One year – September 2015 part VI
Bye, bye Porto
Hello Viana do Castelo – and a host of classic rally cars
Saturday evening
Evening light
Down by the Rio Lima
An iron giant down by the Rio Lima
Viana do Castello harbour
Viana do Castelo from just below Monte de Santa Luzia
On Monte de Santa Luzia – two names for the same building?
Sunday afternoon…
Still Sunday afternoon…
Sunday night…
Time to move on – Monday morning
Viana do Castelo railway station
Aveiro
When we were planning this trip, we hadn’t considered Viana do Castelo…
Then I spotted a photo in Rough Guide to Portugal. After reading up on Viana do Castelo, the town went into the melting pot and came out unscathed as a stop for a relaxing middle weekend of our break.
After leaving Porto, we exited Viana do Castelo station on a warm, sunny and quiet Saturday afternoon.
Or so we thought. We’d walked about 300 metres from the station and saw a few classic cars heading down Ave dos Combatentes da Grande Guerra.
It’s a long time since I followed rallying, but the passing cars were joining those parked further down the avenue and it wasn’t long before I started to remember the names of all the cars participating in a classics rally that had Viana do Castelo as a stopping off point.
The cars were parked up opposite some cafes, so we found a table, ordered food & drink and waited for the drivers to get back into their cars.
When they did, the camera was almost forgotten about as the sounds and smells of the procession moving off brought back memories of going into UK forests to watch the formidable RAC Rally during the late 1970’s/1980’s.
Our hotel – O Laranjeira – was found, booked into and siesta declared. We were booked in for two nights, so our bags didn’t need to be unpacked, but there was washing to be done.
Our evening meal was taken in the same cafe as lunch, but we held off having coffee and dessert as the light was changing, so a wandering session was declared and photos taken as the sun went down.
After breakfast, we headed out and realised how quiet Viana do Castelo was. The funicular was found and taken – to Monte de Santa Luzia.
Caroline headed into the impressive building at the top (Santuario de Santa Luzia according to Rough Guide and Templo do Sagrado Coracao de Jesus according to Lonely Planet) whilst I fired off a few frames on the compact camera before hitting the cafe.
When Caroline came back down to earth we took a look at the gift shop and open market, but our wallets stayed closed so we headed down on the funicular to further explore Viana.
As you can see from the photos, Viana do Castelo’s streets were virtually deserted and only the local newsagent/lottery seller appeared to have customers, largely because there was at least a single roll-over on the lottery and people wanted a slice of the action.
And me? All I wanted was a copy of a Brit newspaper.
You may have gathered by now that we liked Viana do Castelo. It was a good antidote to how busy Porto had been and with the weather holding out, there had been plenty of opportunities to wander, eat, drink and be merry.
With a little help on Sunday night by eating Italian style at Dolce Vianna in Rua do Poco.
Although there were a few couples in Dolce Vianna, most of the local blokes had descended on the place for beer, pizza and the football on the restaurant’s TV set. We did have coffee at Dolce Vianna, but there was another course awaiting elsewhere in town.
It’s not often that we have coffee and cake after 10pm, but we made an exception by having coffee and cake at a pavement cafe before getting our heads down for the night.
After breakfast, our bags were packed and we headed back to the railway station via a cafe and then the supermarket. Yes, we stocked up on bread, cheese, ham and water for our lunch on the train, but there was something in the fish department that I’d seen, but Caroline hadn’t.
Nestling on the ice in the fish section was a creature that I’d read about, but never seen – a conger eel that looked rather dischuffed at its fate. Funnily enough, it also had the look of the craft used by Titan’s henchfishmen to attack Stingray in the classic 1960’s TV show.
Once seen, the station beckoned. We had plenty of time to spare before the train arrived, so the cafe provided another opportunity for me to order coffee in bad Portuguese along with a pastella for Caroline and a couple of shrimp croquettes for myself.
Next stop? Aveiro via Nine. The first part of the journey was by one of the regional trains from Viana do Castelo to Nine, but the second part from Nine to Aveiro was on one of the swanky Alfa Pendular high speed trains. It may have been in Turistica class, but it was both comfortable and fast.
More on Aviero tomorrow!
