JOANNA LUMLEY: I'm on a journey around the fabulously diverse country of Greece. It will take me from her historic cities... ..to her most remote outposts. I'll be meeting Greeks from all walks of life and learning about their traditions and the way they live. You see one and think, 'That's a jumper.' Then you think this one isn't, but it is! (Chuckles) Greece is also the birthplace of European history. This is where Western civilisation began - drama, democracy, language, science, medicine. This country has given us so much and it's influenced the fabric of our everyday life. In this program, I am going to explore some of the 1,400 Greek islands. Each has its own story to tell with a fascinating history spanning thousands of years. It's always very strange to know that where you are is exactly where people from biblical times or history books or legends were, here. It was here. Along the way, I'll be taking my research seriously. (Speaks in Greek) I shall ignore health and safety at my peril. They don't suddenly just go 'blip', like that, do they? Sometimes. Oh, well, OK. Sometimes. And we'll meet a Greek shipping magnate, in a journey to find out how one of the world's greatest maritime nations has influenced so much of what we take for granted today. The island of Spetses is half a day by sea from Athens. One of Greece's famous shipping magnates has flown us at his expense to his luxury yacht, so that I may talk to him about what it is to be a Greek Islander and seafarer. When you come to Greece and you're told you're going to meet a Greek shipping magnate, you kind of hope that the boat will look like this. (Exhales sharply) Fabulous! Welcome. Kalimera. Kalimera. WOMAN: Joanna Lumley. Captain Tsakos. Captain Tsakos, how lovely to meet you. Good to see you too. Lovely to have you on board. Captain Tsakos is a self-made man with the sea in his blood. (Horn blares) His family started as maritime traders, and over the centuries, they've conquered the world's shipping routes. Despite Greece's economic woes, he still finds time to be on board his beautifully built ketch, the Chritstianne B, which he bought from the Bulgari family. The success of Captain Tsakos's family and others like him was born from necessity. Centuries ago, island life was poor and it was difficult to eke out a living. So they took to the sea to seek their fortunes. And so the sea is what they became masters at. They ruled the sea, they ruled the ancient sea, and then with the great Greek shipping magnates, they ruled the modern seas as well. Captain Tsakos's forefathers would be green with envy over the technology available to seafarers today. Once, many sailors would be required to set the sails. Now, it all happens at the push of a button. I had no idea that you could set a sail by pressing just a lever, and that beautiful sail unrolling, unfurling like... A piano player has his keyboard, this is my keyboard. You've got your keyboard. It's fantastic. Is that a Union Jack we're flying? Pardon me? What is this red flag? This is the English Flag, English seaman's flag. And why have we got the English flag up? Because we have you on board. English guests. Is that true? Yes. Well, that's fantastic! Can't do the Poros Canal. Well, the way you're going, we won't be surprised. The Poros Canal is a narrow stretch of water which passes the tiny island of Poros, which, coincidentally, is where my affection for Greece began 40 years ago. I was sharing a flat in London and we decided to save up our money and come to Greece. This was 1966. And I had been told to go to an island which I thought was Poros. So we bought our tickets and we came and we were brought by a ferry to this enchanting little town. We found two rooms in villagers' houses and stayed there and it was only later, actually, during the trip, when somebody said 'Why did you come to Poros?'... I said, 'I think that's where 'we were told to go - Poros and Naxos.' And they said, 'Not "Poros" - it's Paros and Naxos. 'Paros, another bigger island, much further out, 'and you came to Poros.' But by that time, we'd fallen in love. We had the best holiday you can imagine, and that is where my love affair with Greece started. It was just enchanting. Over the centuries, Greece's islands have attracted the attention of many invading forces, perhaps the most famous of these is the Ottoman Empire. Between the 15th and 19th centuries, the Ottomans from Turkey dominated the seafaring nations of the Mediterranean, using the Greek islands as strategic bases for their ships. They were bitterly resented by the Greeks, whose own empire ` 2,000 years before ` had stretched from Athens to India. By the early 1800s, the people of Greece were on the verge of a revolution. One of the key revolutionaries was a woman called Bouboulina, who, today, is recognised as a national heroine. Her home has been preserved and is looked after by Philip Demertzis-Bouboulis, a descendent of Bouboulina. Yes, this is the big living room of Bouboulina's house. She was born actually inside a prison in Constantinople. She grew up here on Spetses. She married twice. Both her husbands died at sea, with sea battles with Barbary pirates. Did they have their own ships? Their own ships, yes. And they used to