Around the World in 80 Treasures (2005) s01e10 Episode Script

Five months ago,
l set out to discover
80 of the world's greatest treasures.
Now, l'm almost back on home territory.
l'm excited.
lt feels like seeing old friends again.
But, after all my incredible experiences
and treasures from right around the globe,
will l see these familiar sights in a new light?
l've now almost circumnavigated the globe
and am about to start my last lap
in what used to be called Yugoslavia.
l'm in Bosnia.
A country that has until recently -
been dominated by war,
to see if man-made beauty,
if history, if architecture can help
in healing this land.
This historic town of Mostar
fell victim to the violence
and ignorance of warfare.
lt remains today a painful reminder of
Yugoslavia's tragic descent into chaos.
Ten years ago in the early 1990s,
this was one of the most - dangerous,
violent places on Earth.
With the collapse of the Soviet Union,
Mostar got dragged into a bitter,
genocidal civil war,
with the different communities,
Roman Catholic, Croats -
Christian Orthodox, Bosnian Serbs
and Moslems fighting to survive.
And it's in this - rather unlikely setting
l have come to find my next treasure.
lt's a treasure that died,
blasted to destruction in 1993
by Christian Croat troops.
But in 2001, work began to rebuild the bridge.
ldentical in form and using as much
of the original fabric as possible.
The Mostar Bridge would live again.
lt really is the most wonderful
to minimal engineered construction.
So elegant.
The bridge was built on the er - direct orders
of the greatest of the Ottoman rulers.
Suleiman the Magnificent.
And when the bridge was completed in 1566,
it was the largest
single span bridge in the world.
lt - leaps across the river in an arch
of almost thirty metres.
When it was built,
Bosnia was a recent acquisition
of the Ottoman Empire.
The long established Christians having
to accommodate the conquering Moslems,
Suleiman the Magnificent wanted the Mostar bridge
to act as a bridge between peoples.
How did the people - of Mostar
respond to this rather political gesture?
Well they, both Christians and Moslems
took it to their hearts.
lt became a symbol of unity,
of identity, of pride.
But now it's been rebuilt,
does it means the same any more?
Can an old building still have meaning when -
- it's a reconstructed old building?
ln this case a bridge.
Well, l think the answer is yes.
Providing the reconstruction is authentic.
Authentic materials,
authentic means of construction.
These are - parts of the old bridge
that have not been reused,
but most of the stones that were found
have been put back in place.
So to me it is still a living old building.
Ah, now very traditional.
Golly. A very brave young man. Oh, yes.
Certainly the age old custom
ofjumping off the bridge
to prove your manhood is alive and well.
But has the meaning of the bridge,
this ancient symbol,
been lost to local Moslems?
Has rebuilding this - ancient bridge
helped to heal wounds,
helped to reunite the community of Mostar?
Well, it did help, but it's just another step.
We need much more to do to heal our wounds.
And when you walk across the new bridge
does it feel as if the old bridge
has come back to life?
l think it's the old bridge.
Yeah. To me it feels - like an old bridge
and just for ten years
unfortunately it wasn't here -
Yes.
- but it's now come back together.
And now the Catholic Croats and -
and the Moslems
and maybe the Orthodox Bosnian Serbs now
tend to live separately.
They used to be living in one -
Yes, mixed up. They - they were mixed up.
lt wasn't important what religion you were,
but now it is.
Umm. There is too much anger, l think.
But the - bridge is a step.
Yes, yes it is. A huge step.
ln the narrow streets alongside the bridge,
stalls selling souvenirs have opened up,
optimistically awaiting the
return of tourists to Mostar.
The strangest thing.
This stall, this shop is full of um, shells.
Not seaside shells
but these monsters, brass shells fired from guns,
machine guns and canon.
That's a 50 calibre one, l think.
Ornamental now.
Carved with um, patterns and local scenes.
Unbelievable
there is the image of the Mostar bridge.
Could be the very shell of one of them
that was responsible for destroying it.
God, what a kind of bizarre irony?
- But these shells you're selling.
- Yes.
These are really extraordinary, are they not?
These are shells that were fired
during the fighting around here?
Yes.
Do you find it odd making ornamental things
out of - out of these shells,
l mean which want to destroy the bridge here,
the city here, people?
Er, we see it like this. From - from war to art.
Fair enough, absolutely.
Can rebuilding an ancient
structure in a beautiful location
really help rebuild a shattered community?
And especially one that tore itself apart
in such terrible circumstances
and where bitterness and hatred survives.