One year – September 2015 part V
Pinhao station in the Douro Valley
Tranquil – and then some… from on land
Or from onboard a river boat…
Warm outside…
And on the inside for hot dogs…
More tranquility…
With port producers along the way
Just one of many famous names seen on the hillsides above the Douro
All quiet on the station
Until the train arrives…
A day along the Douro is a trip worth taking by train from Porto.
It’s a long day out, but having taken it, I can see why most recommendations are to split it over two days and have a night in a hotel or guest house.
Like most great train journeys, it’s one to take home in the memory rather than on a camera’s memory card.
The journey to Pinhao from Porto was a smooth one. We’d taken a couple of snacks and bottles of water with us for the journey, but once we’d got to Pinhao, taken a look around and bought the t-shirt I’d wanted to buy during the previous day’s visit to Sandeman’s wine lodge in Porto, it was time for a leisurely lunch down by the river and the area where the river boats pulled in.
In among the small boats of the kind we boarded later on in the day, the river cruise boats pull in to allow passengers time ashore to explore and then board again for another night and day of the same old, same old.
We took a two hour trip up the Douro on a small boat with a covered area and the added attraction of a port tasting session whilst we were afloat. As we’d been out in the sun and had coated ourselves with Factor 50 rather than Factor 30, I stayed undercover on the boat, as did the captain’s dog (who obviously knows a good thing when he sees it!).
The ride was a smooth one (as was the port), but once over, it was time to find a cold drink and an ice cream before taking another wander around Pinhao and then the short stroll to the station and the train back to Porto.
Although Pinhao had appeared to be a quiet place, the station platform suddenly filled up with people wanting the train down the valley.
When the train arrived, we found seats, emptied the water bottles, thought about the day, pondered another meal at the restaurant we’d found the day before and placed bets as to how long it would take us to pack our bags before heading off on the next part of our road trip the following morning…
A local restaurant for local people and those in the know…
And a good place to chill out…
One year – September 2015 part IV
A grand day out on a sunny day in Porto
Yes, the sun started to shine on our fourth day in Porto, so t-shirts, SPF trousers, sun cream and walking shoes were donned as we wandered towards the banks of the Douro.
View from Ponte Dom Luis I
Yes, it’s that bridge!
Heading to that port wine lodge – by cable car…
Down by the lazy river…
Ribeira from Vila Nova de Gaia
Sandeman’s Don – an early marketing success story
One barrel to rule them all?
Or many?
Ribeira from the middle of the Douro
Street life, Ribeira style…
Thursday was a grand day out. Yes, we wandered aimlessly, took a mode of transport that neither of us are fond of (that cable car), had a few coffees, booked a tour/tasting session around and in Sandeman’s port lodge, had an Italian lunch, that tour around Sandeman, tasted a couple of fine port wines and then headed out on a boat trip on the Douro.
Once back on dry land, we wondered whether the teenagers clinging to the bridge had what it takes to live up to their bravado in getting onto the bridge and part of the way across it or whether they’d bottle it rather than jumping or diving into the Douro.
Whilst it was tempting to try and find a cafe in Riberia for a coffee or a beer, seats were at a premium so we headed away from the riverside and found a bar with nice cold beers in both standard and redcurrant flavour varieties.
As we’d been out for a while and had sampled both port and beer, we headed back to Rivoli Cinema Hostel via Sao Bento railway station and a fodder stop. With the weather finally in our favour, we’d decided to make the most of it by spending Friday exploring the Douro Valley by train, feet and another river boat trip.
Yes, there was a queue for tickets at Sao Bento and some potential customers were getting a bit shirty because they didn’t understand the queueing arrangements. We held our place, made ourselves understood, got our tickets and then headed to a local restaurant for a well deserved evening meal at a nearby restaurant…
Tomorrow’s post? To Pinhao – and beyond!
One year – September 2015 III
Beyond the Se…
If it’s Wednesday then it must be Porto and guess what? It’s still raining…
This doesn’t phase us though – we’re from Yorkshire and we’re used to rain (just not as much as we had on our first full day in Porto!).
As the rain was a bit lighter, I left my jacket behind and used a brolly. The footwear were dry though as my other pair of shoes were still drying out after the previous day’s soaking.
