Now that our bags are backed, we wondered who actually invented them. Why do we have the urge to bring a lot of stuff with us when we are...

Every summer, many Arabs from Saudi Arabia and the Golf Countries descend on London to escape the brutal heat of their home countries....

Cotton just ready for harvesting Some of you must be packing their bags by now. Did you pack your heavy woollen jacket, trouser and shirt...

When having Lebanese mezze with my colleagues in the Marush on Edgware Road one day, I did not occur to me that I would be sitting in...

Remember the days when you were waiting in the smouldering heat of the Roman summer to get access to the Vatican Museum? Did you also...

The use of sugar in food is so widespread today that we have to carefully read the nutrition labels to make sure that we do not consume...

Did you ever wonder why we are not sailing along Minarets, Turkish Towns and Turkish Fortresses on our trip? Having conquered all...

In the last few issues of "A minus x" we talked about goods flowing from the East to the West: silk, pearls, cotton, spices, lapis...

Lapis Lazuli is a deep blue, semi-precious stone that has been sought after by the earliest civilisations in the Middle East. We know...

Thanks to Spartacus we all know about slaves in the Roman Empire. Fewer people however know about the large scale slave trading in the...

We are approaching Departure Day (Abfahrtstag) minus 11 (A - 11). A good reason to start making you familiar with some of the spices we...

Since the industrial revolution two hundred years ago, we are surrounded by steel and got used to its ubiquitous use. This was not always...

The Pantheon today - Most People believe it decayed over the last 2'000 years We are not going to sail to Athens on our journey but you...

When sailing along Venetian trading routes, our captain will use GPS and computerised maps. The Venetians however had to do with...

Whilst the Venetian Galleys are well know (A - 18), fewer people know that most traded goods were shipped on traditional ships without...

Constantinople or now Istanbul in 1560 - 117 Years after the Conquest by the Ottoman Venetian Traders in Damascus - the Guys in black -...

To give anybody an idea how the ships travelling on our route looked like Arsenal where the Venetian Galleys and Merchant Ships were...

Venice in 1572 by an unknown Cartographer - the Map was drawn one Year after Lepanto Venice as drawn by Piri Reis, the Turkish...