In Greece

Monday, April 25th., at Nauplia, on board Flying Cloud, R.Y.S.

Flying Cloud R.Y.S.

First glimpses of Greece yesterday at 7.30 a.m. Grey day, overcast, no sun. Lovely coastline: medieval castles on it, and snow-topped mountains in the distance. At noon we had turned into the Marathon Gulf, and dropped anchor off Getheon. As soon as lunch was over we went ashore and saw the town. Crowds and crowds gathered to inspect us. The Chief of Police came to greet us on the quay. We must seem very alien to them. Lovely landscpaes and seascapes all dominated by Mount Taygetus, apparently the place where the Spartans exposed children they wanted to die.

Otto Kahn

I must say that Kahn is a man of terrific energy, also highly nervous. I suppose the two things go together. He is by far the best-dressed man on board. I am not in it. He has brought fifty two suits and six overcoats. He has six pairs of the most chic yachting shoes and appears daily in a fresh uniform with stock to match. But he hasn't got a gilt-buttoned blue blazer like mine, and much regrets the sad fact. I reckon his income at about £1,000,000 a year, so of course expenditure is nothing at all to him. Good job because the hire of the yacht is £1,000 a week, and the miscellaneous expenses must come to at least £100 a day.

Social relations are perfect so far. Kommer and Kahn pretend to quarrel at bridge. Kommer is easily the best player on board. He is a very idle man who wouldn't come with us to Epidauros this morning; he would stay on the yacht and play bridge all day if left to himself. 

He missed a treat because Epidauros is simply the best-preserved theatre in Greece. In fact it strikes me as a perfection in theatres. We calculated that it can hold 12,000 people. You can hear perfectly words spoken in an ordinary tone in the centre of the 'stage'. I was quietly calculating in my head the potential revenue from a performance. I could see something in that!