It was a day for mooching around the places that we’d intended visiting on Tuesday. Caroline (and quite a few more from a string of tour buses) headed into the Se whilst I had a wander around the area before sheltering from the rain once more.
Going to see the Se…
View from a terrace
The day was a one of two halves as we wandered around, dodged more showers and found an old-style corner shop to get stocked up on food such as cheese, bread rolls, soft drinks, fruit and a bottle of red to have for lunch in the case of the food or with our evening meal in the case of the wine.
As our Portuguese is virtually non-existent and the shop owner’s English was minimal, we were pleased to be able to come away from the store with a reasonably full shopping bag without any difficulties at prices that weren’t too far removed from what we would have expected to pay in a supermarket.
We did however have lunch back at the hostel and whilst I still couldn’t work out how the heck to get the coffee machine to work, I enjoyed the cold can of fizz and resolved to get a caffeine fix later on in the day.
The afternoon wanderings weren’t in any particular direction. All we did was just walk and see where we would end up at. Yes, there was a coffee stop or two, but there was also a bit of non-food shopping to be done.
As the temperatures were cooler than we’d experienced on previous visits, Caroline decided to have a look around a couple of clothing stores for some extra tops. A denim shirt hit the spot in Zara whilst C&A came up with a warming full zip hoody.
Whilst Caroline was in C&A, I was downstairs in F-NAC in search of a DVD. We’d seen what others were playing on the big screen in the hostel lounge so we wondered whether we could get hold of a locally encoded copy of one of our favourite films – Paul.
The answer was no. The guy in F-NAC had heard of Paul and remembered that it was about an alien, but also recalled that the distribution in Portugal had been handled by a company that was no longer around. Which kind of put that idea into touch.
When we arrived at Sao Bento station in Porto, we’d noticed the azulejos on the walls of the station’s entrance hall.
These blue tiled walls were suitably impressive and I could see why Michael Portillo had taken time out from his rail journey through Portugal to film a piece about the walls for the Porto segment of the finished programme.
Sao Bento station, Porto
The tiles were attracting lots of attention from camera and smartphone owning passers by. Guidebooks had warned us about hustlers in and around the entrance to Sao Bento, but we saw none of it as there were a few armed police officers around the building and elsewhere in Porto too (but not in the same numbers as we’d seen in Lisbon city centre back in July 2015).
With more coffee consumed, we headed back to the hostel in search of our evening meal and started talking to an American lady who was taking a couple of days off walking the Camino Portugues. She was walking on her own whilst her husband was acting as back-up by driving a hire car. The time out was to get over an injury she’d picked up, so she was resting, putting her feet up and taking the tablets to get over the swelling and the pain.
Whilst we were in the hostel, we noticed that only a few had signed up for the meal being cooked by staff every evening. We’d budgeted on having a couple of evening meals in Porto so we’d decided to cook or have a salad based meal for three nights.
What was more interesting was doing some people watching – which blokes were going on the pull and whether they were successful or crashing and burning. Some however were feeding the lounge’s DVD machine with a film and then not only reacting to messages on their iPhones, but also stabbing their index fingers at the screen of their iPads too.
The mix of hostel users was an international one, but until the couple from the States arrived, we were the oldest ones there and whilst we’d tried talking to people, most were more content to interact with their smartphones, tablets or laptops than they were by talking to people either in the lounge or around the breakfast table.
With the weather forecast for Thursday looking good, there was only one thing to do – head down to the river in Porto and indulge ourselves by taking a look around a port wine lodge…
The Don awaits…
One year – September 2015 II
Yes, this was the calm after the storm in Porto…
We’d got a good deal on our rail tickets from Lisbon to Porto by booking in advance on http://www.cp.pt, but that wasn’t the only deal we’d taken up.
The price quoted in Lonely Planet Portugal for standard class tickets between Lisbon and Porto was €24, but we travelled in First Class for €22. Yes, we were tied to one train and one train only, but given the quieter nature of the carriage, the comfy reclining chairs and the close proximity of the bar, we weren’t complaining.
The air-con was also appreciated as we headed out of Lisbon. Airfields, towns and farms were all visible through the carriage windows too as the seats hadn’t been crammed in, so we sat back, relaxed, dozed off, ate or read over the course of the three hour trip to Porto.