take her on the ships, something unheard in those days - for a woman to sail. And she inherited a very large fortune which she spent in the first three years of the Greek War of Independence. She gave all her fortune for our freedom. In 1820, Bouboulina used the wealth she inherited from her two seafaring husbands and built a small navy of eight ships to blockade ports against the ruling Ottomans. A year later, she was raising the Greek flag, having helped to liberate Nafplion ` the city which would become the new Greek capital. Now, this is a very famous painting here in Greece. It is the original and it shows Bouboulina attacking the castles of Nafplion. Look at the way the painter has made the men inside the boat. Look at their faces. Cowering, fear. All of them, they are scared, in comparison to the way he has made Bouboulina - standing up, fearless. She is the only woman in world naval history that she has got the title of an admiral. She's an admiral? An honorary title given to her after her death. But I think that must be a first in the whole world, isn't it? In the whole world. As she liberated islands and ports from the Ottomans, she risked her life to save others, particularly the women from the ruling pasha's harem. However, Bouboulina's last days were not to end at sea. She had a very unfortunate end, of course. She was killed here on Spetses in a family argument, believe it or not. Oh, no. After all that. After all that. It was a very... tragic... Very tragic. ..and inglorious, if you like, end for this woman that did so much for her country. Bouboulina may have had an inglorious end, but, like our Boadicea, she is one of Europe's greatest heroines. CAR REVS Good, good, good. (SIGHS) CRUNCHING, SQUEAKING (SIGHS) Well, did you pass? Well, did you pass? Yep. Well, did you pass? Yep. Whoo-hoo! Yee-hah-hah! Don't bail out just yet. Your teen is more likely to crash on their restricted than any other time in their life. Go to safeteendriver.co.nz. Find out how you can stay involved. 1 Homer wrote in his epic poem the Odyssey, 'There is a land called Crete, in the midst of the wine-dark sea, a fair, rich land.' After such sentiment, who could resist the journey to Greece's far-flung outpost? Far behind me is mainland Greece and Athens. Far in front of me is Libya. But this island that we're coming in to is Crete, the largest of all the Greek islands. This is its capital, Heraklion. Now, it was incredibly important both to the ancient Greeks and the Minoans and all the people before that because of its position - it was sitting bang in the middle of the ocean. Everybody who traded had to come past. It's fabulously beautiful. It's already got a feeling not quite of Greece - halfway between Greece and Africa. Halfway to the beginning of the middle of the Earth. And why not? Because it's the birthplace of Zeus, God of Gods. Crete's position between Africa and Europe means that whoever controls the island commands the Mediterranean. Never was this more significant than in the Second World War. In 1941, Hitler, realising the importance of Crete's position, ordered its invasion. It was the first airborne assault in military history and the first time in the war that the Nazis encountered mass resistance from the local population. (Explosions) Some of the fighting took place near Mount Psiloritis, Zeus's birthplace. In its shadow, lies a village called Anogia. Eleni Fanariotou, my translator, has brought me to this small town which was at the centre of the Cretan resistance during the German occupation. Many of the townspeople here lost their lives as a result. During the occupation, Nikos Fasoulas, a bootmaker in the village, narrowly escaped execution by the Nazis. Yasas. (Speaks in Greek) Nicolas. Nicolas. Nicolas. Can I sit here? How long has he been a cobbler? So he was making shoes during the war? Can he tell me about that time? Mr Fasoulas was also an eyewitness to one of the most daring exploits of the Second World War, when two British agents, William Stanley Moss and Patrick Leigh Fermor, assisted by the Greek resistance, kidnapped the German Commander of Crete, General Kreipe. Disguised as Germans, they passed through 22 checkpoints before climbing to the village of Anogia and spiriting him away to the mountains. It was a huge propaganda coup for the Allies and later became the basis for the movie Ill Met By Moonlight. Did he see General Kreipe pass through? You saw it? This is true. He saw him. The Germans pursued them for 18 days but they were unable to stop the British taking the commander prisoner and transporting him to Cairo. In reprisal, it was ordered that every male in Anogia should be executed and that the town itself should be destroyed. He must have seen the terrible reprisals on this village. I read that it was razed to the ground. Did you lose friends, personal close friends, from this village during the reprisals? Look at this. 'Order by the German General Commander 'of the garrison of Crete. 