Shipwrecks in Cyprus - Edros and Demetrios

 

Shipwreck in Cyprus. Edro.

You can be taken past this shipwreck on a day trip from Paphos. I was told this story - so I got this second hand from a passenger beside me on the RyanAir flight home from Paphos. She said that she was told by her tour guide that the captain of the ship had to stay on the ship for a year until the insurance claim was settled, otherwise the insurance company could maintain that he had deserted the ship.

Her tour, lasting about 9 am to 5 pm ish, started from their hotel, beachside Theo Sunset Beach, and took them past banana plantations near Coral Bay. They stopped at the Polis village for a lunch at the customer's own extra cost. 

Their day tour included a wine tasting at Kamanterena. They were given two red wines, two rose, and two whites. They chose the tour from a leaflet in the hotel. Their trip was titled a Blue Lagoon tour, but other tours had the same name.

A second shipwreck is the Demetrios.

Useful Websites

https://www.submerged.co.uk/cyprus-shipwreck-trail/

Spanish words for shopping and eating out in restaurants, simplified with memory aids

 We checked into a parador, one of those wonderful historic hotels in Spain. Next morning we went down to breakfast. We went to reception. We did not know the Spanish word for breakfast. The receptionist knew no English. I tried asking in French. She did not understand. My husband tried German. She did not understand.

I had to go all the way back to the bedroom and hunt through my suitcase until I found my small Spanish dictionary. Desayuno.

The receptionist then reached under the reception desk. She revealed that she had a four-language booking form which included most of the words one might need in a hotel.

I now know the word for breakfast in Spanish. I also know that the word for restaurant is similar in both languages. I could also mime or draw. However, I try to learn a few words of Spanish every day. Finding a link between the letters or ideas is helpful.

In addition to the word for breakfast, it is handy to understand the words for toilet, or ladies and gentlemen. 

My late father made a mistake when he was in the Spanish restaurant, La Giralda, in Pinner Green, London. He went to the toilets and saw the sign Senoras. He assumed that was plural for senor. So he pushed open the door. The lady inside was washing her hands. She was outraged. She complained to the management. The restaurant owner came over to ask us, "A lady customer has just complained that your father walked into the ladies toilet. Can you please explain why?"

When my father explained, we all rolled around in hysterical laughter. The moral is, a little learning is a dangerous thing. Once you have started, keep on learning.

Spanish - English

amo - I love

aires - airs

barato - cheap - (sounds like bargain)

Buenos - good ones (sounds like beautiful and beneficial) 

caro - expensive (my image is the cost of a car)

centro comercial - shopping mall

comprar - to buy

desayuno - breakfast (sounds like day starts, you know)

hotel - hotel

ir - to go 

me gusta - I like (sounds like I eat with gusto)

para ver - to see 

restaurante - restaurant

sandalias - sandals 

sombrero - hat

vino blanco - white wine (sounds like a blank colour, colourless wine)

vino tinto - red wine (sounds like tinted)

visitar - to visit

English - Spanish

airs - aires

breakfast - desayuno

gentlemen - caballeros 

good ones - buenos

hat - sombrero

hotel - hotel

I like - me gusta

I love - amo (sounds like amorous)

I want - quiero (looks like my quest)

I want to buy - quiero comprar

ladies - señoras

restaurant - restaurante

to visit - visitar

red wine - vino tinto

sandals - sandalias

shopping mall - centro comercial

toilet/bathroom - baño (sounds like 'in the bathroom, you know')

white wine - vino blanco

Useful Websites

duolingo.com

earwormslearning.com

translate.google.com

 

A few words of Spanish from maps and daily life - how many do you know?

 

Spanish - English

agua potable  drinking water

antorcha torch

arriba above

bebida drink

calle principal main street

carne meat

casa house

cena dinner

cerveza beer

ciudad town

comida meal

computadora laptop

de of

desayuno breakfast

fresa strawberry

gran casa big house

leche milk

mercado market

naranja orange

nuez walnut

olivos olives

piscina (swimming) pool

pueblo village

puente bridge

puerta door

queso cheese

revista magazine

ser be

sopa soup

tiempo weather

vino blanco white wine

vino espumoso sparkling wine

vino tinto red wine

English Spanish

beer cerveza

breakfast desayuno

bridge puente

door puerta

drink bebida

house casa

milk leche

soup sopa

town ciudad (c like city)

red wine vino tinto

village pueblo

walnut nuez

white wine vino blanco (adjective after the noun)

CROATIA - what you need to know for your next trip

Croatian flag.