Mostar is once again a beautiful place,
full of life,
but the bridge is like a mask,
superficial really,
worn over a scarred and snarling face.
You can rebuild things that were of beauty.
You can rebuild structures,
but can you really so easily rebuild
a shattered soul, a broken heart?
Time will tell.
From Bosnia, l fly to Greece.
Once home to a great and ancient civilisation.
To tell the truth,
l'm feeling pretty ancient myself.
l'm leaving Athens Airport.
This must be about the 90th flight.
To be quite honest, between you and me,
l'm pretty exhausted.
Also exhilarated by the things we've seen.
Athens in the 21st century
is an enormous polluted city.
High on cars, low on parks and greenery.
Yet it manages to retain a village like charm.
My next treasure stands right above me,
but l'll have to wait until morning to see it.
At the top of this hill -
is a building that since its rediscovery
in the late 17th century,
has inflamed the artistic imagination
of the west.
lt's become known
as the perfect piece of architecture -
and has gained Greece the reputation
of being the cradle of civilisation.
The Parthenon.
lt's inspired great architecture,
great art entire cities.
Many have believed that it represents
the origins of architecture,
that it's divinely inspired.
Many of the world's great artists and architects
have come here,
seen this building and fallen on their knees.
The Parthenon was built around 430 B.C.
by the great Athenian leader Pericles.
lt housed a giant statue of Athena,
the goddess of the city.
After the demise of Ancient Greece,
it fell into neglect.
Even being torn apart by explosions
in a Venetian attack in the 17th century.
But even in its ruined state,
it would come to inspire the modern world.
lt's beautifully built out of marble, all carved,
but structurally the Parthenon
has little going for it.
lt's not pioneering,
it's not ingenious nor ambitious.
There's no arches, there's no vaults,
no domes.
Really the Parthenon is no more advanced
structurally than Stonehenge.
lt's all very primitive.
So why is this my treasure?
lt's because of what it came to symbolise.
lt became a powerful emblem
of a lost civilisation.
lts ruined state inspired the artists
of western Europe
to explore the heroism
and tragedy of battered beauty
and defeated ambitions.
No surprise the Romantic poet
Byron loved this building.
But our experience is now very different.
ln fact the Parthenon
is now largely a building site.
This is the main route of
entry to the Parthenon in ancient times,
up these steps into
what would have been a dark chamber
with the great goddess Athena
somewhere in there.
And now almost impossible to imagine
what it would have been like.
All is gone, all is now construction.
Athena, the great goddess
would have stood roughly here,
right where the crane is now.
Restoration has been going on
for twenty-five years,
making good poor repairs of the 1920s.
And by the looks of things,
will continue for years to come.
Looking round one can't help
but conclude very soon this building
will be an amalgam of old and new.
Oh, it's all ladies. Lady masons.
Hello.
You're removing old repairs,
aren't you, that's what's going on,
l can see that.
Restoring old things is often a problem,
isn't it,
'cause one can in the process - l don't know,
remove some of the magic of the place.
The new marble -
l know it comes from the same quarry
but it looks very different,
doesn't it, to the old?
Yes.
How will it look?
Do you think a sort of patchwork of old and new
will it look all right in the end, do you think?
l think yes. l think it will be all right.
Yeah. lt's lovely to see.
Thank you very much. Go on. Thanks. Bye.
Well, nobody here shares my worries.
But to me
it feels like the restoration
is swamping the magic of the building.
Buildings like the Parthenon,
of supreme historic and architectural importance
must of course be conserved,
preserved for posterity.
But this is more than that.
lt seems to me
the Parthenon's being appropriated
by contemporary politics.
Being made into a national symbol of the image
of modern Greece.
And that, l find, sad and worrying.
lf gunpowder and missiles
can destroy historic treasures,
so can over-zealous restoration,
even when well-meaning.
l leave Athens
and head for another treasure at risk.
This time from the rising tides
of the Adriatic Sea.
After all my travels,
will Venice still feel
the most beautiful city in the world?
Trading gateway to the east,
Venice has been the meeting place of two worlds
for more than a thousand years.
Here art and trade marry in
an explosion of splendid palaces
and miraculous churches.
At its heart lies my treasure.
lt is the main artery of Venice.
The Grand Canal.
There's nothing, nothing like this in the world,
of course there's not.
This great highway water highway,
a highway of palaces.
This spectacular architecture floats,
it seems on water.
This is the largest canal in Venice.
The fusion of nature and engineering.
