Tag Archives: Travel preparation

The puzzle that is Bolivia

25 Wednesday Apr 2018

Posted by in Bolivia

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We saw wonders in Bolivia, a remarkable plain of salt, the capital of an ancient empire, rare birds. In between those high points we flew around La Paz in a gondola, then drove across miles of altiplano where we passed quinoa fields, grazing herds of cows, horses, sheep, llamas, alpacas, vicunas and even pigs. We saw an Andean condor with its 8-10 ft wingspan as well as the bird I called a “flying peach”. We had one of the best dinners of our lives in La Paz and ate as much excellent Bolivian chocolate as we could in Sucre. Why do I plan never to return?

  1. Altitude. More than half of Bolivia is tropical, but the best known part of Bolivia is the altiplano, a grassland area between 3500-4000 m above sea level, about 11,500-13,000 ft. My head ached most of the first week. Jonathan’s asthma made him short of breath. We both had trouble sleeping. Adjusting to high altitude takes time and flying from Lima at sea level to the El Alto airport in La Paz (4,050 m), in less than two hours, was a huge shock.
  2. Getting to the wonderful places in Bolivia takes a lot of effort. Our usual scheme of renting a car and driving around was perfect when we wanted to pull over at a shallow lake and look at birds, or stop to check out ruined chullpas, ancient burial towers. Driving in major cities was nerve-wracking and it was very nearly impossible to find our way. Maybe we’re just getting too old for this. We hate the thought, but it’s out there. By the end of our trip we were both tired, ready for a well-seasoned, properly cooked meal where the hot dishes were hot and the cold dishes cold followed by a good night’s sleep in a comfortable bed–one of life’s great pleasures that is not usually available on the road.

Good Things About Bolivia

Cell phone service and data worked very well and cost us about US$10 each for a month of service, a bargain. We used Entel because it appears to have better coverage in Bolivia and had no trouble. We didn’t make many calls, but used the data for mapping our routes.

Gasoline was inexpensive, where else can you say that? The Bolivian government subsidizes gasoline, and resists making regular increases. We spent less than US$20 to fill the tank of our rental RAV4. It costs about triple that to fill up in Peru.

Food costs are low and there is a wide variety of products available, many coming from the lowland portion of the country that is focused on agriculture (and removing tropical forest…).

Textiles. If you want weaving, Bolivia is for you. We found the most interesting and highest quality weavings in Sucre and the Tarabuco market, in the Tarabuco and Jalqa styles. There are many other styles from different regions. Typical of Bolivia, there are specific markets and towns that sell the greatest variety of each. There’s a lot of travel involved.

Llama in the road.

Wildlife. We saw vicuna grazing by the side of the highway, and a lot of other animals, too. You have to be careful not to hit them with your vehicle. Bolivia has a tremendous variety of birds, too. There is lots to see every day, and specialized tours for anything specific you want to find.

Minor Annoyances

  • The google maps algorithm for directions works very poorly in South America so far. In both Peru and Bolivia, it sends us on unnecessarily complex routes and detours. We have to critique and second-guess every route that is not highway point-to-point.
  • There is no international mail service. I took my postcards to the Post Office and the man behind the window looked at me blankly. “We have no directions for this process at this time.” What? No international mail.
  • You have to give your name and passport number every time you get gas, part of a vain government effort to prevent smuggling of petroleum products.
  • To pay for a service by putting money in a specific bank account, a common practice in parts of South America, you not only have to provide your name and passport number, but an explanation of what the payment is for (e.g. lodging), but also where the money comes from. I had to explain that I am retired and receive a pension.
  • US citizens require a visa. Don’t forget to fill out the forms and pay your $160.
  • The final indignity was having our luggage stay behind in La Paz when our flight left for Lima. Two days later it all turned up safe. Just one more Bolivian moment.
    Tiwanaku museum
    Advertising in La Paz

    Abandoned in Perereta

    In Bolivia, some passengers ride on top of the bus.

 

 

April in La Paz, Bolivia

07 Saturday Apr 2018

Posted by in Bolivia

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Whatever I was expecting from LaPaz, it wasn’t the brilliant blue sky capping the overflowing natural bowl that encompasses the city. From our window in the Hotel Stannum we see the snow-covered peak of Illimani southwest of the city center and the houses under construction farther and farther from the center, rising like the foam on a pot about to boil over.