Here it is flying.


The advantage of sitting at home to much during Covid19 is you have plenty of time to sort out which country is where and what to visit next.

Today I am looking at Croatia. Why? Because I was in an online Toastmasters International meeting and during Table Topics (impromptu speaking contest at every club meeting worldwide) I was asked to pick a country starting with the letter C which I would like to visit.

Before I could start, a member of the audience interrupted, "The country is pronounced 'CROw-asia' - I should know, I'm from there!"

I said, "The country I must visit next is Croatia, because I now have a friend I can contact for advice. First I would like to know the capital. What is it?

"Zagreb."

"And what is the language?"

"Croatian."

Years ago I visited the picturesque walled harbour town of Dubrovnik, which has always been a popular cruise stop. Now it's time to see the new and old, the city culture and the countryside.

I continued:"I shall find at least three landmarks in the capital, three elsewhere in the country, and a food and drink to try, and ten words of the language which I will list: English-Croatian and Croatian-English."

I won the meeting's award for best table topic. Now I have to fulfil my promise and write the blog post. I shall deal with landmarks, tourist attractions, food and drink and finally language to order your food and drink.

I looked back to see if I had mentioned Croatia in any of my previous blogs and found I already had two phrase books.

GEOGRAPHY AND LAYOUT
The Republic of Croatia is a former part of Yugoslavia, and now a member of the European Union.






Top centres
Zagreb, capital

Zagreb cathedral, Croatia. Photo from Wiki. Photo by Palauenc05 .

Split, second city, on the sea


Roman Diocletian Palace. More a walled fortress city than a palace.
Seaside Split, Croatia. Photo from Wikimedia Commons.


Dubrovnik, Croatia, Old walled harbour. Photo by Furjaka in Wikipedia on Dubrovnik. You can walk along the tops of the walls.

LANDMARKS & TOURIST ATTRACTIONS in the capital of Croatia, Zagreb

RELIGIOUS LANDMARKS & AREAS
Croatians are mainly Catholics.

LANDMARKS & TOURIST ATTRACTIONS in the country of Croatia

FOOD AND DRINK
Look for taverns. Try truffles, and desserts such as chocolate filled donuts.
The country has white wines in the cooler north and red wines in the warmer south. Also some sweet wines.

LANGUAGE, Croatian

CROATIAN PHRASE BOOKS
The Ebay second hand copy of  the Thomas Cook book did not arrive in time.

The Lonely Planet book was small and bulky, so most of the time I left it behind in the hotel bedroom, because my backpack was already heavy with a bottle of water and an umbrella, and food for the day.

When I arrived home in London the small thick postal package was on the mat. Was it a duplicate phrasebook. No. A different publisher, different languages, and different layout and information and size.

Now that I have both I can compare them.

LANGUAGES
Both books, from Lonely Planet and Thomas Cook, cover these languages:

Bulgarian
Croatian
Czech
Hungarian
Polish
Romanian
Russian
Slovenian

The Eastern Europe book by Lonely Planet also covers
Albanian
Macedonian
Slovak

The Thomas Cook book also covered
Estonian
Latvian
Lithuanian
Ukrainian

Wikivoyage includes a phrasebook which I have copied here for convenience.

GRAMMAR
Croatian is like Latin and Italian in that it uses endings instead of extra words. So in Latin the word amo means I love. Similar constructions are used in Croatian.

Pronunciation
I read through it and noticed that the sign or diacritic over the letter c turns it into Ch. The sign over the s turns it into Sh.  A j could be a y sound.

Similar Words
Similar words for a quick start are the equivalents of taxi, TV, telephone, doctor, pardon. The word for night looks like the start of nocturnal but the sign over the c tells you the sound is more like Notch. Tri pronounced tree is three. Doktor is doctor. Taxi bus, bicycle and motorcycle are also similar. Police, minutes and million are others.

