Sailing to Mani and Beyond

SAILING TO MANI AND BEYOND Join writer and Editor Jeremy Lewis aboard the Variety Voyager as we celebrate the life of Patrick Leigh Fermor, one of our greatest travel writers, in his beloved Greece 14th to 23rd April 2015 in association with the Oldie Magazine Blue Mosque, Istanbul atrick Leigh Fermor, who died in 2011 at the age of 96, is probably best known to the world at large for dreaming up and then perpetrating one ofP the most dashing and unconventional adventures of the Second World War: the kidnapping in Crete of a German General, who was bundled Istanbul across the mountainous spine of the island before being spirited away Canakkale Troy to Cairo and captivity. Rather improbably, Dirk Bogarde starred as Leigh AEGEAN GREECE SEA Fermor in the film of the book, Ill Met by Moonlight. TURKEY Athens As proud as he was of his exploits as a guerrilla fighter in Crete, Leigh Fermor was also the finest travel Gythion Patmos writer of the twentieth century, and one of the great masters of English prose. A Time of Gifts, Between Kardamyli the Woods and the Water and the posthumously published The Broken Road, the trilogy in which he Vatheia described how, as an eighteen-year-old, he walked across Europe from Rotterdam to Istanbul, combined Rethmynon commercial success with literary acclaim; but he also wrote two classic books about Greece, the country CRETE he loved above all others and where he lived for much of his life. Roumeli was devoted to Greece north of the Gulf of Corinth, Mani to the bleak but beautiful country at the southernmost tip of the central prong of the Peloponnese. Both books are vivid, carefully crafted evocations of Greek life and culture, combining travel writing with brilliant insights into the history, art, culture, religion and people of his adopted country – not forgetting the food and drink, both of which loomed large in his travels. GUEST SPEAKER There are few places in Greece that Leigh Fermor failed to visit or write about, but our voyage Jeremy Lewis worked in aboard the Variety Voyager will concentrate on two parts of the country with which he is particularly publishing for twenty-plus associated: the Mani, where we plan to visit the magical house he built near Kardamyli; and Crete, years before becoming a the scene of his wartime adventures. Leigh Fermor wrote with particular insight about the Byzantine freelance writer in 1989. He has element in Greek culture, and the cruise will end in Istanbul – which, as Constantinople, was the published three volumes of epicentre of Greek life and culture for over a thousand years, and the city in which Leigh Fermor memoirs, and biographies of concluded his pre-war ‘Great Trudge’ across Europe. Cyril Connolly, Tobias Smollett and Allen Lane. Shades of Greene, an account For this unique voyage we have worked closely with Jeremy Lewis who will accompany the cruise of Graham Greene’s siblings and cousins, was and writes: I got to know Patrick Leigh Fermor after he had chosen my first book of memoirs, ‘Playing published by Jonathan Cape in 2010; he is for Time’, as his book of the year in one of the Sunday papers, and he gave me invaluable help with currently writing a biography of David Astor, the my biography of his friend Cyril Connolly. I wish I’d seen more of him, since he is one of my literary editor-cum-proprietor of the Observer, also for heroes: we met from time to time in London, and I hugely enjoyed a long and very bibulous lunch with Cape. He has been the commissioning editor of him and his wife Joan in their house in Kardamyli. the Oldie since 1997. Ancient pithoi Knossos palace Iraklion Vatheia Monastery, Patmos THE ITINERARY Day 1 London to Athens, Greece. Fly by where, as Leigh Fermor discovered on the very Day 4 Rethmynon, Crete. After breakfast arrive scheduled flight. On arrival transfer to the Variety last page of Mani, Paris and Helen spent their in Rethmynon for a morning visit of the Fortezza Voyager in Piraeus and embark. Sail this evening. first night together after he had stolen her away Castle, built by the Venetians for protection, from the King of Sparta. Alternatively there followed by a walking tour of the town. After Day 2 Gythion. During the night we sail along will be the option of a visit to the extraordinary lunch explore the Rethmynon Military Museum the eastern shores of the Peloponnese, reaching site of Mystras, the last Byzantine stronghold. of War which houses mementoes of Patrick Leigh Gythion in the morning. Our first call on the During lunch onboard we sail south along the Fermor’s most famous exploit, the kidnapping Mani Peninsula is to its north east corner. Mani’s eastern shore, looking out for the famous of General Kreipe* and then enjoy