Our trip started with two goals, as archaeologists we must visit Tiwanaku, and after that we wanted visit the last place where red-fronted macaws can be seen in the wild. We have a pet red-fronted macaw currently living with our very generous daughter Amanda. Simon was bred in Florida from birds probably exported from Bolivia in the 1970s. Once we found he was from a critically endangered species, we decided that if the opportunity ever came up, we’d go see his extended family. This is another of the many reasons that no one should have these birds as pets. Too much work, too much guilt. Simon may live to be forty and he’s only about fifteen now.

We found we could round out our visit to Bolivia by stopping in at the Uyuni salt flats. It’s possible to take a tour that lasts four to ten days around the Uyuni area but we are just going to have a look.

I’ll confess to a lapse in planning in that I didn’t realize we needed visas to visit Bolivia until the day before we were leaving. In a panic I called the consulate and found that if you have your paperwork in order and crisp bills to pay the fee of $160 per person fee, you are able to get a visa upon entry, especially at larger crossings like the El Alto airport in La Paz. I hustled around and printed the online-only form, copies of our passports, itinerary, hotel reservations and yellow fever vaccination just for good luck. When we arrived with all this information neatly clipped together, we were rapidly given our visas. The line was short at 12:30 am. Legally in the country, we headed for the hotel, where the full extent of the next cruel lesson hit me. Eat lightly if you are going from sea level to 12,000 feet in two hours. We had dinner in the Lima airport before our 10 pm flight and I did also eat a morsel on the plane. It was a big mistake because my salad in the Lima airport gave me food poisoning. The worst didn’t start until we were at the hotel, so perhaps I have something to be grateful for. Sparing you the details, I spent the next day lying around waiting to feel better. This is why we booked four nights in La Paz at the start of the trip, to acclimatize. I really needed it.

The Stannum Hotel occupies the upper floors of a multiplex/mall/office building. The staff are helpful and their English is very clear, which we appreciate even though we speak Spanish. The kitchen staff even sorted through their cutlery to find the travel teaspoon they inadvertently collected with other dishes. It was easy to find, it’s stamped SWISSAIR.  The decor is contemporary and a bit nightclubby, though I enjoy trying out all the unusual shaped chairs. There is a comfortable couch and chair in a small “library” of coffee table books about Bolivia. There’s also a small internet pod on our floor where I can slide the doors shut and make a skype call without awakening my napping husband. Room service was handy when all I could get down was chicken soup. It’s the perfect starting point for us.

 

Life in Campania: Vacation Paradise, Daily Grind?

05 Thursday Oct 2017

Posted by in Salerno

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Hurricanes have flattened more than one vacation paradise recently. There are many left, and we are just finishing our stay in Salerno, Italy, adjacent to, if not in, vacation paradise (as in Amalfi, Sorrento, Capri).

Castello di Arecchi

Our current home ground, the province of Campania, was the breadbasket of ancient Rome, and occupied both long before and after the Romans. Pompeii is the most famous archaeological site here, and there are countless others. Not just the other Vesuvians (Herculaneum, Stabia, Oplontis, Bosco Reale), but Samnite and Lucanian sites, Etruscans, and Greeks, too. Later came the Lombards, the Angevins, Aragonese and the Hapsburgs building castles and fortresses. Archaeologically, this area is fabulous.

  • As a vacation paradise, there’s a lot to recommend this area.Gardens and orchards. Lemon, pomegranate, quince, apple trees are all dropping fruit all over the place–olive trees, too. The markets have an excellent variety of fruits and vegetables including multiple varieties of tomatoes and eggplants. You can be a vegetarian without even noticing. All that mozzarella de bufala, so little time!
  • Food costs are lower than anywhere else we have been in Europe.
  • Food festivals. We visited Cusano Mutri for its annual mushroom festival, the Sagra di Funghi. We bought porcini and chanterelles, ate mushroom and cheese sandwiches, had coffee in the tiny plaza at the top of the town. (There were no tour buses.)
  • Archaeology is everywhere. There are ruined towers every 500 yards or so along the coast. Some of these have been transformed into houses and hotels. Others are ruins ready to be visited. The Castello di Arecchi outside Salerno is one of the largest and best-restored.
  • In Florence, I saw a woman with a nice haircut and asked her whether she was local. When she said no, I asked where she was from and when she told me Salerno, I insisted she write down the name of her hairdresser for me.. 2 1/2 months later, when we were nearby, I visited her hairdresser, who was flattered that I made the effort to track her down. It was fun and I got a good haircut.
  • We had wonderful hosts, and met some lovely people, both Italians and other visitors.