Toalet is toilets. The word for men starts with an m.

Ne is no. Da, a bit like ya, or yeah, is yes.

So here's my simple list

CROATIAN - ENGLISH
auto - car
autobus - bus
da -yes
doktor - doctor
engleski - English
hotel - hotel
me - me
ne - no / I don't
noć - night
nula - nil/zero
pardon - pardon/excuse me
prije (PREE-yeh) like the English word prior - before
taksi - taxi
telefonom - telephone/phone
toalet - toilet
tri - three

ENGLISH -  CROATIAN

before - prije (PREE-yeh) (like the English word prior)

bus - autobus
car - auto
doctor - doktor
English - engleski
hotel - hotel
me - me
night - noć (pronounced notch)
nil/zero - nula
no - ne
pardon - pardon
taxi - taksi
telephone - telefonom
three - tri
toilet - toalet
yes - da

Useful Websites
Wikipedia - for a comprehensive overview of history and geography, and out of copyright photos which may require no payment but only mention of the photographer's name
Wikimedia - for more photos
Wikipedia on the language
Simple wikipedia for a quicker, easier read
Wikivoyage - for travel info and handy links to ads
wikitravel - for travel info without the ads
tripadvisor - for customer reviews, ads, and lots of customer photos

About the Author
Angela Lansbury is a travel writer and photographer, author of 20 books, and a speaker and speech trainer.
Her books include:
Wedding Speeches & Toasts
Quick Quotations

Writing Poetry For Fun
Angela's Alarming Animal Poems

For more phrases in Croatian see next post. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Austrian Wine Week in Singapore

Singapore flag, red stripe above white with the crescent moon and five stars.

Austrian flag: red, white, red stripes. 

Problem
Chinese people reputedly like to drink red wine, which makes them feel and look macho, but they are missing out on all the delicious white wines, sparkling wines and rose wines. Reisling is the famous wine of Austria. They also have a pinot blanc (blanc is French for white - in German weissburgunder - a compound word meaning white Burgundy; pinot noir is the main grape of Burgundy; pinot blanc is a genetic mutation).



Solution
 Austria is a country with great white wines as well as reds. Now is a chance to sample both whites and reds.

The event runs Monday November 12-Friday November 16 2018.
Venues include
Monday Nov 12 2018 - Leopold (Wines - was SGD 78++)
Tuesday Nov 13 2018 Chef's Table by Chef Stephan. (5 course dinner.)
Thursday Nov 15 2018 Level 33 (Bottle party.)
Friday Nov 16 2018 Swiss Club (5 course dinner).
Prices$188++

Level 33 with it view over Marina Bay is often used for promoting wines and other events. I have been there before.

Level 33, Marina Boulevard.
Pricey place for promotions and special occasions.

https://www.chefstable.sg/

https://www.swissclub.org.sg/
More details and bookings
www.leopold.sg/shop

Useful websites
RESTAURANTS AND VENUES
Leopold
http://leopold.sg/gastrobar/about/

Chef's Table by Chef Stephan
level 33
Swiss Club
https://www.swissclub.org.sg/

COUNTRIES & FLIGHTS TO GET THERE
www.austria.info
visitsingapore.com
singaporeair.com

INFO - AUSTRIAN WINE REGION MAP
https://winefolly.com/review/get-know-austrian-wine-map/

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

East meets west in the Trump and Kim Jong-Un Lunch Menu

Problem
What could I learn, or try, from the menu enjoyed by Trump, and Kim Jong-Un, two top world leaders in the news? I'll give you my Western and British view of this meal choice. Although I have lived in the USA, and Singapore, and been to south Korea and Korean restaurants in London, England and Korea, I have my own biased viewpoint.

Answers
Starters
Prawn cocktail is an old favourite in the UK from the 1960s. Good.  Avocado salad is a modern salad, with tasty and filling avocado supposedly having health benefits as well as tasting subtly good. Yes, that's ok by me.

I must pass on the octopus as I'm allergic to shellfish.  Although I used to eat prawn cocktail, I got caught out by Pacific Prawns and crab.

