Poshpacking…
The cloisters at Pousada Convento da Graca, Tavira
Keith Rickaby, Nikon Coolpix S3100
It all began in October last year when Caroline’s workplace approved a week away in March and then Expedia came up with an offer that we couldn’t refuse – flights from our local airport, private transfers from and to Faro airport and a week in a hotel in Tavira on the Algarve.
Not just any hotel you understand, but one that Berlitz Algarve described as “one of the most desirable places to stay on the entire coast” – Pousada Convento da Graca, a converted 16th century convent complete with cloisters and its own church.
We knew that Pousadas had special rates for those of us who are over 55, but as the offer we were made beat a few of the prices we had last year for stays in guest houses or boutique hotels, it would have been madness to turn it down…
Which left a couple of problems.
The first was what to wear during our stay, given that Lonely Planet Portugal‘s comments on the Pousada started with “If you can get past the front door (there’s a bit of an attitude here)”…
The second was packing to cope with any potential dress code, given that we were flying with hand luggage and that our airline – Monarch – had a 10kg weight restriction on hand luggage.
In the end, we needn’t have worried, even though the temperatures encountered during the first full week of March were below expectations after reading the ten day forecasts for Faro and Tavira.
We packed by taking our cue from these forecasts and perceptions based on looking through the photos in the Pousada Convento da Graca section of the website dedicated to the Portuguese Pousadas.
I ended up packing virtually all Rohan kit once more. Four Progress polo shirts, a couple of Stratum long sleeved polos, two Merino t-shirts, two pairs of 2015 Goa trousers, a selection of Cool Silver trunks and a few pairs of M&S silver containing socks.
Wash kit had the usual contents – factor 30 Nivea suncream, disposable razor, King of Shaves shaving oil, Via Sonic battery toothbrush, travel size toothpaste, Lush shower gel, and Sanex roll-on anti-perspirant. Spare shoes? One pair of espadrilles.
Caroline’s choices were somewhat similar and yes, most of it was also from Rohan. Ultra Silver camisoles and briefs, a couple of Serene vests, a brace of Malay tops, a pair of travel linen trousers, a pair of Trailblazer trousers bought during the Rohan sale at Trek & Trail Saltaire and a Malay dress – just in case. Oh, and a couple of Stria long sleeved tops, again just in case.
Our choices coped admirably with both the expected dress codes and the changeable weather conditions encountered. We’d layered up in readiness for the early start to the airport (3am departure from the house with a car thermometer reading – 1C), so these warm layers (Rohan, Peter Storm, Lowe Alpine) came into their own on the cooler nights during our trip.
We didn’t have any problems once we checked into the Pousada or in fitting in whilst wandering around Tavira, eating in family run restaurants such as Bica, Casa Simao and Churrasqueira O Manel or on the local buses and trains used to get us around the Algarve and the ferry used to have a few hours in Spain.
Yes, there was a bit of washing and wearing going on during the week to keep things sweet, but we stayed smart and our bags came in at 8kg each so no worries on the plane!
And we weren’t the only ones using Rohan in the Pousada either as fellow Brits were sporting Rohan trousers or shirts in and around the hotel.
An account of our visit to Tavira will be posted here soon!
Caroline, Sunday morning, 7.15 am, waiting for the car to Faro Airport.
Keith Rickaby, Nikon Coolpix S3100
Screenpacking…
With the after-effects of a head cold hanging around, it’s been time to catch up on some TV and films.
Several of the celebs taking part in The Real Marigold Hotel appeared to be sporting some large bags for their three week stay in India, whilst Michael Portillo still appears to travel with a small wheelie bag…
Even those in The World’s End had cracked the problem as they stashed their bags in the boot of Gary King‘s elderly Ford Granada before tackling The Golden Mile and a loads of Blanks.
Mind you, Pegg and Frost appeared to have large packs in their rented RV in the film Paul – the eponymous alien appeared to be travelling light though by carrying the same kind of bag sported by Neil Oliver of Coast fame).
One programme that I caught on The Travel Channel last week was Around The World In Eighty Days with Michael Palin.
Apart from the dinner suit that was posted home after a rail journey on The Orient Express, Michael’s bag of choice appeared to be a very full Billingham style travel bag.
The journey was however taken in the days before smartphones, dumb-ass phones, tablets, laptops or Kindles and if memory serves me right, Michael was carrying quite a few books with him as he travelled the globe.
