I've never really understood this "as the crow flies" phrase.
Watching some crows flying right now, I can see it takes them absolutely bleedin' ages to get anywhere. Up, down, left, right, stop, cr*p, squawk, land, up again...
I reckon Breugal had the same problem.
If I went down to the newsagent now "as the crow flies" I'd never get there, and I may get arrested as I blundered through Mrs Barlows hedge shrieking and dumping on her lawn.
And how many crows cross Oceans? As far as I know they don't migrate. You don't see V formations of f**king dirty great black-*rsed crows silhouetted against the autumn sky. Not sober, anyway. I suppose you could tape a few to the undercarriage of an Airbus, but it's not the same thing. I'll admit to seeing some dodgy birds at Le Mans, but no crows as far as I can recall.
Steve "Ancient Mariner" Brown, I hope you didn't base any of your navigation on these dodgy avian vectors.
I reckon we need a new phrase.
H