Travellers’ tales. Figueira Day 4.

 Monday is a funny day in Portugal, well, in Figueira at least. We struggled to find somewhere to have lunch as so many places close on Monday, presumably recovering after a busy weekend. We have often been advised not to order a fish dish on a Monday because the fishermen would not have been out in the boats on the Sunday. How true that remains in the 21st century is perhaps debatable.

Anyway, after wandering around a little we ended up a place called Acropole, somewhere we have walked past many times. 

It gets very good reviews, perhaps for its burgers. The “palitos de frango” (chicken fritter?) and chips we ordered came in baskets - one of those places!! - and were not very impressive.

The soup we had for starters, however, was very good! So it goes.

It rained quite a lot yesterday, not consistently but very heavily when it did rain. 

Between showers the sun shone. 

Once again I thought of the people in Gaza living in tents in the stormy weather. Here’s a link to a report of a landslide cause by the torrential rain and burying tents and their occupants. The tents are especially flimsy because metal tentpoles are not allowed by the Israelis - metal tentpoles are considered “double use” as they could also be turned into weapons! The mind boggles!

Today has begun cloudy but fine. We shall see how it goes. As I ran along the sea front I noticed that the camper on the beach was perhaps being evicted by someone in official-looking hi-vis gear.

We were almost alone in the breakfast room this morning. The other chess players in the hotel must all have got up early for a morning round. Phil opted not to play this morning. He’ll play this evening but two games in one day is not his style. 

I complained about the long wait we had at passport control in Porto on Friday. Well, eher is another complication of the new system, reported in today’s Guardian newspaper:

“The writer Jojo Moyes is facing a two-year EU travel ban and €10,000 (£8,300) fine because of glitches with the bloc’s digital security controls.

She is one of a number of UK travellers who say their trips to the EU have not been properly recorded since the introduction of the EU digital,entry and exit system (EES).

The system, which launched last year, has replaced passport stamps with biometrics recorded at border control in Schengen zone countries.

However, the botched rollout has led to some Britons being denied their post-Brexit right to spend 90 days out of 180 in Europe because the system falsely states they have used up their allowance.

Moyes, a best-selling novelist, was detained by French border guards after a holiday and accused of overstaying. She had spent only 23 days in the EU over six months.

She discovered that her departure from Portugal after a trip in May had not been logged on the system.”

Digital, electronic systems are all very well, when they work, but this one seems unreliable as well as unnecessarily time-consuming. We need to be careful with automated and networked systems. After all, look at the chaos which has occurred with supermarkets’ networked freezers and fridges being hacked, leading to food waste, inconvenience and, perhaps more importantly for supermarket bosses, loss of revenue!

At this rate, I’ll be turning into a Luddite, calling for the destruction of new-fangled systems! 

Here’s a travel-related cartoon.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone.

Travellers’ Tales. Figueira Day 3.

 It seemed fine when I set out to run this morning. My weather app promised no rain intil later although there is still a weather alert for storm and severe coastal weather going around. So I set off without a care in the world. On my way back I stopped to take a photo of the lowering cloud over Figueira. I’ve been posting  “Bom dia” photo on facebook every day so far. 

It was not long after that that it started to spit with rain, almost reaching downpour rate by the time I got back to the hotel. So much for “no rain forecast for the next hour”!  Since then the promised sunny intervals and heavy showers has been true. Okay!

So I got a little wet, but only a little. The tent I saw on the beach yesterday is still there. I wonder how its occupant is coping with the weather. And I thought of the people living in tents in Gaza which is currently being flooded. They have slipped out of mainstream news but the problems of Gaza still remain.

Late yesterday afternoon the chess tournament here got underway, after the usual chaos of registering players and setting up the pairings for the first round. But play has started. 

Phil faced a Grand Master, not unexpected but still a challenge to start the tournament. He fought valiantly but lost, not totally unexpectedly! So it goes!

We are staying in the same hotel here as we have on quite a number of occasions. As usual we are having trouble deciding which is the best setting for the coffee machines (there are two of them) in the breakfast room to give us a satisfactory breakfast coffee. If the machine offered us a “meia de leite”, more or less a flat white, we would be happy. So on day one I opted for a “galāo” for Phil and a “cappuccino” for me. The “galăo” was altogether too milky ( I think it’s two parts milk to one part coffee) and the “cappuccino” was more like hot chocolate than any kind of coffee with a sprinkle of chocolate. Yesterday that coffee machine was not working so I reluctantly used the Nescafe machine and got some kind of coffee with milk - not satisfactory. Today I might have found a solution : a “galăo” mixed with a “cafe longo”, black coffee. Such are the problems of travellers. 