Once in Porto, the route from Sao Bento station to Rivoli Cinema Hostel was an easy one, so much so that I didn’t bother keeping the guidebook to hand as we wandered up there.
Caroline and I had been allocated the Blade Runner themed room. The framed film poster on the wall was familiar as I’d had the same poster on the wall in my student digs back in the 1990’s.
The Blade Runner room was minimalist, a feature that we also saw as we passed other theme rooms which were being cleaned or vacated over the few days we were in Porto.
We had the use of the kitchen/dining/breakfast room, a roomy lounge complete with one of the biggest TV screens I’ve ever seen, a very comprehensive choice of DVDs to watch plus a row of Internet connected computers for you could check your email on, watch football matches or find out what the latest weather forecast was.
This was something that we were quite interested in as we’d spotted that the weather had the potential to be somewhat inclement for the first few days of our stay in Portugal. So much so that we’d both brought very good waterproofs with us, just in case.
When I’d checked out what the latest BBC forecast was for Porto, I turned to Caroline and let her know what the prognosis was – a red weather warning for rain and plenty of it.
At this point, one of the cinema buffs who owned Rivoli Cinema Hostel chipped in with a comment about the fact that he’d never heard or seen a red weather warning before, so it sounded like things were going to be bad…
Once this was done, we headed out to stock up on food, beer, wine and fruit juice. There may have been plenty of salted cod in the shop’s freezers, but we didn’t see any wabbits (or putty tats…).
Bread, salad, cheese, cooked chicken, fruit, local fizzy pop and a couple of bottles of mineral water hit the basket and we found out the hard way that we should have packed a couple of shopping bags as yes, we were charged for plastic carrier bags…
We did have an early night after our evening meal, but sleep wasn’t an option for the whole of the night as a nearby dance club cranked up the volume after midnight and stopped around 4am.
Was I like a bear with a sore head the following morning? Oh yes!
Fortunately I had some sachets of the old student hangover cure in my meds bag and one sachet plus a few cups of coffee helped to resolve the situation. As did the yoghurt, bread, cheese, hazelnut spread and orange juice that was served up for the hostel breakfast.
Did I mention that it had started to rain? It had and boy, did we know about it!
After a couple of hours of mooching around in the hostel lounge, Caroline and I decided to make a break for it rather than being indoors all day.
Wallets and loose change was stuffed into pockets as our cameras and day bags were left behind, jackets were zipped up and hoods pulled in tight as we went in search of Centro Portugues de Fotographia.
Given that maps were useless, it took longer than we thought to find the Centro Portugues de Fotographia, a former prison that’s now dedicated to exhibitions of photographs and camera equipment.
As we were now soaked from the waist down, it was a good thing that there was a cloakroom for our jackets and that we’d both decided to wear quick drying travel trousers.
Once we’d made our way around, had hot chocolate and retrieved our coats, these trousers and the rest of our clothing were much drier, but we were squelching as neither of us were wearing shoes with a Gore-Tex or other waterproof lining given the weather we’d experienced before in Portugal.
The rain had eased off a bit, but only like a racing car does as it goes into a corner before a flat-out straight. It was well past lunchtime and we were hungry, so we hit the first cafe we saw and became their only customers for the next hour or so.
Caroline had a chicken salad, but I tried one of Porto’s specialities.
Middlesbrough has the parmo, Scotland the deep fried chocolate bar, France has the joy of frogs legs, but Porto has the Francesinha, a hefty sandwich containing steak, sausage and ham which is covered in melted cheese and given a slurp of peppery tomato and beer sauce over the top…
Tasty? Yes. Filling? Definitely! Did I have another? Yes, but two days later as a means of keeping any cholesterol at a sensible level!
Once lunch was over, we pledged back to Rivoli Cinema Hostel for showers, dry clothes, reading, a light tea and another early night.
Or so we thought as that bloody club started up at midnight again!!!
More about this on Friday!
One year – September 2015 – part I
Liverpool John Lennon Airport after dark from the Hampton by Hilton
Yes, we had another trip to Portugal in September 2015 and it was a combination of bus, train and another bus that saw us arrive at our hotel at Liverpool John Lennon Airport for a night before another early morning entrance into the terminal building across the road for our flight to Lisbon.
