We are now in the land of lederhosen- Graz, Austria. Graz was once the capital of a place that included most of Austria, all of Slovenia and parts of Italy, depending on who was married to whom. We have become used to borders being decided by courts not counts, but for centuries Central Europe was divided into hundreds of entities with fluid borders. Nations came later.

A town we went through in Slovenia has been at various times been ruled by someone from Venice, Sicily, Rome, Turkey, The Vatican, Lombardy, Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, France, Austro-Hungary, Italy, Nazi Germany, Yugoslavia – et al. This does not include occasional sackings by Turks, Alans, Mongols, Crusaders or Huns.

We were driven through country Croatia by our hosts, they are immensely proud to be finally Croatian, rather than Sicillian, Turkish, Yugoslav or someting else. We saw Tito’s home town and the ‘house’ he was raised in. As a wise man from Rosewood one said, ‘All humans, no matter whether they were born in a mud hut, an igloo or a gilded, marble palace really just want exactly the same thing for their children. A bigger kitchen.’ Tito sure did.

Lunch was on a farm somewere vowell-less, Krchzdch or the like. A stunning meal with every ingredient coming from within a five kilometer radius – a superb wild mushroom soup, roast veal and turkey with pasta and veges, corn bread. This was followed by a trip to a great museuem with a collection of Neanderthal artifacts and animal bones from a cave where the museum is situated – really well done.

It traced the movement of hominids out of Africa and in particular the lives of the people who lived in other caves like this one, from the Neander Valley in Germany, and other sites in France and Spain. It certainly put the tiny speck that is my 60 years on the human timeline into perspective. And it showed that real driving force for survival and evolution -the constant search for food and, of course, a better cave in which to cook your wooly rhinoceros.

Grandad Johnson was probably right about the kitchen.

Better let you go Farquar – time to go foraging for breakfast.

F C-S