I have frequently ranted about coffee and the difficulty of getting a satisfactory cup. In general I avoid Starbucks’ coffee when we are out and about. It always seems a bit bland to me. Maybe it’s the way most Americans, USA Americans, like their coffee. Anyway, I get the impression that Starbucks is making a bid to tale over the North of England. According to this article they plan to hire 7,500 new staff. Will that go some way to relieving youth employment? We shall see!

Life goes on, stay safe and well, everyone!

Travellers’ tales. Figueira day 2.

We walked to one of our favourite restaurants for lunch yesterday, O Cais Do Heleno, quite a distance from the tourist centre of town but worth the walk. They don’t have a printed menu as such but a list of possibilities on a chalk board outside. It seems to depend on what fish has been available on a particular day. We discovered it by accident years ago and were very impressed. We just keep going back. More folk must have discovered it as yesterday it was very crowded and Phil’s first choice of fish was not available. They had run out, a good sign that the fish is fresh and not kept in the freezer, I suppose.

We did our usual thing of Phil ordering a fish dish 

of which very little was left at the end

while I ordered a mixed salad 

and we just shared everything. Past experience tells us that two main meals are too much for us.

In some review that Phil found about Figueira da Foz O Cais Do Heleno was rated at about number 50 in the restaurants. How very odd: we would put it in the top five. Perhaps it’s the result of its out of town location. Who knows?

Later in the day we were invited to attend the chess tournament opening ceremony at the rather prestigious Assembleia Figueirense. 5.30 we were told, but when we arrived, shortly before that time, things were underway. I think that all we missed was a long speech in Portuguese , most of which would have  gone over our heads. We were treated to a pianist playing music from well-known films, accompanied by silent clips from the films. Impressive! 

Then came a Portuguese musical group, curiously dressed in tartan for some reason but not the least bit Scottish with their traditional portuguese instruments. They played and sang a medley of Portuguese and international tunes, including “My Way”. They finished with a song dedicated to Figueira, maybe written by one of the poets whose works adorn the walls and ceilings of our hotel.

After all that we were encouraged to partake  of some refreshments - a glass of wine and some nibbles. The Portuguese know how to do things in style!

This morning is cloudy but fine. At 9.00 the temperature was already heading towards 20°. Provided it doesn’t rain on us, we won’t complain.

As I ran along the boardwalks I spotted someone clearly camping on the beach. Is that allowed here?

I have commented on more than one occasion about bikes and scooters on pavements. Well, in Philadelphia it seems that have the added problem of food delivery robots, which can legally be regarded as pedestrians. Such is the modern age! Here is a link to an article about a retired professor who is carrying out a possibly one-woman campaign against them by simply standing in their way and not allowing them through. The poor robots become confused and return to their depot. As well as the nuisance factor or robots trundling along the pavement, trying to look cute and appealing, there is, of course, the fact that they are taking jobs away from people. Delivery people may well be overworked, underpaid and on zero-hours contracts but for some people it is their only oprion for work. AI must not be allowed to take over our lives! We must control technology.

Here’s an aurumn leaves cartoon, by the way. Enjoy the fallen leaves,

Life goes pn. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Travellers tales - Figueira Day 1.

 In the middle evening yesterday we took ourselves out finally for something to eat. We hadn’t eaten since breakfast at some ungodly hour so we were more than a little hungry. As it was quite late we didn’t wander for too long but went to a place we know from previous visits, O Picadeiro, aka The Glass Box, as it’s terrace os literally just that.

We had a perfectly acceptable sopa de mariscos, not the best seafood soup we’ve ever had but perfectly acceptable.

Then Phil went for an old favourite, ovos rotos, borken eggs, basically egg and chips with some serrano ham but this time it also had prawns. An interesting addition.

I chose some small cod fishcakes, tasty but almost too much even for a hungry me. And a glass of white wine! All good! No room for dessert.

We night have gone for a late night digestive stroll along the sea front but when we left the restaurant torrential rain was falling. Nothing for it but to scuttle back to the hotel under a small umbrella, hoping not to get too wet.

This morning the rain had gone. The place is washed clean. We are keeping our fingers crossed that the rain stays away.