As we were travelling easyJet from Liverpool to Lisbon on hand luggage only once more, it was interesting to arrive in the hotel foyer as a family were trying to get up to their room.
Yes, we had our trusty Osprey packs, but this lot had so much luggage that the top case on the trolley was higher off the floor than the top of the head of the bloke trying to push said trolley in the direction of the lift.
The Sunday morning stroll across the road and into the airport may have been an early one, but breakfast had already been served in the hotel, so once we got through the fast track security process and into the airside catering area, it was time for more coffee.
As we’d taken the same flight a couple of months beforehand, we knew what the score was and where we should wait before the screens flashed up our gate number. This ensured that we were through the gate and heading to the plane in no time and seated before most of the other passengers had even joined the queue at the gate. Smug? Us? Maybe…
We also knew what to expect when we got to Lisbon. Off the plane, bus to the terminal, passports checked and then the long walk from passport control into the land side.
As we already had some euros, there was a quick right turn in the direction of the Metro station, a short wait in the queue to get a couple of Viva Viagem travel cards recharged with enough credit for the few trips we were going to be making on the Metro around Lisbon at the start and end of our trip and then it was off to Rato Metro Station.
No, we weren’t going back to Lisbon Dreams, we were heading to Casa Oliver, a boutique guest house overlooking the park at Principe Real. Our arrival at the park meant that we had some time to kill – at lunchtime.
Fortunately we’d eaten at Esplanada, the cafe in the park before, so a table was grabbed, drinks and food ordered and both were consumed in a suitably relaxed manner as befits Sunday lunch on the first day of a fortnight away.
As our check in time for Casa Oliver wasn’t until 3pm, we still had time to kill, so we adjourned to another cafe for coffee, very good lemonade and a little bit of reading too…
Cafe, lemonade and Kindle in the park – and Caroline too!
Now when I’d booked Casa Oliver, I was under the impression that it was room only and that no breakfast was available. When we checked in, it became apparent that breakfast was available and that it was €10 each. As we had a train to catch the following morning from a station that we didn’t know, breakfast was booked as a time saving measure.
The early start to the day and the lunchtime beer & wine started to kick in, so after a siesta and a shower, it was time to change, have a walk and then find an evening meal. It was Sunday evening, but the streets were busy with others wandering around in search of food, drink or friends.
Whilst it was tempting to find somewhere new to eat, the familiar surroundings of Ristorante da Vinci in Rua Jardim do Regedor beckoned us to sit, eat, drink and do some people watching whilst we were at it.
Beer, fresh orange juice, a bottle of San Pellegrino, a lasagne and a filling calzone came, were seen and were conquered in a relaxed fashion before €33.15 settled the bill for another meal taken in what has become our favourite eating place in Lisbon.
Yes, there’s a Hard Rock Cafe nearby and a Starbucks around the corner at Rossio Station, but as the staff, food, ambience and coffee have always been good at Ristorante da Vinci, we’re happy to go back there and to write about it too.
After a reasonably good night’s sleep and a light breakfast, we headed off back down in the direction of Restauradores Metro station in search of Santa Apolonia station in search of our train to Porto.
Which we found almost as soon as we hit the platform area at Santa Apolonia. After more coffee, we hit the station’s Pingo Doce mini-market.
The intention was to get some bread rolls, some cheese, some cooked meat, some canned fizz and a couple of bottles of water to have for lunch on the train. We may have booked first class tickets at a reasonable price, but even we prefer to buy food off the train rather than on on it.
As I’d sorted my food needs out quite quickly, I took a look at what else was available as we were due to be doing some self catering once we got to Porto and found Rivloi Cinema Hostel, our base for the five nights in Porto.
As I wandered past the fresh meat chiller cabinets, my eyes glanced down and noticed a few packs of meat that brought back memories of a 1970’s number one record.
There were a few packs of freshly skinned rabbits in the cabinet and whilst there was no fur in sight, I started to sing a song that summed up what had been left behind by the store’s meat prepping team – Bright Eyes…
This was the calm after the storm in Porto… more on Wednesday!