Harnessed by man
it weaves its way through the city,
lined with palaces built on stilts hammered
deep into the muddy waters.
The palaces were also warehouses.
The princes also merchants.
The riches of the world were brought to Venice.
From the Orient spices and silk.
lndia, from Damascus
and these riches were transformed
into architecture.
The buildings scream
not just of power and of wealth -
but also of all parts of the world,
particularly the east.
One sees an oriental influence.
One sees Moslem influence as well,
as classical design a thing
called Venetian Gothic.
lt takes half an hour
to motor down the Grand Canal
and it's one of the best thirty minutes
life has to offer.
Here is the Ca'd'Oro,
one of Venice's finest palazzos.
lt was built in the 15th century
and once sparkled with gold leaf.
Then the Rialto Bridge.
The first great bridge across the Grand Canal,
linking the commercial heart of the city
with its political head.
Venice is many, many things,
but one thing it is of course is frozen time.
The city we see now
has changed little since the mid 17th century.
lt's a highway not just back in time -
but through time. Through taste, through culture
and all around lie feasts.
One is utterly nourished by these images -
from the great moments of western civilisation.
lt's just breathtaking.
lt's with reluctance that
l leave this beautiful city.
Happily, my next destination
is scarcely less spectacular.
l'm in Rome,
which is the most spellbinding city,
even in the rain.
l'm here to see
the best of surviving ancient Roman architecture.
And to help me on this quest l've er,
picked up a charming young man called Francesco,
who will drive me round the city
on his um, scooter.
- Francesco, hello.
- Hello.
l pass some of the most famous buildings
in the world.
All evidence of the Roman Empire
that flourished two thousand years ago.
But one in particular l consider
better than all the rest.
So thank you very much indeed.
- Goodbye. - Goodbye.
Um, charming.
Now here it is.
When l first saw this building thirty years ago
l was overwhelmed.
lt seemed to me to be the epitome,
the essence of architecture.
lt's the Pantheon.
The best preserved Roman temple in the world.
The Pantheon was built in the second century A.D.
by Emperor Hadrian.
Pantheon means, all the gods.
And like so many of my treasures
this building had to be worthy of divine beings.
lt also had to proclaim to the world
that the might of Rome was unrivalled.
The first thing you see
as you approach the Pantheon
is this huge portico
with its triangular pediment.
This is very much the architectural language
of Ancient Greece.
So here we have a Grecian element,
but there's more.
Each column is one great stone.
lt's a monolith.
And these stones were brought from North Africa,
from Egypt.
What we see here is Hadrian bringing
the culture of Greece -
and Egypt to Rome,
absorbing it, developing it,
saying we, Rome,
have conquered these ancient
and great civilisations
and we are the new masters of the world.
But inside is a very different world.
Very Roman, very pioneering, very modern.
Especially modern nearly
two thousand years ago,
because there's a vast covered space.
The awe-inspiring dome is made of concrete,
which the Romans invented,
and remains the largest un-reinforced
concrete dome in the world.
Having made the dome of concrete,
at least the dome then is a -
is a rigid structure
with minimal horizontal outward thrust.
But it does weigh an awful lot.
Around five thousand tons.
And that has to be carried on the wall behind me.
The problem is, this wall is eaten into,
burrowed into by a series of eight niches.
Here's one behind me.
So, how on earth does this system work?
l'm now walking into the wall of the drum
to see how this five thousand ton
concrete dome is supported.
Ah, now what's clear is that the er,
curved wall of the drum
is not made out of solid concrete.
There are these great brick arches,
massively strong,
and these great arches transfer
the load of the dome to the solid wall
each side of the great recesses,
so the great dome is carried really by genius.
The Pantheon shows the Roman Empire at its peak.
Flexing its muscles.
Showing capability and invention
that Europe would not equal for nearly
a thousand years.
But what did this heroic structure mean?
Most intriguing l think is the oculus.
The open space in the centre of the dome.
Not just a demonstration of engineering
skills to create a dome without a keystone,
but it lets the light flood in.
lt lets the sun in.
The sun god is present,
is made manifest when the sun shines.
The truth is though this great building
retains its secret.
Remains mysterious and enigmatic.
The Pantheon is the ancestor
of every dome in the western world.
And to look at the skyline of Rome
is to witness evolution in architecture.
But the glory of Rome
would like dormant until the Renaissance.
The rebirth of classical genius,
art and architecture in the 15th century.
At the heart of the Renaissance
was the city of Florence.
lts streets are lined with bold,
classical palaces,
the like of which had not been seen
since the days ancient Rome.