Nowadays, I suspect that Michael would be travelling in a much lighter manner, yet still carrying his own stuff, especially as his camera and production crew had their own bags to carry around plus all the technical kit needed to record the images and sounds whilst on the road.
Mind you the crew would now be using the latest broadcast technology to do the same job, so their kit bags and cases would also be smaller, lighter and more manageable…
On a different note though, Jason Bourne appears to travel light, as does the British super spy who has the same initials.
Go back further in television history though and there are a couple of characters that spent three series apparently living out of two pairs of saddlebags in the wild, wild, west.
Who am I talking about? Hannibal Heyes and ‘Kid’ Curry – Alias Smith and Jones of course! Not only did they have the stuff needed for any ranch work, they also managed to pull smart suit and shirt combinations out of the hat on several occasions. Awesome!
No title this time…
After writing a couple of posts recently regarding well known people, this one is about someone closer to home…
I’d seen a job advertised recently for a store manager’s post over in Halifax, but decided not to go for it as I’d worked for that company a couple of times and had walked away from their employ back in 2013 – I finished on the Friday and Caroline & I were having a good meal and some fine wine on a bar terrace overlooking Lisbon city centre 24 hours later.
As I’d got to know Peter the manager of Halifax quite well, I thought that he’d decided to retire after a sizeable length of service with the company. But no.
I found out on Friday that he’d passed away just before Christmas and that his funeral had apparently taken place on Christmas Eve.
Always one of the good guys…
Lightening the load…
The time has come to lighten the load.
Many start the process on January 1st, but I decided to be different…
Given that my birthday falls on January 3rd, it’s around anniversary time and the fact that the stash of food we’d bought in for the holiday season had hardly been touched, then a decision had to be made – to postpone things until February.
So, it’s time to do the deed now that there’s just a few crackers left in the cracker box and that the cheese to accompany said crackers is almost gone (along with the rather good homemade birthday cake).
The respective stashes have been gradually reduced rather than thrown in the bin and whilst we’ve refilled the cupboards, fridge and freezer, there’s little in the way of convenience foods and no ready meals either..
Not only that, there’s no chocolate left in the hidey hole in the kitchen and no biscuits leapt off the shelves and into the respective trolleys in Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Lidl last week either. I do know that there’s one box of RNLI fudge in the office, but once that’s gone, that’s it!
Yes, it time for some weight loss here and if the Hairy Bikers can do it, then so can I.
It will be done sensibly and it will be done without resorting to paying to attend any meetings or spending money on online resources.
So the sensible head is on, the calories are being counted and it’s bye bye to ready meals and regular takeaways. It’s Subway instead of burgers or fried chicken when out and about and the takeaways will be a treat rather than a regular occurrence.
And lightening the load may also occur on another level too – a lighter travel bag as any new trousers or jeans will be a smaller size (and a smaller packed size/lighter in weight too) whilst any footwear doesn’t need to be so sturdy.
The tops however will stay the same as I’ve taken the same size for years – it’s only the war on the waistline spread that I’ve lost!
Until now…
One for the weekend…
Headed out to IKEA in Leeds yesterday to get a new shelving unit plus a few other things for the office and I heard this pearl of wisdom whilst in the furniture department.
“I need a new electric chair…”
The lady then said to her friend that she was after a new reclining chair and not the type of electric chair that you might have been thinking about!
Reading matters II
It’s not often that I’ll dive in and take advantage of an offer regarding cheaper guidebooks on Lonely Planet’s website, but after seeing one of their emails a few minutes ago, I just have.
There’s been a few offers on recently, the latest being a 30% off promotion, but when a 45% off promotion rears it’s head, it’s very, very tempting to take advantage of it, especially when it’s also got a free postage offer attached to it as well (providing that you spend over £25 of course). And yes, I have ordered paper guidebooks again!
The books in question are the Lonely Planet guides to Andalucia, India and The Trans-Siberian Railway and guess what? They’re all the latest editions of these guides and they’ve been chosen because each one relates to places of interest.
At the top, this collection of titles should have cost me £50.97…
What did I pay? £28.02… a saving of £22.95 which effectively meant that the India guide was free as it normally retails at a full price of £20.99 here in the UK.
And the moral of the story – it’s worth signing up to company newsletters and emails as the news that sometimes comes your way can sometimes be to your advantage!
Especially when it’s a secret deal and it comes just one day after Caroline and I took advantage of some substantial savings on Rohan kit thanks to their email about final sale reductions.