'Because the town of Anogia 'is the centre of the English intelligence on Crete 'and because it was through Anogia 'that the kidnappers with General Von Kreipe passed, 'using Anogia as a transit camp, 'we order its complete destruction 'and the execution of every male person of Anogia 'who would happen to be within the village 'and around it within a distance of one kilometre.' Whew. So that was when... ..this little village, this tiny town was completely razed to the ground. Most of Anogia's 4,000 inhabitants sought safety in the mountains while the Nazis took three weeks to destroy their town. Patrick Leigh Fermor, one of the two British agents who kidnapped General Von Kreipe, became a household name. His daring exploits are still told today. There's a great story of General Von Kreipe watching the dawn coming up one morning and making a great quote, and I'm ashamed to say I don't know whether it was in ancient Greek or ancient Latin, and Patrick Leigh Fermor completed the quote, and they looked at each other and realised that without a war they would have been friends. They were just people of exactly the same kind of background. Vital to the operation to kidnap the General was the Crete resistance. When they weren't fighting the Germans, they lay low in the mountains living with the shepherds. The shepherds' descendants still tend their flocks as they would have done during the war. Yasas. (Man speaks in Greek) One of the shepherds, Manolis, is taking me to the very same pastures. We're going up in this - it's a 4x4. The track gets very tough from here on. (Engine starts) It's easy to see how the resistance fighters could have melted away into this landscape. Yasas, Yani. Ah, thank you. Yasas, Yani. (Speaks in Greek) Joanna. This way of life hasn't changed much for centuries. Cretan resistance fighters would have had to live much like these shepherds do today, on a basic diet of meat and cheese. Can I feel? Yes, yes. So it actually feels at the moment just like milk. But, presumably, with this heat underneath it, it's kind of thickening up like custard. (Laughs) I see, woman's task. Men sitting watching meat and women actually stirring. I see. Look - special sheep-milking trousers going on here. When the fighters weren't disrupting the Germans, they would have had to chip in with the work in the fields. Well, I'll watch you first, I think. (Men speak in Greek) Dmitri, you show me. You show me. Yes. (Laughter) You show me once, you show me once, and I'll have a go. Will you forgive me for not having a go at milking? Because the thing is that if it was one sheep, very tame sheep, and it was very calm and there was nothing much happening, I could have a go at it and get it badly wrong, 'cause it's quite a skill. But with a hairy avalanche waiting, you can sense there's quite a sort of expectation here that it's going to be done and done properly. And I'd mess it up. Know what I mean? Whoa, a lovely jump there. You just can't tell which ones are going to jump and which ones aren't. You see one and think, 'That's a jumper.' Then you think this one isn't, but it is! (Chuckles) Fantastic. 1 East along the coast from Heraklion there is a tiny fishing village which sits opposite the island of Spinalonga. In the past, locals used the heavy fortress to protect themselves from pirates. More recently, in the first half of the last century, Spinalonga was one of the last leper colonies in Europe. Aris, a local boatman, has kindly agreed to take me to the island. Thank you. You're very welcome. Though leprosy has been virtually eradicated in Europe, hundreds of thousands of new cases still occur each year in the developing world. It's a psychological place. That was the hospital. This one here? Yes, the big one in the middle was a hospital. Spinalonga, it was like a real town. The people had private houses. You can see the small buildings. They had the cafes. They had a normal life. The only difference was that it was like a prison - if somebody was inside, he was not allowed to go out. The doctors and nurses, they lived here, or they came across? Yes, they lived here with the sick people, together. I don't know much about leprosy. Do you catch leprosy? Or how do you get it? The truth is that nobody knows yet how you can get leprosy. They found a medicine, everybody's OK, but they can't find how... How it started. Yes. In the 1940s, an effective treatment for leprosy was discovered and Spinalonga was finally abandoned in 1957. Just over here is the main gate. The people, from here, when they pass this gate, it was only lepers - nobody else except the lepers. This must have been frightening to come here as a leper and to make your first entrance through a sort of... Yes, the first feeling when you come in this island... Big iron gates and then... Yes. In 1904, 251 patients were settled on the island, and then during its 50 years as a leper colony, more than a thousand people passed through its gates. Once on the island, the patients received food, water and social security, as well as medical treatment. Aris's great-grandmother was a nurse here. The way to the hospital. And here's the hospital. The doctors and nurses, all these people who was here every day, they care the people. Life was very hard. I know stories from my grandmother. It was really difficult also for these people. I think people thought it was a disease you could catch. If you want to try to go inside, maybe we can do it. It says 'No entry'. OK. Do you want to try? Yep, I do. Big windows, high