Renaissance princes were masters
of the use of art and architecture
to express wealth and power,
their aspirations.
They were amongst the great patrons of the arts
the world has ever known.
Without them
there would have been no Renaissance of the arts.
This is particularly
true of the mighty Medici family
and they built this huge palace behind me
in the 1450s.
This thing was meant to capture,
reflect the power and the glory of ancient Rome.
The Medici princes rules Florence on and off
for over three hundred years,
until the middle of the 18th century.
lt was the Medici dynasty
that created my next treasure.
l'm in San Lorenzo -
the spiritual stronghold of the Medici family.
And what l want to see lies
through that door over there.
The Medici Chapel was created by Michelangelo
in the 1520s.
lt was commissioned by Cardinal Julio di Medici
as a great mausoleum for his family.
This building's a dream.
lt's a vision of death.
lt's the theatre of death.
Here Michelangelo manipulates the emotions
in a an astonishing way.
The colours, the muted light.
At the top the windows taper. Amazing.
So one can almost feel one's soul rising upwards
and out of this space.
This space of worldly suffering and woe.
The ceiling of the Chapel
is a copy in miniature of the Pantheon dome.
A building which Michelangelo described
as of 'angelic design.'
The focus of the building, its very meaning,
is a pair of fantastic memorials
to members of the Medici family.
Here we see
two incredibly haunting figures. Night and day.
And there she's leaning upon a portrait,
self portrait of Michelangelo
looking wizened by time.
When these were made he himself
was in a very strange position.
Florence was in the grips of a power struggle.
The people of the city has risen up
in a republican frenzy
against Medici tyranny.
Which side would Michelangelo choose?
Michelangelo sides with the republic,
against the Medicis.
Frightful business, so he's here working
on the memorial to members of the family
that he is fighting against
and which he fears if they win
will put him to death.
lt was a terrible dilemma.
ln the event, the revolt was crushed,
Medici rule restored.
So Michelangelo went on working.
But as he did he feared recrimination,
a hired Medici assassin creeping up
behind him as he worked.
Punishment for supporting the republic.
As he made this monument to death
he was here fearing for his own life.
When he carved that self portrait
he was really carving his own death mask.
But the love of art
must have triumphed over a lust for vengeance,
because the hired assassins
didn't come for Michelangelo.
What's been fascinating about seeing
Michelangelo's tomb is there's some -
it's reminded me really of
how many of the treasures
l've seen in this great world journey
have been to do with death.
l've seen how different people, different places,
different times,
have tried to understand the mystery of death,
the passage that takes place from life to death.
lt really is quite haunting, quite strange.
There it is, death this constant concern.
Life after death, recycling of the human soul.
Who knows?
lt's amazing really that
so much of man's creative energy
is focused not on love, on life,
but on death.
From ltaly to Spain
and my penultimate country.
Compared to my destinations
of the past few days,
Madrid is a young city.
Only becoming capital of Spain
in the mid 16th century.
But behind the impetuous energy of its youth,
lurks a dark spectre.
Visiting this colourful, vibrant city,
it's easy to forget how relatively
recently was in the grip of a civil war -
that most terrible event
when a nation tears itself apart.
ln 1936, General Franco
launched a fascist coup
against the left wing government.
For three years the country
was ravished by fighting.
Evidence of this division
can still be found today.
lndeed shockingly,
as recently as March 2005
a statue of the tyrant Franco was still standing.
The most shameful episode of the Civil War
took place on the 26th of April, 1937.
That's when the Basque town
of Guernica was bombed.
The Basques, an autonomous republic,
were hostile to Franco and his forces
and so he unleashed his German allies,
the Kondor Legion operating in Spain
on this defenceless town.
The attack lasted for three and a half hours.
ln the end, one thousand six hundred and
fifty people were killed, nine hundred injured
and most of the town damaged or destroyed.
lt caused international outrage.
My next treasure
was created in response to that massacre.
lt's a work of the greatest painter
of the 20th century
and it's generally acknowledged to be
one of the most powerful anti-violence,
anti-war statements ever made.
lt still has the power to move.
Guernica is the work of Pablo Picasso.
Picasso, a Spaniard,
was appalled by this act of violence
by Franco against his own people.
The difficulty Picasso had
was how to respond artistically to this massacre.
He was appalled, outraged, politically engaged,
but he knew that art and politics
rarely mix successfully.
lf he is painting was too full
of obvious imagery against warfare,
planes, raining bombs and collapsing buildings,
he could end up making nothing
more than a piece of propaganda.