No one really lives in Paradise, we just vacation there. Everyday life has its struggles whether you live in Bali or Boston, and how would we live with nothing to grouse about? We may only be here for a month, but a few things had to get done that vacationers ignore until the party’s over. That’s where Italy is a challenge.

  • Repairing anything is complicated, in Italy as in the US. My Samsung phone broke and I took it to a repair place that said the reset I needed could only be done at the other Samsung repair place. I went to the second repair place, left my phone to be fixed and came back the next day to find that they were still unable to fix it.
  • To get an appointment with an English-speaking eye doctor, I had to call her non-English-speaking receptionist. Fortunately, I can muddle along in basic Italian and receptionists can muddle along in English.

General grousing about Italy:

  • I have rarely been in such heavy traffic caused by…..nothing. On our first try we missed the ferry to Capri because no cars moved for 40 minutes. When I explained our problem at the ferry office, the agent was sympathetic. “Yes, terrible traffic.” “Do you know why?” I asked. Rolled eyes, a shrug. “No. It just happens.”
  • People drive badly. Most people drive too fast for the conditions, straddle lane lines, pass too close, tailgate, park haphazardly. If you plan to drive, be warned. There are a lot of cars, and too little space for them.
  • Traffic cameras send you a ticket three months after you’ve left town–we’ve only gotten one so far. Every person you speak to says they have gotten innumerable tickets. (Shrug. No one has any suggestions for avoiding them.)
  • Crowds are part of life. I feel crowded on the bus, the subway, walking down the street, shopping, and at the beach. There may be tiny hill towns begging for population, but Greater Naples is bursting at the seams. Eight story apartment buildings surround single story houses from the last century. It looks like the big buildings just shouldered their way in and squatted down.

Woman gardening beside motorcycle repair shop.

Some of my grousing can be turned on its head.

  • There doesn’t seem to be a lot of zoning concerns in Campania the way there is in Tuscany where preserving views of the landscape is a paramount civic value.  In the Naples region there is a patchwork of apartments, cultivated fields and orchards. You could call it lack of zoning, but I like seeing see lemon trees along the highway and eggplants beside the car repair.
  • History is everywhere. We saw city walls from five different time periods in a two block section of Salerno. You can walk around any ruined structure that isn’t marked Do Not Enter.

I wouldn’t change what I am doing for a different way of life. I appreciate learning what you need to know to actually live in a place, and every different locality has its own charms and aggravations. While I stretch my brain muscles with crosswords, I also stretch myself by living in different environments.

 

 

 

Last stop Dublin, and what’s Good to Know about Ireland

04 Monday Sep 2017

Posted by in Ireland, Lyra, Peggy

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Our last day in Dublin was spent inside the National Museum of Ireland. Lyra was wonderful in agreeing to stay with her crazy parents in the museum all day when all of Dublin was beckoning.

Ancient Goldsmith’s tools
(R) Gold bracelet from Donegal

After visiting many archaeological sites around Ireland we had often read reference to finds made at a site followed by “now at the National Museum of Ireland.” I was most intrigued by reference to a purse-shaped reliquary of St. Patrick’s Tooth from the church of Killaspugbrone, now at the end of the Sligo airport runway. The church was first built by Bishop Bron, a contemporary of St. Patrick in the early 500s (!). When St. Patrick visited his friend, he either tripped and knocked out a tooth or it fell out and he gave it to his good friend who treasured it.

Much later, the relic case was made for the tooth, and after a trail of owners is now in the National Museum of Ireland. The relic case has images of Sts. Patrick, Brigid (missing), Brendan and Columcille on it as well as one of the earliest depictions of a harp in ireland.

Great jewelry of Ancient Ireland. Chains and amber, what’s not to like?

We went through with an eye for anything from our travels and found carvings and artifacts from all over. It was a pleasure to match some of the objects with their places of origin.

We saw the two most recent finds of people preserved in bogs (2003). Clonycavan man is an example of (possibly) the first man bun, held together by hair gel that originated in France or Spain.

The other find, Old Croghan Man, had very long arms and big hands, suggesting he had been 6’5″ tall (missing his head and lower body, it was difficult to be sure). His well-manicured nails suggested he was not a laborer, but of high status.

 

There was a leather scabbard recovered from a bog with an axe still inside. Leather preservation is impressive–single shoes from all over Ireland.

 

We moved to our hotel by the airport, readying for our 7 am flight to Naples and the next chapter of Llywinda Travels.