ceilings. Yes. Windows with bars on them. Look at this - this must have been some sort of sick bay, with such high windows, with the old shutters. You know, they have so big windows, so high, because the air have to pass because the smell, it was really bad. It smelt? Yes. The people, the sick people had very, very bad smell. Imagine here, all sick people with... ..in the beds to see the village and all the area outside and they don't have the chance to go from here. And if they were in this hospital, they knew they were going to die. Yes. Just as Scotland produces the finest whisky in the world, the area to the east of Spinalonga reportedly produces the finest raki on the island of Crete. The favourite drink in Greece is raki. But they drink ouzo, they drink Metaxa brandy and so on, but raki is what everybody drinks. It's the, sort of, local moonshine, local hooch. I imagine it differs from area to area and I thought that it might be made, like all white spirits, from, I don't know, potatoes or celery choppings. But it's not. It's made from grape skins. I've drunk it. I love it. I think it's delicious. You don't drink lots of it. You just have small amounts. But today I'm going to a town, a little village called Siteia, and I'm gonna meet somebody who's gonna show me how he makes it, because apparently each family makes its own. I never really thought of that. Stelios Petrakis has the biggest raki-making still, or kasani, allowed for personal consumption in the region. Thank you. Yasas. Smells beautiful. Wonderful! It's wonderful. I can't think how to say 'wonderful'. ELENI: Einai iperoho. Einai iperoho. The grapes are mulched down in water and then heated over an open fire. Steam rises through the teapot-shaped kasani and is then cooled in a tank of cold water and as it cools, it turns back into liquid. And the liquid is pure alcohol. And the first which comes from the woody stem of the grape is lethal, it's 98% proof. And the old women here use it for medical purposes - they use it for cleaning and for back rubs and things. Alcohol rubs - you've heard of this. But the second is this unbelievably pure, clean, clean liquid and you don't get hangovers from things like this because there's nothing added - it's completely pure. Once the first woody alcohol is taken off, you've just got this extraordinarily clean, pure stuff. So it just takes two hours to make this dancing mixture. It's unbelievable. And quite a large quantity of it too. Just taste it again to make sure, you know. Do you know, it takes... it tastes better with every sip. You become slightly less articulate but more appreciative with every sip. Several times a year, family and friends get together for prolonged raki-making sessions. Tastings are an excuse for a huge feast. Lovely little olives. Mmm. The cooking is overseen by Stelios's wife. Now, this is extraordinary 'cause it's a most wonderful way of eating globe artichokes. In the northern countries, we tend to boil them entirely until the leaves become loose enough to drop off, then you scrape the leaf, cut the choke out and just eat the artichoke heart. Here, they cut them and eat them raw. In fact, it's just the same thing. You eat as much of it. And sometimes when you take it, you can scrape it with your teeth and then you eat these lovely crunchy bits. But these bits, which usually are cooked, here, they eat raw with lemon juice on. It's wonderful. You can try that at home. # TRADITIONAL GREEK MUSIC The traditional music played in part on a Greek lyre is accompanied by equally traditional Greek dancing. Under the influence of the raki and against my better judgement, I'm persuaded by Stelios's friends to take part. This is my idea of utter hell, is being made to do dancing without any tuition but pretending that it's completely normal. (Boisterous singing) I've got a lunatic on my right who thinks he's leading the dance. 1 Far across the Aegean Sea is an island which played a significant part in the lives of the ancient Greeks. Kos was a destination for the sick who wanted to be healed. What began here thousands of years ago continues to play a significant part in our lives today. For this is the birthplace of Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine. He believed in clinical observation, logical analysis and the healing power of nature. He believed in putting the patient at the centre of the diagnosis. He believed in diet, he believed in a healthy environment and, above all, he managed to tell people that it wasn't their fault that they were ill. It wasn't a punishment from the Gods. It was simply because the body was sick. So he managed to separate completely religion and medicine for the first time ever. To this day, many doctors still take the Hippocratic oath before they practice medicine. They say Hippocrates, though mortal, is descended from the God of healing, Asclepius. Manolis, a local historian, is taking me to the Asclepion, a sort of health spa and healing sanctuary. Some scholars say that in fact Asclepius was the first real doctor - he was human. And after being so good and so perfect in medicine, after he died, they made him a God. Oh, I see. And they invented the myth. That's very rare, isn't it, to be made a God? Yes, it's