Main Courses
Beef rib was served with Red wine sauce on the side because Trump doesn't drink. That suits me, too. I am not keen on alcohol in food. A waste of good alcohol. Masks the true flavour of good meat.

Desserts
Chocolate tart.
Ice cream. Vanilla - sounds a bit dull, but I bet it really tasted of vanilla. Cherry coulis. That means cherry sauce. Bright colour to contrast with white ice cream and sharp flavour.
Can't go wrong with chocolate and ice cream. (Any refreshing fruit - well, they did have the cherry sauce?)

Kim Jong-un is keen on Western alcohol.
For me, no wines.  If I were him, I think I'd rather have a take home gift of alchol. When you are meeting a world leader on camera, discussing nuclear weapons which could blow up the world. getting drink, drunk, tipsy, is not a good idea.

It sounds like a good meal, with enough mixture of the familiar and the special and surprising.

Website
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-44447714 - the menu from the BBC

Author

Wine Bottle Accidents - Why You Need Wine Carriers And Wine Suitcases

My First Wine Bottle Disaster
My first wine bottle disaster was with a bottle of spirits which broke and leaked. My clothes smelled of spirits and were stained. The moral of the story is, always encase bottles in something leak-proof. Always encase clothes in something leakproof.

If I carry long boots in a suitcase, I put a bottle inside a boot. Those were the days when you could only bring into the UK one bottle of wine and one of spirits per person. But what if you have more than one bottle?

When you order bottles of wine from a company on line, they may deliver bottles in protection which, if cut apart carefully and stored, can be re-used.

Broken Bottles
Our worst experience was at an airport. Our red wine bottles got banged. They broke. Two red fountains of wine poured, like taps, out of each side. We raced about like ninnies, with towels, then paper towels from toilets, mopping up. Bits of glass, carried gingerly, were deposited into nearby bins.

Nobody helped. But nobody hindered. Nobody else noticed nor cared.

Luckily most of my clothes are wine-coloured. I avoid wearing white. I buy and drink white wine in preference to red.

There's a good reason for drinking champagne at weddings. The bride, groom and guests should do so, out of consideration for the bride's expensive white dress.

Wine Suitcases
If you are carrying a lot of wines, including expensive wines, you won't want bottles in plastic supermarket bags, banging around, getting left behind and muddled up with other people's bags.

What Could Go Wrong?
You could forget your duty free bag and leave it behind on the plane - especially if your coat is moved to a different overhead locker.

The suitcase could be crushed or jolted. The banging could break the glass. The shaking could make the bubbles explode the cork out of the bottle. The changing pressure could make the cork leak.

Bottles do leak. I've seen bottles leak in wine fridges, all down the other bottles, making a mess, spoiling labels. You don't want to lose precious wine, spoiling the look of a bottle which could have been given to somebody as a birthday present.

Along comes the magic of a specially designed and removal interior for a special size suitcase.

One Bottle Picnic Carrier
You can buy devices carrying one bottle plus a corkscrew and sometimes wine or Champagne glasses from:
Department stores
Camping shops
Wine Shops
Wine Museum shops
Vineyard and tour shops.

Photos by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

On Amazon I found a similar one:

**************

Wine Travel Case with Two Glasses - Wine Bottle & Stemware Tote Bag by WineUltra.com

---

Available from these sellers.

New (1) from £161.64 + £4.48 shipping.

At £165 to carry one bottle, plus £4.48 shipping !

A suitcase costing £300+ carrying six or more bottles sounds like a bargain.

***************
However, If found a similar item on ebay for £4.99 plus postage of £3.99. A Lazenne 12 bottle carrier. 
***************************
A single bottle wooden presentation pack containing a bottle opener from German on ebay for bids at under £5 but £16 postage. 
*******************

A suitcase for 6 bottles at £29.30 with free post and packing.
******************

Magic search words include:
 Wine travel protector.
Picnic backpack
Picknick backpack

****************
From Amazon: An anti shock glass bottle packaging bag by Mono Deal, (I inserted space against spell checker) cost about £10 but not re-usable, meaning, according to the reviewers, that you could not deflate them, but you can re-use them inflated.

