Sun 19th Feb 2023. I was up and about early and off to the bus station. I’ve often found in the remoter parts of India, bus timetables are a fickle thing. The guidebook may say one thing, people at the bus station say another and then the actual buses confound them both. Today I was told there was a bus to Bijapur at 9.30 but someone else said it was better to get the bus to Gulbarga and change there….
After a four year hiatus, I was back in India. This time, I was to explore northern Karnataka concentrating on the architecture of the Deccanni sultanates and the Hindu kingdom of Vijayanagar, finishing up with a few days in Goa. First up was Bidar, now a small town in the middle of nowhere but formerly the capital of a great Muslim kingdom of the 15th and 16th centuries. It was a bit of trek to get there because as it…
It was getting to the end of summer, so just time to squeeze in a weekend away – this time up north to the Rias Altas. It was already late September so if we got some decent weather it would be a perfect time for a dip in the clear blue waters for which this area of Spain is well known, and it was. But we had to get there first. Since 1 July we had been living in our…
We like a drop of dry sherry so “the sherry triangle” of South West Spain was an obvious choice for a short holiday. We like to mix things up so we also included a bit of whale watching and a trip to the Donana National park. First up was the seven hour drive south to Tarifa, the southernmost town of Spain. It has a distinctly Moroccan feel to it – not surprising, as upon arrival we could clearly see the…
We needed a break. We couldn’t go far or for long as we had to take the dogs and leave the chickens (we couldn’t get our regular house sitter to look after the house in our absence). We decided on a couple of nights just across the Spanish border from Marvao in Extramadura at Casa Rural Quinta de Luna, (Edit 2024: It is no longer available for rent) an attractive collection of three cottages nestled among a landscape of neolithic monuments…
One of the joys of living in central Portugal is to go up into the hills in the summer and swim in the lakes and rivers. Not just for us but also our dogs Betty and Jussi. Although it was only a half hour drive we sometimes camped on the side of the Cabril Reservoir. Near one of our favourite spots we heard that there was some land for sale so in May 2013, almost on a whim we bought…
I’d always wanted to visit the famous Roman ruins in Merida and Jackie had always wanted to see the Griffon Vultures which live around the Spanish/Portugal border near Alcantara, so we decided to include both, and a trip to Elvas on the way back, in October 2020. Firstly, we headed to the Spanish border and the Parque Natural de Tejo International, or rather specifically, the small town of Salvatero de Extremo where we knew there were some vultures. As it…
We had bought our new home in December 2019. I say home, but as of August 2020 it was still a ruin and even planning permission was still a long way off. Anyway, we thought we would go up to explore the area and pop across the border to Galicia, Spain for some delicious seafood. The first stop was actually for some delicious seafood in Portugal at the excellent Tasquinha da Linda in Viana do Castelo. We had a seafood…
For us, September is holiday time and it usually means a road trip into Spain. We had an ulterior motive this time – we were also looking for a possible place to live. We had decided to head due north from our house in central Portugal to the Rias Baixas of Galicia. It was motorway most of the way so it only took us 3.5 hours to get to Camping Aldan. As it hadn’t taken us too long we had…
Easter, or rather the week leading up to Easter Sunday, Semana Santa, is probably the biggest festival in Spain and famous for age-old traditions specific to each region. Some of the most solemn and famous processions take place in the ancient capital of Spain, Toledo. We decided to find out for ourselves in Easter 2019. But first, football. My team, Liverpool were playing Porto in the Quarter-finals of the Champion’s League. Unfortunately we weren’t able to get tickets but we…