Home thoughts…
Wells-next-the-sea, North Norfolk
One prediction from those in the know is that there’s likely to be a rise in staycations here in the UK as travellers shun foreign holidays in the wake of Brexit, exchange rates and various events around Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.
Will it happen? Quite possibly, even though holiday companies are running TV advertising regarding seven day breaks in Turkey with starting prices at £199 per person – a figure that’s less than one or two night’s stay here in the UK if the test searches I’ve run on various accommodation websites over the last couple of days are anything to go by.
We’ve seen footage of how quiet various beach resorts in were before the recent coup attempt, but if media reports are anything to go by, the beach resorts in Turkey for example weren’t really affected by events in Istanbul or Ankara (both places we’d still like to visit).
Whilst there are still places that travellers are avoiding, there are also those which have been affected by widely reported events that are very much open for business and tourism.
People are still heading to Paris, Madrid, London, Nice and Oslo after they’ve seen or at least heard about the various events that took place in those cities in recent years.
Caroline and I still head to London and we’d go back to Oslo tomorrow, even after the events that brought chaos to Norway in July 2011.
If it had happened a week earlier, we’d have been caught up in that chaos as we were staying just a few hundred metres away from the Parliament buildings in central Oslo and had walked past the end of the road a few times on that Friday…
All the signs are there – and on a sunny day too!
Will UK staycations numbers rise? Yes, but a few things need to be examined.
The weather for one. Yes, we’ve had some high temperatures over the last month and it looks like they’re going to hover around the 20C/72F mark for the next ten days or so, but rain came with it and whilst we’ve missed most of it here in Yorkshire, there are no guarantees as to whether it will miss us again over the next month!
We may not have to deal with exchange rates, but there are matters relating to pricing, service levels and ambience in cafes, bars, restaurants, hotels, guest houses or shops.
It’s not really a problem in places such as Blackpool for instance as there’s Greggs, Wetherspoons and even Marks & Spencer in the centre that help keep costs down.
There are places though where some businesses really take the p*ss with their pricing. Fortunately we’re not foodies, and that works for us as a foodie and their money are soon parted…
Our local baker charges 75p for a decent sausage roll, but two shops in Norfolk were charging around £3 a couple of years ago, a price that I’ve only seen matched on my only visit to Fortnum & Masons in London.
We also try to avoid places where the name of a ‘celebrity’ chef is prominent or where the establishment has been starred for anything more than their hygiene standards (although we did see one place back in May that proudly displayed their one star hygiene rating sticker in their front window…).
There’s also places that overcharge for accommodation. It’s a problem that will never go away because some have more money than sense (see the earlier comment re; foodies).
Yes, we’ve stayed in a couple of good hotels here in the UK or in Portugal, but we’ve never paid the full rate as we’ve either booked in advance or taken advantage of discounts from booking site loyalty programmes.
Caroline and I have discussed taking a last minute UK break this week. Now we’re never going to go for Claridges (we saw the BBC4 documentary about that establishment a couple of nights ago and it is definitely way out our price range), but the places we thought were affordable at various places in UK on booking sites had reviews that included the words ‘Avoid’ or ‘Don’t do it!’.
Langdale, Cumbria
We could go camping, but it’s high season, school holidays and everything else that goes with those eventualities.
The last time I stayed in the Lake District in August I had two very sleepless nights, even though I’d changed campsites when I heard my new neighbours on the first one discussing the number of bottles of Jack and other spirits they were going to buy from the local offie… The second campsite ended up being just as bad…
Something will turn up. It always does… and yes, the fingers are crossed!
Phew!
There’s been some work going on at wisepacking’s humble abode over the last few weeks and one of the last bits has been completed this morning.
After a week of virtual camping without a bathroom in early June, the landing and stairs have just been remade/remodelled over the last fortnight.
So there’s a few finishing touches to be made by adding pictures picked up at local art shops, a cafe in Glastonbury and a Lisbon street market .
There’s also a new picture frame which requires a suitable shot to fill it. The possibilities are endless, but this is one contender…
The harbour at Viana do Castelo, September 2015.
With the internals almost finished, it’s time to get blogging once more.
The next post is on Friday, but the latest One year posts will start popping up on Monday morning!