Users struggled to find the inflation slot. Some said the holder would only fit a wine bottle, not a larger or odd shaped gin bottle.

You can also use them for transporting bottles of oil or vinegar.

You can buy 2, 3 or 4 pack wine bottle holders, like a double plastic sock for around £10.
************

From John Lewis, similar to mine, but mine had space for one bottle, insulated with interior silver colour lining, with glasses the other side, padded but not so well insulated - though you could remove the glasses and replace them with a bottle.

John Lewis Croft Collection version for two bottles about £20. They deliver as far away as Australia and all over the world.

Wine suitcases
You can buy a wine carrying suitcase to keep wines cool and protected from breakage, loss and theft.
I looked at a small one at a wine show. I thought, that's small enough to carry home. Small enough to hide until the next birthday or Christmas. Then I heard the price.

************

For postage, this offer of packaging:
https://www.ukpackaging.com/bottle-postal-boxes-pulp-bottle-pack-single-box-of-5
***************

A wine suitcases costs about £300 or more, depending on the size of case and number of bottles. The interior compartments can be removed.

You can see them at wine shows and events. They are used by people in the wine business and are presumably a business expense.

************
The brand names for the one bottle skins include:
Wineskin;
Wine Wings.
USEFUL WEBSITES
https://vingardevalise.com
www.johnlewis.com
www.winerist.com
www.winecruzer.com
www.carpe-travel.com
https://www.ukpackaging.com
www.wineultra.com
www.amazon.com
www.ebay.com
https://lazenne.com/collections/wine-check-luggage-combos (Free wine skin added to your order if I signed up  - and ordered within 7 days.)

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please bookmark and share links to your favourite posts.

How To Get by Translating With Photos When Travelling

POINT TO THESE PICTURES IN A RESTAURANT. STORIES AND INSTRUCTIONS BELOW

(Pictures in this post: Menu; coffee; olives; fruit/pineapple; red wine; baed beans; baked beans on toast; white wine; four pâtés; sandwich with crisps and green garnish; mustard orange juice; bottled water; white wine, glass of water, rosé wine; petits fours; chicken soup with noodles and ravioli; fat pancake or thin hot scone with butter; breakfast or Sunday brunch grill with sausage and egg and chips (Americans call them French fries); fancy carrot cake with icing and nuts on top;  Chinese  moon cake for autumn festival (very sweet, filling, to eat at party, as gift or souvenir).

Problem
How do you translate what you want to somebody who doesn't speak your language?
Most Chinese and Japanese Restaurants have photos outside or on a menu. What if they don't?

Story
When I first went to China I started off in a grand conference hotel with my husband. All the restaurants had English menus. However, you had to ask, because a Chinese person who speaks no English does not know whether you don't understand staff or the menu because you are English speaking.

The first time I struggled, letting the head of a group order for everybody. I ended up faced with lobsters and similar shellfish which I can't eat because I am allergic to them. I then had to get chicken, which came up later so I was out of sync with everybody else.

On our day off, my husband insisted that we did not eat in another international restaurant in a hotel, but tried a 'local' restaurant. The trouble was, only locals ate there, they had no English menu and we had trouble making ourselves understood.

I tried drawing a chicken. I soon had three members of staff and guests from other tables surrounding me, all arguing with each other. I had drawn what could have been anything from a pheasant to a cow. Even if they understood chicken, they didn't know whether I wanted soup, a sandwich, lemon chicken, or chicken with cashew nuts.

You could be Russian, as most visitors to Shanghai who look Western will be Russian. You could be French or German.

Would you be able to tell apart somebody who spoke Chinese (mandarin), Cantonese, Korean, Thai. Even if the restaurant manager is ultra smart and has initiative, the waiter may be timid and rushed off their feet. They have no idea whether you speak other languages. They don't know whether you speak French or Mandarin. Their guests may speak other 'dialects' but understand the Chinese writing which is common to Chinese and Japanese, a bit like a non smoking sign.

Given the speed with which restaurants change hands, and waiters change jobs, the waiter may well not know where the other menus are kept and will have to ask.

Answers
1 Choose a restaurant with English translations or photos.
2 If recommended a restaurant with no translations or photos, or taken into one by your Asian host who assures you the food is wonderful you have several options.