And that's not what he wanted.
He wanted to make a timeless image
against violence, against warfare.
Picasso shows universal human suffering,
but the flavour of Spain is unmistakeable.
The imagery of the bullfight.
The bull stands for Franco and his forces.
The suffering horse, the people of Spain.
And these images,
some of them, the horse,
the bull, the weeping woman -
are very personal for Picasso.
These images he'd been using
for the last twenty years.
But here, in this painting,
very bravely he used those images to make
maybe different points.
Points about war and violence.
lt's this fantastic sort of trembling balance
between political statement
and personal statement
that makes this painting
such a tremendous success.
Painted in Paris,
Picasso ruled that Guernica
should only be returned to Spain,
his spiritual home,
after the country had embraced democracy.
lt hung in New York until 1981.
A painting in exile.
Now it hangs here in the Museo Rainer Sophia.
A warning to Spain
and every country at risk of tyranny.
lt retains huge contemporary relevance
for many people around the world.
lt has become the single image
against the horrors of war.
Of violence, of military regimes.
lndeed so powerful is the image
that a copy of this painting hanging
in the United Nations had to be veiled,
covered when Colin Powell in 2003
announced America's intentions to attack lraq.
This image was seen as intolerable at the time.
This really is 'the' image of the 20th century.
From Madrid l head south on the journey
back into Spain's history.
lt feels like l'm in Morocco.
ln fact l'm in Spain.
Here in Granada,
l'm reminded of Europe's lslamic history,
of a Moslem Spain that might have survived
and even spread further north.
l've come to see the greatest
and best preserved complex of palaces
in lslamic history.
The Alhambra.
The Alhambra was built over several centuries
by the Moorish dynasties,
Moslem sultans who ruled southern Spain
from 711 to 1491.
For the times, their rule was enlightened
and even tolerant.
Moslems, Christians and Jews
lived peacefully together.
But even as this great complex of buildings
was being completed,
lslam was being squeezed out of Spain
by Christian monarchs from the north,
determined to convert everyone to their faith.
l've just entered the Comares palace.
This is the first anteroom here.
People coming for an audience
with the sultan would wait,
no doubt trembling and in fear.
Eventually they'd be called,
their turn had come to confront the great man.
Perhaps they're here charged with some crime.
They go through this door.
The sultan would be sitting over here
on his throne.
The people who'd come to see him down below.
This door on the right
leads into the heart of the palace.
Only those people of high status, of grandeur,
would be allowed to penetrate beyond this point.
Ordinary people kept back.
The beauty of the Alhambra is extraordinary.
The exquisite tile work, Koranic inscriptions.
This playful use of water and light.
This is the court of the fountain of the lions.
One of the greatest examples
of lslamic architecture in Spain.
The fountain's based
on the fountain the bible tells us
stands outside Solomon's temple in Jerusalem.
And the division of this court into four areas
divided by four strips of water,
they represent paradise
as described in the bible.
Only those of great power in the land
would be allowed to enter this paradise on earth.
This is the focus
of the formal rooms of the palace.
The hall of the ambassadors.
Here the sultan would have received men
with diplomatic missions to his court.
An incredible space this,
because it is, from the political point of view,
one of the most important rooms in the world.
Here late in 1491
the last Moslem ruler in Spain
sat in an alcove over there -
and signed away his kingdom.
He's been overcome by the Catholic monarchs,
Ferdinand and lsabella.
He agreed to go into exile and give up his land,
so after nearly eight hundred years,
the last lslamic kingdom
in western Europe was over.
An era had certainly come to a most dramatic end.
lt's mind boggling to speculate on
what the loss of Spain
meant to lslam.
Spain was ajewel of the Moslem world.
The loss of Spain implied
there was something wrong with lslam.
How could god let this land
of the faithful be taken away?
Particularly when the people
doing the taking were ruthless fanatics.
And also the loss of Spain
has meant that lslam has been divided
from western Europe ever since.
And the results of that are very terrible.
lndeed,
we are living with those consequences now.
And it's worth reflecting that
barely had the sultan left
before Christopher Columbus arrived
at the Alhambra seeking finance for his trip
that would discover the Americas.
lt may be fanciful,
but had Columbus been just a few months earlier
maybe he would have crossed the Atlantic
in the name of lslam.
l leave Spain for France
and one of the greatest religious buildings
in Europe.
Chartres Cathedral is not
a great religious treasure
because it's Christian.