Lazy sods…
Your starter for ten… every time!
Or you don’t find out where you can see sights like this… *
My biggest gripe about travel forums is the number of people making posts that are almost asking those on the forums to organise their trips for them.
It’s not just newbies either – some have their own blogs and even they’re asking whether someone has been to X and what they should go and see.
If someone has done a little bit of research then I’ll help them out by suggesting relevant guidebooks, websites or places and occasionally link to wisepacking as a means of further helping the poster.
If they haven’t hit the research trail then there’s a suggestion made to look up how many guidebooks are available about City X or Country Y and I also prompt the poster to look at the suggested itineraries printed in guidebooks that can be followed, adapted or ditched.
We live in a technological age and have information at our fingertips thanks to the Internet and search engines such as Yahoo. Bing and that really big one, there are still those who can’t be arsed to look things up for themselves.
And then there are those who have the cheek to post more questions about where to go, what to do and what to see in the adjoining country or countries on their tick list!
Some are trolls, some are lazy and others are just thick as whatever…
Although I’ve been heading off for years, there is one resource that I use first before I even think of turning to the Internet and websites or search engines.
Guidebooks, printed guidebooks.
The photo at the top of this post shows a few of the books in our collection. Yes, there are two or more editions of particular country guides on that shot and the eagle-eyed may also spot that there’s some countries that I have both the Rough Guide and Lonely Planet variations on a country theme.
We believe in due diligence and research before we head off, even when we are going to mostly wing it whilst on our travels. There are places or items in RG‘s that don’t appear in the equivalent LP guide and vice versa. The latest edition of one may have been released after the latest edition of the other and may therefore be more up to date.
Once Caroline and I have read both books, we’ll hit the Internet to check out latest costings, availabilities and opening times or (as a last resort) post questions on forums.
If memory serves me right, the last question I asked on a forum was about the date of the General Election in Portugal.
The reason? We’d been caught up in demos in Lisbon before…
Lisbon city centre, September 2013
My question was answered promptly and accurately – the election was the week after we were due to fly home!
Rant over!
Aveiro, Portugal is the answer to the * by the way…
One year – August 2015
Not just pictures at an exhibition either…
London calling – not just at the top of the dial, but plenty of other places too!
The full story behind my three days in London in August 2015 can be found by clicking on London to the right of this copy box, but I didn’t include any photos in those three posts, so here’s a few from that trip.
Imperial College residence hall
This was a great place to have as a base whilst I was down in London.
It wasn’t cheap (£68 per night), but I had a comfortable ensuite room with a substantial breakfast and access to a student bar that served reasonably priced pints of Irish nectar (Guinness) and good bar meals too.
Pottering around Kings Cross
Yes, it’s an excuse to pose for photos and quite a few people were standing in line to do just that. Some got their friends to do the camera work, whilst others made use of the stills photographer on the right of this pic.
Kings Cross station
The last time Caroline and I were in Kings Cross it was in the middle of the makeover you see above. Pigeons were perfecting synchronised fly-bys before the Olympics and the facilities were more basic because of the work.
As I mentioned earlier, the pen portraits of the trip are in the wisepacking archives by clicking on London to the right of the screen.
It’s a city that I’ve visited many times. Some have been for business, some have been for pleasure and some have been down to involvement in the music business for a few years.
It was cheaper to take demos down to London on an overnight coach and distribute them to record companies by using a day pass on the Underground than it was to post them.
There and back trips in a car or a van took up occasional weekends as a couple of bands played at Dingwall’s in Camden Town or at the Rock Garden in Covent Garden.
There were also visits to the Dominion on Tottenham Court Road to see Al Stewart or to the Town & Country Club and The Royal Albert Hall to see Fish, the former Marillion vocalist.
Fun gigs were those by The Skiff Skats at either The Dublin Castle in Camden Town or the Caledonian Road Fun Day. The latter saw the band play a set by the canal and then head off and play a set on a barge.
I’d met a couple of members of the band before in their office and recording studio , but things were spoilt by a pushy photographer going a little too far in getting shots of these members of a name band just having a fun day out by playing music that was completely different to that which had seen them in the Top 5 and on TOTP on many occasions.
wisepacking 
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