Bulgaria with Noodles

I think that I ought to go back to my reminiscences of Oxford, as there is something quite important that I have more or less left out: the Exeter College chapel. It is one of my favourite buildings, Gilbert Scott’s flamboyant pastiche of Saint-Chapelle in Paris, and a riot of Victorian gothic architecture. The Burne-Jones tapestry, The Adoration of the Magi , is rather splendid. Before "second hall" on a Sunday evening, it was my habit to go to chapel. After the service, there was a glass (or maybe two) of sherry in the chaplain's rooms. As well as attending Sunday evening services, I actually lived right next door to the chapel when I had rooms in the Margary quad. Sitting at my desk, I could sometimes hear the organ’s notes. Exeter College chapel was also the setting of a memorable production of Murder in the Cathedral , in which yours truly was the Second Priest. The chapel was the domain of the college chaplain, the Rev Graham Shaw. When I did rather badly in Cla...

Someone called Neil Loughbrough recently wrote this in Facebook about halal meat in the UK. My reply is in italics.    In some places — including hospitals and certain high streets — halal has quietly become the default option. That doesn’t sit right with me. In Britain, people should be able to choose food that matches their own beliefs, traditions, or personal preferences. No one should feel pushed into eating something they didn’t knowingly choose, or feel they have to go hungry, or be labelled as racist simply for questioning the food options available. Hospitals are a good example. When someone is ill, stressed, or recovering, the last thing they need is to be told there’s only one type of meat available — especially if it doesn’t align with their own beliefs or comfort. A hospital should offer non‑halal as the standard option, with halal available for those who want it. That’s basic fairness. I also think councils should have the power to ensure that high streets don’t e...

Just before we left Samothraki, I managed to finish Napoleon the Great by Andrew Roberts. It is a rather long book (935 pages altogether, but a fair bit is taken up with notes and a detailed index). What is unusual about Napoleon the Great ? Well, the most obvious thing is that Roberts nails his colours to the mast, declaring that Napoleon was not another Stalin, Pol Pot or Adolf Hitler. He was much bigger and better than that. He was not just a brilliant general (Wellington famously said that Napoleon’s hat on the battlefield was worth 40,000 men). He was a superb administrator, a reformer and someone who saved France from the worst excesses of the French Revolution and at the same time he preserved what was good in that tumultuous event. He was also a patron of the Arts and a true son of the Enlightenment. Three characteristics of Napoleon make him particularly admirable: his personal charm and ability to communicate with ordinary people and understand their point of view; his p...

Well, you are obviously not interested in our holiday in Greece and you will want to know what has been happening with Napoleon the Great . Austerlitz, Jena and Friedland were crushing victories, but Eylau and Wagram were not. Napoleon was in the habit of producing a lot of "fake news" after his battles, minimizing French losses and exaggerating the number of enemy soldiers killed, wounded and captured. Other indications of a victory were the numbers of guns and standards captured. Napoleon could also be a bit imaginative with those as well. Anyway, he has now divorced Josephine and married Marie-Louise of Austria, He is also preparing for his invasion of Russia in 1812.   Archondissa Beach Hotel is rather lovely. Quite a few of the guests seem to have been here before. As well as Greeks, Bulgarians and Romanians, there are also some French. There is not a lot to do here, apart from swimming, taking Tina for a walk and sunbathing.  After Fonias Gorge, we went to another plac...

Yesterday morning we walked along the road from Archnondissa for about twenty minutes and then we came to the Fonias River.  We walked along the path, marked with large red splodges of paint, but at one point we wandwered away from the river, so we had to come back down. The path was rocky, narrow and uneven in places, but we trudged on for about three-quarters of an hour.  Then we came to the famous pool (well, the first of three) and the waterfall. There was no one else there, so we had the pool to ourselves. The sides of the gorge were steep on three sides and the pool was deep and emerald-green. The water was icy cold! I was really hot and sweaty after the walk, but the coldness of the water was really quite a shock. I am NOT going to include any photos of yours truly having a swim, as I do not want any comments about harpoons, Captain Ahab and the great white whale. Tina is a brave little doggie, so she also had a little swim. Irena also came for a swim, but like me she d...

I do not have any more Perrott Hill photos at the moment and I need to write about something else, so the rest of my P.H.S. memories are going to have to wait for a bit. We are in Samothraki again. This is the second time that we have been to this Greek island, a two-hour ferry journey from Alexandropouli. We drove from Veliko Tarnovo and stayed overnight in Lyubimets. The next morning we left at 4 a.m. in order to catch the 8 a.m. ferry to Samothraki.  Tina came with us on our journey and she was quite a well-behaved little doggie, for once. From the ferry port in Samothraki to Archondissa Beach Hotel is a 40-minute drive. Archondissa is really an “aparthotel”, so we have quite a large and spacious apartment with no less than three balconies. The little kitchen is equipped with just about everything and the Wifi is pretty good.  Best of all, we have a wonderful view of the mountains on one side, where Poseidon is supposed to have watched the Trojan War, and the sea on the...