Living Abroad
Autumn in Portugal, The Seasonal Wheel Turns
Like a living barometer, you don’t need a calendar here on the farm to tell you when the seasons are changing, the animals do that for you … […]
Year: 2020
Europe
Things tourists should never do in Portugal
One such article on Portuguese website Portugaldenorteaasul, titled 11 things tourists should never do in Portugal hooked me in. After three years of getting to know Portugal, I wondered how these ‘things not to do’ would compare with our experiences. […]
Europe
A Curious Incident On The Way To Viana do Castelo
Something catches my eye, movement by the water line about 200 metres to my right, on the far bank of the river. Squinting into the sun, I see what looks like the torso of a large man hauling himself out of the river, dragging his withered legs behind him… […]
Food & drink
Creative cuisine is working class art
My favourite part of the hotel was the kitchen, a volatile place where big personalities added expletives and threats to an air filled with the aroma of uninventive dishes destined for the unadventurous palates of coach excursionists from England. […]
Europe
The case against Spanish desserts
The issue is not one of whether these Spanish desserts are good or bad in their own right. It’s only by comparison with the desserts of other nationalities that you can really judge just how good a dish is… […]
Portugal
Cycling, what is it good for?
I like the thought of cycling that involves effortless pedalling along flat country lanes passing rows of vines, or alongside a gently rolling river, the warm sun kissing my face; a soft breeze caressing glowing skin; a bottle of wine, loaf of fresh bread, and a round of cheese in the wicker basket… […]
Europe
Being addicted to unfamiliarity
A year ago to the day Andy and I sat on the terrace of a shepherd’s hut on a plateau in Slovenia whilst I tucked into a bowl of gruel otherwise known as buckwheat mush and sour milk. Why? Because it was there… […]
Alentejo
Camel Spit & Cork Trees, a Year of Slow Travel Through Portugal
Our quest to find the ideal place to live, combined with missions to create Slow Travel holidays, took us from the honey-coloured coastline of the wilder side of the Algarve to the verdant valleys of the Minho in the north, and from living beside a smugglers’ trail in Alentejo’s ‘beyond the back of beyond’ border country to a small farm next to a cork forest in the Setúbal Peninsula… […]
Europe
If you go to Calatayud, ask for Dolores
Intriguing earthy, red-brick spires and towers almost camouflaged against a matching rock-face catch our eyes as we shoot past at 120kph. The town, mostly hidden in a gully, has been little more than glimpsed. But it’s enough of a taster to have me commenting “that looks like an interesting place” […]
Catalonia
Road tripping through three countries in the time of COVID-19
We drove through three countries, from Portugal’s Atlantic coast to Provence, not only switching from stuttering along in one language to another, but trying to figure out what COVID-19 restrictions applied where. […]
Hiking
Escaping from COVID prison to Northern Portugal
In these open hills there are no other people, most folk wouldn’t dream of walking when temperatures are predicted to hit the upper 30s, but there is an abundance of life. Ignoring us as we sit in the meagre shade of a human-sized cairn are wild Garrano horses. […]
Food & drink
The problem with recommending restaurants
In the words of the great Jim Morrison, people are strange… or they can be when it comes to food. As well as having very contrasting likes and dislikes, folk have very personal foibles, all of which makes recommending restaurants somewhat of a lottery. […]
Living Abroad
Clearly you’ve never been to Singapore
It’s so incessantly hot I feel as though I’ve sprung a leak somewhere on the crown of my head. This is what real heat feels like, and it’s only the end of May. […]
Checking In
To unpack the suitcase or not?
The idea of not unpacking the suitcase in a hotel room just doesn’t make sense to me. It conjures scenes of ugly chaos and inefficiency. Clothes strewn across a room seem no different to me than litter on the roadside […]
Food & drink
Meat and two veg, a concept past its sell by date
I saw the phrase ‘meat and two veg’ the other day, coincidentally as I was uploading photos of our lockdown meals which most definitely were not of the meat and two veg variety. For some reason it jumped out at me, and for the first time I realised what a curious thing it is. […]