The Rohan sale finishes on Sunday 24th January by the way…
Reading matters…
One of the pet peeves that I (and several others) have on travel forums is the constant flow of posts that are placed in the wrong category completely or are expecting fellow posters to sort out and virtually organise a trip for the person making the original post.
For the most part, my initial comment is to suggest that the original poster buys an appropriate guidebook to the country or area that they’re visiting (one of the forum sites I frequent belongs to a well-known guidebook publisher) and then they can take a look at the suggestions offered in the book or to come up with their own suggestions based upon what they’ve read.
Some take up this suggestion and thank myself or others that have made similar suggestions whilst others still expect others to do their homework for them by posting multiple questions on the forums over a number of months, even though the answers could have been at their fingertips all along if they had taken the suggestion and bought a guidebook.
We’re currently researching two trips at the moment and there’s four paper country or area guides on the desk in front of me for the first trip and two paper guidebooks (plus several free or paid for books on my Kindle) that are already being looked at for the second trip later in the year.
Although I have accessed some of those Kindle books on my iPad, I suspect that some information may be copied into a notebook for use in country along with the appropriate paper book that we’ve taken along with us.
Paper guidebooks don’t need to be charged up or need a signal to operate. Yes, gadgets can operate offline, but if the power goes down where you’re staying, the battery’s kaput or the smartphone/dumbass phone/tablet/laptop or whatever breaks down or gets nicked, you may well be up S**t Creek without a paddle.
And that’s why we still love paper guidebooks, even though both of us were early adopters in terms of computer use and ownership of mobile phones and then smartphones.
And why Caroline was a bit put out last week when her Android smartphone stopped charging when the battery carked it a few minutes after she’d plugged the charger in.
The network shop in our nearest city were great on the customer service front when we went in about it, but we’re still waiting for the phone brand’s customer service department to email the return information that they promised to send Caroline six days ago. D’oh!
“And call off Christmas…”
Lemmy, David Bowie and now Alan Rickman.
An actor who gave us some of cinema’s best lines including this post’s title and this one too…
” I will count to three. There will not be a four…”
The great gig in the sky…
David Bowie – proof that you don’t need to go on a talent show to have success, respect and a long lasting career…
2015 Top 10
Spotting this sculpture in Lisbon in July – a British TV ad for a brand of instant mashed potato sprang to mind…
Travelling light and staying dry in Porto after spotting a red weather warning on the BBC forecast before we flew out. Took good waterproofs with us to combat the rain, but once the storm passed, it was back to t-shirt weather and dining outside at one of the city’s riverside cafes…
A day in the Douro Valley – travelled by train from Porto, lunch on a cafe’s terrace and a river trip with a glass of port as part of the experience.
Bangers & mash and a beer on the terrace of the University Of Coimbra‘s student/staff cafe. A quick lunch and a cheap one too – didn’t even get asked if we had student cards!!! Caroline had a salad and an orange juice by the way.
A couple of nights in Averio Rossio Hostel in Averio, Portugal – one of the best hostels we’ve stayed in around Europe so far. All this and a ride on a gondola on the nearby canal too. Cheaper than Venice? You might think that, but I couldn’t possibly comment!
Taking time out to visit Somerset in May. Spent time in Wells spotting some of the locations used in the Simon Pegg/Nick Frost film Hot Fuzz, had a day in Glastonbury and spotted a former M.P. taking lunch in the same cafe as ourselves. Oh, and we bought a dragon too…
Sitting just off the beach at Seahouses in October in a vain attempt to spot The Northern Lights. We showed up, they didn’t!
Wandering around London with a group of fellow contributors to Lonely Planet’s Thorn Tree Forum and a trio of Lonely Planet forum moderators too. Some new places visited along with some old haunts from years ago.
Wandering around Newcastle-upon-Tyne with Caroline in November. More old haunts, some good food and a little bit of retail therapy thrown in for good measure. And no parking ticket either (touch wood) – we lost track of time and arrived back at the car an hour after the ticket ran out!
Taking time out to see Roy Wood (of The Move, E.L.O. and Wizzard fame) playing in Last Of The Summer Wine country at The Picturedrome in Holmfirth. Good meal at Brambles before the show, decent drinks prices at the venue and a good show by Roy and the band too. And yes, a certain Christmas themed classic rounded off the night!
And our plans for 2016? That would be telling!
wisepacking 
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