At the school-turned-polling station, the voters of Skiathos came pouring in. By midday the perspex ballot boxes were filling up fast. The atmosphere was relaxed, informal, orderly. A young police officer kept a discreet watch on proceedings as people...
Two weeks of calm on the Sporades archipelago have broken. A stiff wind unsettles the sea as I gaze across the Bay of Skiathos. Poseidon is rattling his trident. His brother Zeus, first among the gods and god of the weather, reminds us that it was he...
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17 Jun 2012
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Filed under: Hotels & Restaurants, My Archipelago, The Castle at Taunton, Uncategorized, Travel, British Hospitality Association, Politics, Skiathos, Athens, Greek debt crisis, Sporades, Greece, Eurozone crisis, Antonis Samaras, Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine, Drachma, Europa, Greek election, Mount Olympus, New Democracy, Poseidon, Zeus
On the beautiful Aegean island of Skiathos – the first in the Sporades archipelago – you might never gather that Greece was in deep crisis. Neither would you have the faintest notion that the country was in the grip of an historic general...
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9 Jun 2012
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Filed under: My Archipelago, The Castle at Taunton, Uncategorized, Travel, Mamma Mia!, Skiathos, Greek debt crisis, Sporades, Greece, Eurozone, Greek General Election
Our friends were gathered around the breakfast table. We were discussing a plan for the day while Louise popped out to the local shop for some milk. When she returned ten minutes later, a litre of milk was not the only item lying in her arms. With a wide...
Perhaps the best way of discovering the allure of the Aegean archipelago is to sail round it in a fine boat… not of the powered variety, but with an island breeze filling the sails of a handsome sloop. We were a family party of seven. Three generations...
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25 Aug 2011
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Filed under: My Archipelago, The Castle at Taunton, Uncategorized, Travel, Aegean Sea, Skiathos, Skopelos, Athens Olympics 2004, God save the Queen, Limnonari, Mikis Theodorakis, Mythos lager beer, Sea Majore, Sporades, Zorba the Greek
Up at six to watch the sun rise. A sublime peace shimmers over the archipelago. After a wake-up mug of English Breakfast, I peel myself a peach. In doing so I rediscover one of life’s most sensual gustatory pleasures: the eating of this ripe, yellow...
These are dark days for Greece. Commentators are beginning to wonder if the country is ungovernable as an embattled George Papandreou faces riots on the streets of Athens, general strikes and a parliament in disarray over the IMF/EU rescue plan. The Prime...
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Kit Chapman's Blog
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16 Jun 2011
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Filed under: Hotels & Restaurants, My Archipelago, The Castle at Taunton, Uncategorized, Politics, Skiathos, Athens parliament, George Papandreou, Greek government, Horta, Mount Athos, Moussaka, Ouzo, Ouzo Plomari, Plomari Lesbos, Shrimp Saganaki, Souvlaki, Stuffed tomatoes & peppers, Taverna Kanapitsa Skiathos, Taverna Stathis Skiathos
We have returned to our Aegean island – the place that provided so much inspiration for the writing of My Archipelago, my latest book. On our first morning, just after six and on cue, the sun rose over the cliff-tops of Skopelos and cast its brilliant...
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6 Jun 2011
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Filed under: My Archipelago, The Castle at Taunton, Uncategorized, Travel, Aegean Sea, Balbianello on Lake Como, Bellagio Lake Como, George Clooney, Goldie Hawn, Homer's rosy fingered dawn, Kurt Russell, Lake Como, Mamma Mia!, Skiathos, Skopelos