud race with a rich heritage of tradition, food, folklore and culture with "family" always at the heart of every action. The Mafia (Cosa Nostra) date, arguably, back to medieval times and were originally families who were looked on as protectors of their local area, town or village. The period of the "Fascisti" in the late 1920s saw a clampdown on their power and this, together with the immigration opportunities in the USA, saw the growth of the families in America and the vogue of horse's heads decorating one's pillows!

The Mafia still goes on, with Palermo Airport being named after the 2 anti-Mafia judges assassinated by them in 1992. In the spirit of true commerce, however, the Mafia has turned into one of Italy's biggest business enterprises with a turnover of more than US$120bn a year. Somehow, I think I wouldn't like to be their Collector of Taxes. Here are a couple of examples of what they might have earned in 1944 and 1990 (the lady being Mme. Montessori; she of the schools).

Time to say 'arrivederci' to Italy and 'kalispera' to Athens. I have never been to mainland Greece although I was lucky enough to have been on the flight deck of a British Airtours aircraft once as we overflew Athens and Piraeus Harbour. A friend of mine was a pilot with them and he'd arranged for me to spend time up there (obviously before 9/11). As we passed over the harbour, the aircraft started banking sharply which was a bit of a worry as the captain was turned round and talking to me, the first officer was doing a crossword and the flight engineer was peering at something on a panel. For a second, I panicked and it must have shown in my eyes as the captain laconically said "automatic pilot" and then carried on chatting. Once I'd relaxed it was a wonderful sight!

Do I really need to say anything about Athens? A few little-known facts might be of interest:

• It has more theatrical stages than any other European city
• It has its own Metro
• It has 5 professional football teams
• It hosted the 51st Eurovision Song Contest in 2006 (won by Lordi)
• Athenian bus drivers are renowned for not stopping at bus stops

and...................

• We've still got their Marbles!

Greece is one of the prime examples of hyperinflation (something of a speciality interest of mine). In 1943, the highest denomination was 25,000 drachmai yet, by 1944, the highest denomination was 100,000,000,000,000 drachmai. The Greek inflation rate reached 8.5 billion percent per month (prices effectively doubling every 28 hours). Incidentally, that second note doesn't look that impressive without all the zeroes - this Yugoslavian one is far more the business!


Final leg of this blog and it was off to Crete and the airport at Heraklion. It's always nice landing at airports I have "done" in real life and here was another. I had a happy time identifying all the islands in sight as I flew over the Cyclades - thank goodness for Google in the cockpit :)

Crete is a fabulous place and I have vivid memories of my time there when I was (much) younger............ and who might this young Greek god be, posing at the harbour of Agios Nikolaos? I can remember hiring a car and driving up a long, climbing, winding road and then stopping in awe as I saw the Lassithi Plateau stretched out ahead of us.

We were further amazed when, asking for somewhere to get a drink in a small village, we were feted by the locals who still loved the Brits (and hated the Germans), following the war. We spent several hours there being wined and dined whilst the locals practised their English. Apparently, visitors were few and far between so they used the opportunity wisely. I remember little of the return journey but, amazingly, we somehow made it!

Two other "must visit" places are the Minoan Palace of Knossos, where Theseus won on away goals against the Minotaur and the Samaria Gorge at Chania. The gorge, longest in the world, is truly beautiful and I have never seen so many butterlies in one place.

Well, that's about it for the moment. Here's a map of what's been happening so far. Tonight I'm off to Africa!

(click to enlarge)