1 Put a dictionary in your pocket.
2 Photograph a menu with translations from another restaurant or hotel.
a) Copy that photo the menu to the end of your photo list each day so so it is quick to find.
b) Email yourself a copy of the translated menu before leaving for the restaurant so your email is most recent and easy to find.
c) Print a copy of your photo of the translated menu.

You may have to ask for the English menu. Just because Remember the waiter is not trying to be difficult.

Make a collection of pictures of your favourite foods. Photograph what you like from one restaurant to how the next. Or photograph what you like in your hotel restaurant to order the same, or photograph it and draw a black felt tip cross through it and shake your head to ensure you are trying something different the next day.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, teacher of English and languages. Please bookmark this post for yourself and come back to this page or share links to your favourite posts with family, friends and colleagues. 

Romania, Romania, the song, and pastrami and food from Romania

Problem
Is there a song about Romania?

Answer
Yes. but not in England. Nor Romanian.

Story
I asked a friend who directs a choir if he knew a song about Romania. He immediately sang 'Roumania, Roumania!' and sent me a link to the song.

It is not in Romanian but in Yiddish. it was written and performed between WWI and WWII by the songwriter. You can see it on YouTube.

Another version is a later adaption by the Barry Sisters, who were very popular in their day, performing and on radio. You can see them performing the song on YouTube.

I also found a translation of the words from the Yiddish into English. The comments include lots of discussion about the meanings of the words and the recipes. The humorous song describes various foods from Romania, and wine.

The foods mentioned in the song and discussed include
cheese
eggplant
ladies' fingers
polenta

The drinks include
Romanian red wine

Pastrami
Romanian immigrants to New York took with them a recipe for beef, served as thin slices. The name for this dish developed into the word pastrami. The cook/chef in my family says he researched the difference between pastrami and salt beef and the ingredients are the same. Salt beef is succulent and thick often with an edging of fat. Pastrami is usually drier and flat as, well, ham.

Tips
1 The best video visually is by Moshe Shulhof. Expand it to full screen so you can see him dancing, miming, lifting his glass of wine, and using the full stage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeCALnm4ljo

2 Aaron Lebedeff - Roumania Roumania (1947)

3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcUZ-K9NoAM&feature=youtu.be by Dudu Fisher

4 Klezmer Conservatory Band (with a woman's voice against a visual of an old map of Roumania).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeJGN9wUn5o

Here are the lyrics, in Yiddish written in Hebrew, then in transliteration, then translated into English.
https://yiddishlyrics.wordpress.com/2010/12/26/rumania-rumania-רומייניע-רומייניע/

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

The Best Sweet Riesling From Corney & Barrow

I love sweet wines. I like muscat grapes, dessert wines, cocktails such as vodka and orange and Baileys. I enjoy Prosecco and cava and Champagne as an aperitif. Most reds are strong and dry and bore me, so I am always looking for a medium sweet, a sweet, a sparkling a pink wine.

I was in heaven when I went to a wine tasting hosted by Corney and Barrow. First the venue is a delight, and easy to find. It's a hidden gem. We walked from crowded Liverpool Street station, which has McDonalds, a Caffe Nero with no toilet, and a large Wetherspoons pub (later you can read my previous post on the station). From the busy street outside we disappeared into a pedestrian alley, into a tree lined square with a view of the Gherkin, then through lanterns bordering the stairs with heaters overhead which looked like torches, reminiscent of a Roman stage set.

In the secluded, elegant candle-lit darkness was the Corney and Barrow Restaurant. Beyond that the private room with four wines. At the start was a table of Rieslings from 2015, only a year ago, the new wines, and already Corney and Barrow are running out of their allocation.

I'd had Riesling before. I have studied about 20 hours and then a day at WSET (Wine and Spirit Eduction Trust) taking the level one exam which is roughly equivalent to an NVQ (vocational qualification for people serving wines in shops or restaurants). My husband has taken levels two and three and is studying for the diploma which consists of about nine exams taken over two years or longer. So I am forever hearing, "You can smell the petrol in Riesling".