Good to Know About Ireland

♣ It rains. It may rain some portion of every day you are in Ireland, so be prepared. Bright sun can shift to a brief downpour in a few minutes. Carry an umbrella, wear a raincoat or be ready to run for cover. Forget about cute shoes. There are sunny days–appreciate every one of them!

♣ It is never hot. Ireland is a great place to go to escape the heat. July-August temperatures along the west coast were in the 60s, rarely breaking 70º F. Beachgoers of all ages wear heavy gauge wetsuits. You rarely see parents sitting on the beach staring at their phone while kids call to them from the sand—the rain would ruin their phone. We saw more families together on the beach here than in other countries.

♣ Driving on the left is always a challenge. Roads are narrow in some places and you have to be ready to pull over or back up to let an oncoming car pass.

♣ We found almost everyone to be friendly and helpful. We shared a table at the potato festival and enjoyed chatting with people from Dingle. We chatted with people on buses and at the store. It was easy to get directions. (That’s handy, because not all streets are marked.)

Some wonderful things about Ireland.

♣ Nature–The west coast is full of beaches and cliffs to walk on. The Burren, Benbulben, Bunglass cliffs are all in amazing landscapes, too. Archaeological sites are everywhere amid gorgeous views.

♣ There are some stunning gardens. Some are tiny house fronts, others are extensive yards. The mild weather keeps blooms fresh for a long time. These are the pinkest hydrangeas I’ve ever seen. Fuschia may be non-native, but forms high hedges along many roads. So do blackberries–we made jam and pie.

♣ We saw puffins, and possibly a whale or dolphin.

♣ The friendliness and good will of people we met was a real pleasure.

♣ Boxty, Irish whiskey, cheeses, butter.

♣ An appreciation of whimsy. Though fewer people today may believe in fairies, places where people saw fairies in the past are still marked, like the fairy bridges in Bundoran, or holy wells. There are decorative fairy houses, too. On a larger scale, you occasionally see a facade decorated with shells and broken pottery in seaside towns.

A couple of things to keep in mind.

♣ You can visit archaeological ruins all over Ireland. Many are marked on maps and listed in guidebooks, while others are not. Guidebooks don’t always list how long a walk it is to the site from the car park, and the walks can be very muddy. Sometimes only a vehicle with high clearance can drive to the end of the road, making the walk to a site a half hour each way. Be prepared.

Cliffs of Bunglass, Slieve Lieg

♣ Weather can get in the way of your views. We visited the Slieve Lieg, also called the Cliffs of Bunglass, some of the highest cliffs in Europe, but the top was in fog. The top of these cliffs is usually in fog, though they are still worth visiting. This is also true of Benbulben, a distinctive feature of the landscape between Sligo and Bundoran. Still worth visiting.

♣ There is a peculiar toll in Dublin, the M50. There are signs along the road that indicate it is an automatic toll. If you rent a car, ask your agency whether they cover the toll. If they do not, you have to go online and pay it (not much). If you do not, there are all kinds of threats of huge fines. Apparently rental cars are not fined as promptly but you are still expected to go to the eflow.ie webpage and pay. Our car rental company did not mention this until I called a couple of times in a panic.

♣ As in every country, the most highly publicized sights and attractions can be very crowded. We were in big crowds at the Cliffs of Moher and at the Giant’s Causeway. We skipped the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge when we found out that even with timed tickets the wait was often 90 minutes to walk across. We did not kiss the Blarney Stone. There can be 20 tour buses parked at such places. Brace yourself or don’t go. In Dublin, the Book of Kells had a long line. The National Museum of Ireland was full of wonderful things and had no line at all. Go there.

♣ If you are returning to the US from Ireland, you may be required to pass US customs in Ireland. This saves time when you arrive in the US, but takes at least an extra hour. Fine, except your airline may not mention that this takes place. Thus, everyone needs an extra hour at the airport but doesn’t know it. Lyra went through all this process at 6 am, including loading the plane an hour early (!). After that, they all sat for 45 minutes waiting for latecomers who didn’t know about customs and weren’t chronically early to the airport.

Good to know about Florence, and Arriverderci

04 Tuesday Jul 2017

Posted by in Tuscany

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Arriverderci means “until we see each other again.” We will return to Italy in September after cooling off for two months in Ireland. I’ve already commented on dealing with crowds (“Top Ten” post),  so here are a few interim comments on Florence and our Italian travels in general.

