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From Pinhão To Lamego Via The Police
I am, admittedly, a bit obsessive about checking my belongings – is the wallet still there? Is my phone safe? The bad side of doing this is that it’s obvious now that an adept pickpocket watches such things and therefore knows exactly where to pounce. The good side is, I knew within seconds that my wallet was gone, quickly enough to cancel the debit and credit cards before the scoundrel could do any damage. Plus of course, we didn’t have everything in one place, so the disaster of a stolen wallet is not total. We lost a handful of euros and those two cards, but our other cards and cash…
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Porto: Too Many Reasons To Be Cheerful
As twilight descends on the wide Douro river, the roof mounted lettering on the tops of buildings on the opposite bank light up to reveal Company names advertising their famous wares. Some of them are familiar – Sandemans, Cockburn’s, Taylor’s, Dow’s – others less so, but regardless of whether we know them or not, they are all big names in the business which is literally synonymous with this city. Porto isn’t just cheerful, it’s also full of cheer, contributing significantly to our and every other visitor’s alcoholic intake with its proud history of wine production relentlessly pushed at every corner. Reds, whites and vinho verde from the Douro Valley, port…
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A Tale Of Two Cities And A Kebab
It went something like this, you see. When we arrived home from the Philippines in late March, it meant that I would be spending my birthday at home instead of abroad for the first time since COVID (remember that?). So we looked at a quick city break, homing in on either of two European cities which had been on the wish list since ever, Porto and Mostar. But neither was straightforward. Easter airline prices were inflated enough to take Porto out of the equation, simply too many sovereigns for a quick city break. For Mostar, it was more a case of logistics, it’s too time consuming to get to for…