To me this monumental building
embraces much, much more.
This is 13th century Gothic.
The Medieval language
of Christianity at its best.
But l'm not just here to celebrate
the architecture
or any one religion.
l'm here to share in centuries of
man's search for enlightenment.
And l must say l feel
rather like a pilgrim myself
having been travelling for five months.
The question though, is will l find
a sort of spiritual enlightenment here
that other pilgrims have found in the past?
lncredible.
You can see the emotional
impact of Gothic architecture.
lmagine pilgrims coming here, humble people.
They've seen nothing
like this in their lives before.
The scale the glory of this place.
The bible acted as a design guide
for the creation of great churches like this.
lt makes it clear that the unseen world
is more important than the seen.
That the spiritual is more important
than the material.
So in a great church or a cathedral
it's the spaces defined by the walls
that are most powerful where god resides.
And then there's light.
God is light.
So the light flooding in here,
manipulated by the coloured glass is in -
itself sacred, holy.
Without necessarily realising it,
pilgrims came here to worship an object
that long before Christianity,
since the birth of mankind,
has been the subject of human devotion.
The sun.
All round the world l've seen the sun venerated.
ln Egypt, in ancient Persia.
And l've seen the same veneration
for the sun in Europe.
lndeed in this great Christian church.
Here before me a little brass pin.
Every year on the 21st of June,
summer solstice at midday,
a ray of light enters this church
through a hole up there on the left
and that ray of light
exactly strikes this brass pin.
And, l should say, the hole in the window
shows an image of St Apollonaire.
Apollo, the sun god.
So one sees here continuation
of an ancient pagan tradition.
A tradition for worshipping nature.
Worshipping nature in the person of the sun.
The more l look around, the more l see images
that aren't necessarily Christian.
Stone carvings on the doors
depict signs from the zodiac.
Others simply show the world of man.
A huge beetle with a human head reminds me
of an Egyptian scarab.
ln the middle of the cathedral
is a marble labyrinth which has
no Christian origins at all.
Pilgrims in the Middle Ages
would stand here and then walk the labyrinth.
To do this they would take their shoes off,
as in a mosque,
so the shoes go off and l enter the labyrinth.
Which for me, when l reach its centre,
represents the end of my journey.
The end of my pilgrimage around the world
looking at the great treasures
that man has created.
As with so many of my treasures,
Chartres is a monument to humanity's need
to interact with a divine presence.
A presence we sense but cannot see.
Through the centuries different civilisations,
unknown to one another,
have created buildings
to worship this mighty presence.
They fill these buildings with objects
in an attempt to personify and honour it.
l've heard so many different voices,
all speaking the same language.
Well, l've reached the centre of the labyrinth
and what do l feel?
Having travelled the world
l've been aware of many other religions,
social concerns,
sacred concerns.
l've seen those reflected in the fabric,
the detail of this great church. lt's a fusion.
There is a universal religion.
That mankind is bigger than one religion
and all religions are,
in their essential parts,
related, all questing the same thing,
an understanding of why we are here.
Where is mankind going?
And so this great cathedral
l do see in a fresh light.
The marriage of all that is marvellous in mankind
and in the world.
That, as l stand here
where these millions of pilgrims have stood,
they've had enlightenment.
l feel l also have gained enlightenment.
That, that and that.
And that's my blessing.
Thank you very much, thank you very much.
Certainly ending of the journey in some style.
Um, getting the ferry tomorrow
from Calais to Dover.
This charming hotel that we've found is um,
about forty kilometres from Calais and um,
not much by way of staff to help.
lt's gone, incredible.
Ah, no here we go.
The hotel um,
claims to be decorated in the English style,
which seems to me leaving a few
old riding boots around the place.
lncredible really.
Um, five months of hotels.
This is my last one.
Ah, there you go, look.
Hunting season.
Clearly the English style.
What do we have? Oh, l say.
Splendid.
And l feel sitting here with my champagne,
my little plastic glass in this room
decorated in the English style,
that l'm entering back into the real world.
God help me.
Um, lovely.
The white cliffs of Dover.
An image that for centuries
has greeted returning travellers home.
But home will seem
a very small place for me, at least for a while.
lt's worrying.
Will l fit in again? Rejoin the rat race?
l've seen the remains
of great civilisations' rise and fall,
staggering evidence of mankind's
great power to create.
And what's clear too, looking at these monuments,
is that if they're to survive,
to survive the destructive powers of man,
we're going to have to fight for them.