Arriverderci significa “hasta que nos veamos de nuevo”. Volveremos a Italia en septiembre después de refrescarnos por dos meses en Irlanda. Ya he comentado sobre tratar con multitudes (“Top Ten” post), así que aquí hay unos cuantos comentarios provisionales sobre Florencia y nuestros viajes italianos en general.

Good to Know about Florence.

Parade to the Calcio Storico (Historic Soccer) match between the Red and White teams. (It was over 90º).

If you’ve read my post on the Top Ten problem, some of my comments may sound like repeats, but you can’t avoid the fact the Florence has a very long high season (early March through the first week in November, plus New Year’s and Pitti fashion week) and a very short low season (mid-November to the beginning of March minus the events mentioned). Most of the low season is cold and wet. March and early April are good times to visit but there will be crowds. I imagine the same is true from mid-Septemper through early November. We were in Florence during June and while the start of the month was good weather, at least half the month was very hot, too hot for comfortable visiting. I would not visit Florence again in June.

On the positive side, many people speak some English, yet are willing to let you try your Italian. Store personnel are often very good about letting you practice. Keep in mind though, that the busier the place, the less patience people will have. In busier localities, every business, whether restaurant or shop, is likely to provide less personal service because they are worn out by all of us who are visiting at the same time. Control your expectations. Not everyone is going to burst into happy song as you arrive.

Florence is small enough that if you stay near the center, you may never need to ride a bus or tram unless you are going on an excursion. If you stay outside the center, there is a bus system and the start of an excellent tram system. We happened to stay where there was access to a tram stop and that made it easy to go into the city center. There are plans for a tram line that will reach the airport. At present, the fare is €1.20 for 90 minutes of travel on any line—except—you cannot make a round trip on a single ticket even if you are able to make the circuit in 90 min or less. We found it convenient for going in and out of the city center.

There are lots of things to see in Florence, but most of it is art spanning the period from the Etruscans through the Renaissance, or about 700 BC-1750 AD. After a while, it is difficult to keep paying attention, especially if you begin with a “great” museum like the Uffizi where there are so many wonderful works. After that experience, if you visit a church that has one small work by a known artist, it’s a bit difficult to feel the wow! Consider my friend Joyce’s “Church of the Day” plan and limit your visits so that you don’t forget where you’ve been and why it was interesting.

Información útil sobre Florencia.

Si has leído mi post en el Top Ten, algunos de mis comentarios pueden sonar como repeticiones, pero no se puede evitar el hecho de que la Florencia tiene una temporada alta muy larga (principios de marzo a través de la primera semana de noviembre, además de Nueva Año y semana de la moda Pitti) y una temporada baja muy corta (mediados de noviembre a principios de marzo menos los eventos mencionados). La mayor parte de la temporada baja es fría y húmeda. Marzo y principios de abril son buenos momentos para visitar, pero habrá multitudes. Me imagino que lo mismo es cierto desde mediados de septiembre hasta principios de noviembre. Estuvimos en Florencia durante junio y mientras el comienzo del mes era buen tiempo, por lo menos la mitad del mes era muy caliente, demasiado caliente para visitar cómodo. No volvería a visitar Florencia de nuevo en junio.

En el lado positivo, aunque muchas personas hablan algo de inglés, puede probar su italiano. El personal del almacén es a menudo muy bueno sobre el dejar de practicar. Tenga en cuenta, sin embargo, que el más ocupado el lugar, la gente menos paciencia tendrá. En las localidades más concurridas, cada negocio, ya sea un restaurante o tienda, es probable que proporcione un servicio menos personal porque están gastados por todos nosotros que están visitando al mismo tiempo. Controle sus expectativas. No todo el mundo va a estallar en la canción feliz a medida que llegas. 

Florencia es lo suficientemente pequeño como para que si te quedas cerca del centro, puede que nunca necesite ir en autobús o tranvía a menos que vayas a una excursión. Si te quedas fuera del centro, hay un sistema de autobuses y el comienzo de un sistema de tranvía. Nos pasó a estar donde había acceso a una parada de tranvía y que hizo que sea fácil ir al centro de la ciudad. Hay planes para una línea de tranvía que llegará al aeropuerto. En la actualidad, la tarifa es de € 1.20 por 90 minutos de viaje en cualquier línea-excepto-no se puede hacer un viaje de ida y vuelta en un solo billete, incluso si usted es capaz de hacer el circuito en 90 minutos o menos. Nos pareció conveniente.