I made myself get up and go for a run down the seafront. I saw a number of people on those little motorised scooters. And there’s a stand of rentable bikes on the promenade as well. This is quite a good place for bikes as it’s fairly flat and maybe the rented bikes don’t get left around making a nuisance of themselves as they do in big cities. Here’s a link to an article about measures being taken in some places to prevent rented bikes blocking pavements.

Here’s a cartoon comment on American stuff.

Time for breakfast.

Later today we’ll go exploring.

LIfe goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone! 

The trials and tribulations of travellers!

Friday - up at the crack of dawn to organise last minute checking of our suitcases and to have a quick breakfast before a taxi arrived shortly after 9 tp take us to Liverpool’s John Lennon Airport. Goodness! I remember when that was just Speke!

Our travel to the airport was uneventful. We got through security without too much hassle. The metal buttons and tags on my dungarees seemed to provoke a major scan of all my limbs. And Phil’s suitcase had to go through the scanning machine twice - maybe it was the computer cables! But no real problem.

We almost ended up in the non-priority boarding queue because of lack of signposting but we sorted that out in time. There’s never enough space for your legs on RyanAir flights but that’s how it is. And we read and snoozed our way to Porto, arriving perhaps ten minutes ahead of schedule, leading to a RyanAir self-congratulatory fanfare. 

We had arrived in Portugal … but only at the airport! Then the fun began!

Because of biometric checking of all passengers from outside the Schengen area - fingerprints, photo, iris-check - we stood in a queue for about an hour and a half before getting through passport control! Such fun! A fellow passenger, who seemed no younger than we are, suggested that perhaps we (but clearly not him) should have been allowed to go through ‘priority passengers’ passport control. After all, older people get cheap travel,on trains in Portugal! I don’t actually think passport control works that way! And when did we suddenly look old enough for that advice?

Anyway, we made it through eventually. We had a lift waiting for us, a charming young woman called Andrea. She had been so concerned when passengers from the flight which had arrived early took so long to appear that she had contacted the chess tournament organiser. He then phoned us. All was sorted in the end!

And so here we are once again in Figueira da Foz, a nice place in Portugal.phil will play chess. I will play tourist. We’ll meet some old friends and have some good meals.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Remember, remember the Fifth of November!

 The falling leaves have converted muddy footpaths into yellow-leaf roads.

It’s Bonfire Night but some people seem intent on continuing to celebrate Hallowe’en. Each day their display has been slightly different with the spider and the skeleton slowly descending!

It’s Bonfire Night! 

When our children were young we used to organise a bonfire at the bottom of the garden and invite friends and family to join us. Treacle toffee, parkin and baked potatoes. My brother would usually arrive with the sort of firework that advised standing 50 yards away from it! Rather hard to do in our garden. But a good time was had by all!

When I was a child we used to make a Guy to burn on the bonfire, a manikin made of old clothes and with a frightening mask. Kids would drag their guys around calling out “Penny for the Guy!”. My father, however, would not let us do that. His children were not going to beg on the streets!

Mischief Night - November 4th - when rascals went playing tricks and making a lot of noise, seems to have been replaced by Hallowe’en. And cob coaling has also disappeared. The internet tells us:

“Cob coaling, cob-a-coaling or cob calling was a traditional  Bonfire Night custom practiced in the Yorkshire-Lancashire border region, which involved groups of people going door-to-door and singing a song in return for Bonfire Night supplies. In more recent times, singers collected firewood and money for fireworks, but "coaling" refers to the coal that would previously have been collected. The Cob Coaling Song is listed as number 9234 in the Roud Folk Song index.

History

The song was probably part of a medieval mummer’s play before being adapted to modern Bonfire Night traditions.The practice of cob coaling has parallels in other festive door-to-door begging traditions such as wassailing and souling.

Cob coaling was popular as recently as the 1970s, but probably died out some time in the 1980s.”

Here is one version of the song:

“We come a Cob-coaling for Bonfire time,

Your coal and your money we hope to enjoy.

Fal-a-dee, fal-a-die, fal-a-diddly-i-do-day.

For down in yon’ cellar there’s an owd umberella

And up on yon’ corner there’s an owd pepperpot.

Pepperpot! Pepperpot! Morning ’till night.

If you give us nowt, we’ll steal nowt and bid you good night.

Up a ladder, down a wall, a cob o’coal would save us all.

If you don’t have a penny a ha’penny will do,

If you don’t have a ha’penny, then God bless you.

We knock at your knocker and ring at your bell

To see what you’ll give us for singing so well.”

Enjoy the fireworks!

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!