In the Sixties and Seventies, like the rest of the British wining and dining world, I was into sweet wines and drank Mateus Rose, Black Tower, and had no idea of any regions nor any grapes.

Later, it must be the case that most of the Rieslings I have tasted in my short knowledgeable era of wine tasting have come from Alsace. I have now, thanks to Corney and Barrow, discovered the Rieslings from the Mosel region. I am told that the Mosel region consists of blue slate banks on three rivers, and the region was known by the names of the three rivers and areas, until somebody decided to simplify the name to make it more memorable. So now the region and the wine growing area are called simply Mosel.

I must have tried a dozen wines, started with the driest ending with the sweetest, and every one of them was delicious. Just to see whether I was simply in a good mood, I went over to the other three sets of wines, dry reds. Did I like all of them? No. Not one of them.

I was most interested to hear about wines grown on the side of Mount Etna. Fascinating.

However, if I had to choose a wine to drink or buy it would now be a Riesling from the Mosel.
Corner and Barrow have several restaurants and attached bars with extensive wine lists. You can also buy wine from them. They have offices in London, other parts of England, Edinburgh, Hong Kong and Singapore. You can also find them on Facebook, twitter and Instagram.
www.candbscene.co.uk is their blog.
www.corneyandbarrow.com
More about the restaurant and bar in my next post.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Broken wine bottle leaking - here's the answer

We once got off a plane with a wine bottle which had broken in flight. Two jets of red wine dripped onto our luggage and the floor. It was such a shock. At first I thought somebody was bleeding.

Luckily the bottle was in hand luggage and not packed in a suitcase. One person held the bottle upright. Another raced for the toilets and a supply of tissues. We soon had a red papier mache hands like a boxer.

Anything to declare? Just embarrassment. we were red-handed. But surprisingly nobody stopped us. If they noticed, they were glad to see us go.

Next we had to persuade the taxi to take us, not to a hospital, home, via the nearest wastebin.

Now somebody has invented the answer, to protect your body, your hands, your clothes and your luggage, public places and your home or your host's property.

It looks like a black bottle carrier but has not one, not two, but three zip locks. Then the handle fastens with a handy loop tape (Velcro brand or similar). At under £10 it's a great item for yourself or a gift. And for those occasions when a bottle of wine alone is not enough, a handy addition.

http://www.wineware.co.uk/inflatable-wine-bottle-travel-bag-black

Three aromas to savour when 'tasting' wine

The Sniff Test

by Angela Lansbury

More wine is sold before Christmas in the UK than at any other time of year. Whether you are tasting wine at a huge multi-national such as Majestic, or at a vineyard cellar shop, or at a Christmas dinner, in a restaurant or at home, you should first swirl the wine around in the glass to release the aroma.

How do you do it without spilling it? Depends whether you have the right amount of wine in the right shaped glass selected by somebody who knows. If your wine has been filled beyond half or to the brim, and you are already feeling decidedly merry after finishing off a couple of pre-dinner drinks, it is not a good idea to wave your glass in the air and send the wine spiralling upwards.

You hold the glass securely, and start slowly watching it as you increase speed. If it is warm red wine, you may be holding it by the bowl. Yes, in snowy weather it's good to warm your hands on a glass of mulled wine. But usually what you are trying to go is warm the wine which has not reached the correct temperature, or keep it at the correct temperature.

Conversely, if the wine, usually still white wine, has been chilled, you will not want to warm it by clutching the bowl, but will hold it securely by the stem. 

To be sure of no accidents, keep the base of the glass on the tablecloth and swill it gently. 

The Sniff Test

First you need to sniff a wine to be sure that it hasn't gone off.

Next, good wine has an aroma as well as a taste. You may be able to detect three kinds of aroma.

1 The grape juice variety providing the fruity perfume.
2 The secondary fermentation, adding more of the skin for flavour and aroma.

3 The aromas added, for example: a) the smokiness of the oak barrel, the mixing with another grape to counteract over dry or over sweet wine and add variety - like sweet and sour Chinese food, so the flavour is not to sharp and acid, nor too sweet and sickly or flaccid, needing more bite.

Savour that moment of sniffing before dining the wine. That enhances your enjoyment.