Meet Harley – an antiquated 50cc motorbike, top speed 25mph. He carried me on the backroads of Greece from the island of Evia to deliver the collected Jeeves and Wooster to a Moldovan monk on Mount Athos, a self-governing state run by monks.
Harley and the Holy Mountain is a sequel to best-selling It’s All Greek To Me! with similar humour, self-deprecation, entertaining stories, and insights into today’s Greece.
We pass sites and sights from prehistory to the present: a Mycenaean beehive tomb, 3500 years old; the body of a Russian saint, who teleported pilaff; a refugee camp in a chicken factory; and many other extraordinary places as well as tavernas, cafes, cheap hotels and anywhere else I can find conversation and a jug of wine.
Our road trip is based on a lifetime’s love of Greece. It is seasoned with experiences and memories, absurdity and humour, treats and discomforts, the terrors and boredom of the slow lane, and above all comedy.
With a glimmer of enlightenment at the end.
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