very rare. And Hippocrates is a descendant from Asclepius. He is the 18th descendant of the God himself, of Asclepius. So medicine running in the family. Yes, exactly. That was the way. Yes. There were hundreds of Asclepions in ancient Greece, but now, looking at these abandoned ruins, it's quite difficult to imagine them buzzing with life. There should be in more than one terraces - in most cases, there would be three. So is this the first terrace here? Yes, this is the first terrace, which was devoted to the body. The second one would be devoted to the soul, and the third one to the spirit. Body, soul, spirit. And here we would have the rooms for the patients all surrounding the first terrace. So like a great, sort of, hospital laid out here. Yes, exactly. Exactly. Also they've chosen the most beautiful position. It was a prerequisite to have a unique location. And presumably a prerequisite to have water. Yes, exactly. Very interesting statue at the top. It looks like Pan or something. Exactly. The small God of the woods - half a goat, half a human. I think he's playing a pipe. Exactly. The panpipe. The panpipe. He's like the Green Man. We have the Green Man in England who's very like Pan. He lived in the woods, he had no sort of morals as we have them - everything was fine. Alright. All animals were good, all this was good. You take that, it's yours, it doesn't matter, I'll have it. I'll leave you, I love you, I leave you. He had no morals. Something like the '70s. (Both laugh) Something like the '70s, actually, with panpipes. Sharing and... Letting the hair go. ..having fun, celebrating. Above the hospitals, stood the temples so that patients could worship their Gods and show their gratitude. People therefore came here with a sense of absolute purpose. They came because they were ill or they wanted to get well but they knew, they had the faith already, they knew their God was here. Yes. They would bring what? What would they offer? They would expect you to bring something, for example an animal. If you didn't have any money, you could always find some nuts, some milk. In most cases, the animal would be killed, cut, the intestines will be burnt so the smoke will go up to the Gods from Olympus and they would be pleased that you're remembering them. But the rest of the animal would be eaten. The ancient Greeks realised they couldn't be healed through worship alone. So, through incredible foresight, they also built a medical school inside the grounds of the temple to teach the science of Hippocrates. Here it would be something like a podium, the teacher would be here teaching them the lesson. Hippocrates was the first one to cry out and say that there is never an illness without a natural cause. Before him, they believed very much that the Gods were giving the illnesses. Hippocrates said, 'I respect the Gods, but I'm sorry, there is never an illness without a natural cause.' He went so far that until the 19th century his books were still being studied worldwide. So here we are at the third terrace. Just like today, sadly, not all illnesses could be healed. So on the third terrace was the temple where those about to die could give their soul and spirit to the Gods. And what did it look like? It looked like something that you wouldn't want to miss and something that would make you feel so humble, so small that by giving your soul to the God, you were sure that you would be healed. This was majestic, enormous, dominating this hillside. Exactly. 1 Sunrise on Kos. Manolis has arranged a trip to the neighbouring island of Nisyros which is home to an active volcano. Kos and Nisyros are part of a chain of volcanic islands which stretches across the Aegean. In Greek mythology, Poseidon is the tempestuous God of the sea, who was seen to throw a huge rock at an escaping Titan. As it crashed into the water, that rock became the volcanic island of Nisyros. And every time the volcano erupts, people believe it is the pinned-down Titan trying to escape. The last eruption was in 1888. Nisyros is a tiny island and one of its few vehicles is this school bus, which we commandeer for the day. The volcano with its five craters covers almost half the surface area of the entire island. Stefanos is the biggest of the five craters. The smell, it's sort of sulphurous. But it's got even another smell on the back of it as well. Yes, and what is really unique is that he is alive, he's changing all the time, depending on the weather, depending on the wind, if it is rain - it's never the same. And the fumaroles, how close to them can we get? Not really close because as close as we get, the crust is thinner because the steam that comes out from the fumaroles is up to 100 degrees of Celsius. Look at these fantastic colours, this sour-yellow, and baked. This must have been from what, rain and then drying out? Exactly (Faint bubbling) If you listen, you can actually hear it bubbling. Yes. (Bubbling and gurgling) This is not good to touch. Not good to touch. One of the nicknames is Akolos. Akolos? 'Kolos' is... Bum. Exactly. 