a scenic Mentioned often and favourably by Patrick Leigh towers, Mani’s most distinctive feature. At the drive to Gaios Kambos on the western edge Fermor, the crowded houses on their climbing southern tip of the peninsula we will sail close of the Psiloritis Mountains which is a renowned terraces present a pretty picture in the glow to the cave which was said to mark the entrance area for native Cretan plants - and early spring of the morning sun. The history of the place to Hades, into which the intrepid Leigh Fermor is the perfect time to see them. Our vessel will goes back to the classical period, when it was swam. Moor overnight in Gerolimin. remain in the port until midnight, providing an the main port of Sparta. During our morning opportunity for an after-dinner stroll in the town. ashore we will explore the town much as Patrick Day 3 Vatheia & Kardamyli. Close to the * Next year John Murray will publish, for the Leigh Fermor did, including the remains of a southern tip of Mani, Vatheia is an astonishing first time in book form, Abducting the General, Greek theatre and a Roman temple. Keep an village of crumbling tower houses standing atop Patrick Leigh Fermor’s own account of the eye out for the romantic island of Marathonisi a barren hill overlooking the sea. The towers kidnapping of General Kreipe in April 1944, and were home to feuding clans of brave Maniots we plan to have copies on board. who refused to succumb to Ottoman rule and Gythion harbour they built the fortressed tower houses to defend Day 5 Iraklion, Crete. During the night sail themselves against attacks from marauding along the north coast of Crete to Iraklion. From invaders, pirates and their own neighbours. After our berth it is a short distance to the Palace exploring the village and visiting the fascinating of Knossos, legendary home of the Minotaur. Diros Cave we will return to the Variety Voyager Wander round the site impressively excavated for a leisurely lunch as we sail north to Kardamyli, by Sir Arthur Evans, examining some of the 1300 an enchanting village where Patrick Leigh rooms adorned with lively frescoes where King Fermor and his wife Joan built a magical house Minos held court. Afternoon at leisure to explore by the sea, now owned by the Benaki Museum independently before we set sail in the late in Athens, who hope to restore the house for afternoon and head for the Dodecanese. use as a writer’s retreat. We set sail late this afternoon for Crete where Leigh Fermor spent Day 6 Patmos, Greece. Patmos has been called three years as a wartime guerrilla fighter, and the ‘Jerusalem of the Aegean’ and its religious remained particularly devoted to the island. significance dates from the arrival of St John on Patmos Kardamyli by Homer in the Iliad: one of these layers was finest of all Byzantine mosaics and wall paintings, found to have burnt objects in it, suggesting referred to in glowing terms in Patrick Leigh that the city was violently ransacked at some Fermor’s Mani. Enjoy an afternoon at leisure stage. The tour follows the excavations made before meeting this evening for our farewell by Heinrich Schliemann, the archaeologist who dinner. discovered Troy and ‘Priam’s Treasure’, the jewels that, Schliemann claimed, were worn by Day 10 Istanbul to London. Return to London by Helen of Troy. Today, Troy sits in a remote, idyllic, scheduled flight. rural landscape, with the stone city dominating the plain for miles around, as if three millennia have passed in the blink of an eye. We will walk along the walls that held Helen of Troy and look down at the plain where Achilles dragged the dead body of Hector. PRICES PER PERSON Based on double occupancy Troy, Turkey Day 8 Istanbul. Be up on deck before breakfast as we enter the Bosphorus, a marvellous Cat Deck Prices sight as Istanbul opens in all its magnificence. C Marina £3495 the island in 95 AD. Visit the small cave where Disembark after breakfast and transfer to your B Marina/Riviera £3695 St John received his revelation, the Medieval hotel for a two- night stay. In this bustling city, A Riviera £3895 village of Chora and the Monastery of St John straddling Europe and Asia, you will find some P Horizons £4095 the Theologian – a UNESCO World Heritage of the greatest buildings and works of art in the Owner’s Suite Horizons £4595 Site, and an exceptional example of a Greek world. This morning’s guided excursion includes C Marina for sole use £4495 Orthodox pilgrimage centre. Sail during lunch visits to the Byzantine six-century cathedral B Marina/Riviera for sole use £4695 past the island of Fourmoi and Samos, heading of Hagia Sophia and the Sultan Ahmet Camii north along the Anatolian coastline.

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