'Akolos'? Bumless. So if you sit, you're going to burn. Whew! It's acid. I am quite enchanted that in such a place of desolation and, sort of, absence of life there are such stunning patterns. You couldn't find an art designer to make you lovelier, more beautiful arrangements of how it dries. It's as if nature just doesn't have to bother to be ugly or horrible. She just is round everything, it's just beautiful. They don't suddenly just go 'blip', like that, do they? Sometimes. Oh, well, OK. Sometimes. That's why you should never go over one. No, I'm honestly not going to do that. (Chuckles) I think I'll just not do that. (Laughs) This feels almost as though we're on another planet here. Yeah, some say it resembles the moon, how the moon would be looking like. That's why Moonraker was shot here. Moonraker? Yes. The Bond film? Yes. Roger Moore. Exactly. Some shots of the moon, they were just exactly where we are right now. How extraordinary. We're catching the ferry to Patmos. We've got about ten minutes to get all this stuff on. I can't tell you how much stuff we travel with. (Man yells) I haven't got a ticket. To the left-hand side, on there. I've got a ten. Thank you. Thank you very much. It's rather hairy. There's a sense that these really only stop and they're not really concerned, they just say, 'We're stopping, ten minutes, it goes up, gone.' The ferry from Kos to Patmos takes just an hour and a half, stopping equally briefly at the islands of Kalymnos, Leros, and Leipsoi. It's trying to get your head around the idea that this is all one country, that it's absolutely customary to travel by boat all the time because everywhere feels like little different nations almost. Zipping around like this and they're all different little islands. And they are all Greece. It's wonderful. This, however, is not Greece. This is Turkey, just there. But in the old days, of course, it was ancient Greece. Just down the coast is a place which used to be called Halicarnassus and is now called Bodrum. You can take a ferry from Kos to Bodrum. It only takes 19, 20 minutes, over there. And that's where the master of history, the first man to write history in a way that made it a story that people could understand. He wasn't always dead accurate, but he was considered to be the very, very first great historian. His name was Herodotus. Magical man, fantastical. I love people who, when they can't really get all the facts, just make it up. I think we do probably the same today actually. Patmos is dominated by an 11th-century monastery dedicated to St John the Divine, who was exiled to this small island by the Romans in the 1st century AD. It was while living here in isolation in a cave that he dictated the last book of the New Testament, Revelations, to his faithful assistant. This is just extraordinary. This must have been the entrance to the cave. This is the cleft in the rock through which he heard apparently the voice of God speaking... ..just through here. And now we're inside the cave. He would have looked straight out, down over the hills to the sea. He'd been exiled, now, maybe just because he was a troublemaker or maybe ancient Rome had sent him away, but, anyway, he stayed here for about two years in this cave. The cave is dappled with these dints, and he found a dint here, and apparently this is where he lay and slept, so they've made a little crown over that holy place. And because he was quite an old man, when he got up, he'd found a little notch in the wall which he used to put his hand in to pull himself up through that. Here we see John, resting, receiving the wisdom, and here, supported by angels, are the seven churches of Asia Minor. And the stories he was receiving in this sort of period of intense meditation were absolutely phenomenal. And I don't think it matters really which religion you are - to read the Book of Revelations is in itself a revelation. So many of the words we know and so many of the things we say, like the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse - that's from the Revelations. Fire and brimstone, a bottomless pit, ruling with a rod of iron - all these phrases come from the Book of Revelations. What an extraordinary place. It's always very strange to know that where you are is exactly where people from biblical times or history books or legends were, here. It was here. It's the evening now and we're just heading towards Athens and it's the end of this extraordinary journey around some of these islands in Greece. It has been eye-opening. I don't think I ever realised how different every single island was. Each one seems to have its own character, its own... sometimes its own customs, its own particular pride in its own olives or wine or particular cheese-making skills or its own history. But the thing that has impressed me most is how far-flung Greece is, through her 1,400 islands - how do you make a country like that work? Of course, it's only quite recently that it has been Greece as we know it as a country. Before it, it was the Hellenic people, the Hellenes, who spread all over these lands, with their own particular customs and enmities between each other, all uniting against the yokes of countless empires which seem to have trodden all over them. And yet, at the end, they spring back again. Absolutely amazing. And still the Greeks are grounded, as it were, if that's not the wrong word, in the sea. And I think that's what made it so thrilling.