Hay muchas cosas que ver en Florencia, pero la mayoría de ella es el arte que abarca el período de los etruscos a través del Renacimiento, o alrededor de 700 aC-1750 dC. Después de un tiempo, es difícil seguir prestando atención, especialmente si usted comienza con un “gran” museo como el Uffizi donde hay tantas obras maravillosas. Después de esa experiencia, si usted visita una iglesia que tiene un pequeño trabajo de un artista conocido, es un poco difícil sentir el wow! Considera el plan de “Iglesia del Día” de mi amiga Joyce y limita tus visitas para que no te olvides donde has estado y por qué fue interesante.

Some things I love about Italy so far:

Sitting in a cafe, anywhere.

Pistachio spread. It’s frosting for toast–delicious!

Fresh nectarines and peaches that taste divine (not mushy as in US supermarkets).

Escaped parrots. We saw flashes of bright green ones in Rome.

Strolling uncrowded back streets. (Don’t do this if you are interested in shopping). The Castello neighborhood in Venice was particularly pleasant.

Marbled paper in Florence.

The Venice Lido and the island of Torcello.

The Italian game show “L’Heredità”. Great for vocabulary building.

Algunas cosas que me encantan de Italia hasta ahora:

Did I mention that I like gelato?

Sentado en un café, en cualquier lugar.

Pistacho. Es glaseado para tostadas – delicioso!

Nectarinas frescas y melocotones que sabor divino (no blanda como en los supermercados de Estados Unidos).

Los loros escapados. Vimos destellos de verde brillante en Roma.

Paseo por las calles secundarias. (No hagas esto si estás interesado en ir de compras). El barrio de Castello en Venecia era particularmente agradable.

Papel veteado en Florencia.

El Lido de Venecia y la isla de Torcello.

El espectáculo italiano “L’Heredità”. Ideal para la construcción de vocabulario.

Less attractive aspects of Italy:

A lot of Italy is hilly, and tall buildings sometimes act like hills in cutting cell network reception. If you count on your phone for directions, you’ll find times that it won’t get a signal. We bought a dedicated GPS unit to use in the car and found that it, too, sometimes cuts out. Layers of backup help. We have a GPS, two phones (one or the other usually works) and we have paper maps.

Italians always drive too fast for local conditions. Thus 40 kph in parking lots, and 150 kph on the autostrada. No matter how high the speed limit, people want to go faster. Italians do not understand stopping distance. You will be dangerously tailgated if someone comes up behind you on the highway and you will not get a blink of lights or a few seconds to get in the slower lane. Don’t even think of tapping your brakes to give them a scare, because that’s not understood, and you might both die in the ensuing accident.

The bigger the crowds, the poorer the service. See my post on Venice about the fact that Italy needs tourism, but many people employed in service jobs don’t particularly like tourists. Individual Italians are often wonderful people, but your reception in stores and cafes will vary. Be pleased when people are polite and friendly. We tip every person who is pleasant.

Aspectos menos atractivos de Italia:

Una gran cantidad de Italia es montañosa, y edificios altos a veces actúan como colinas en la recepción de la red celular. Si cuenta con su teléfono para direcciones, encontrará tiempos que no obtendrá una señal. Compramos una unidad dedicada del GPS para utilizar en el coche y encontramos que, también, corta a veces. Tenemos un GPS, dos teléfonos (uno u otro normalmente funciona) y tenemos mapas de papel. Con todos estos llegamos.

Los italianos siempre conducen demasiado rápido para las condiciones locales. Así, 40 kph en estacionamientos, y 150 kph en la autostrada. No importa cuán alto el límite de velocidad, la gente quiere ir más rápido.

Los italianos no entienden la distancia de parada. Usted estará peligrosamente tailgated si alguien viene detrás de usted en la carretera y no obtendrá un parpadeo de luces o unos segundos para entrar en el carril más lento. Ni siquiera pienses en tocar los frenos para darles un susto, porque eso no se entiende, y ambos podrían morir en el accidente que se avecinaba.

Cuanto más grandes son las multitudes, peor es el servicio. Ver mi post de Venecia sobre el hecho de que Italia necesita turismo, pero mucha gente empleada en trabajos de servicio no les agradan las turistas. Individualmente, los italianos pueden ser personas maravillosas, pero no cuenta con una sonrisa en cada negocio y café. Aprecia la gente amable. Dejamos propina en cada café con personal agradable.

Good to know about Cuba

02 Wednesday Nov 2016

Posted by in Cuba

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Internet

There is no internet in Cuba. If you believe those who say there is limited access depending on where you are, you will waste a lot of time trying to connect to systems that have the broadband width of a human hair. Turn your devices off, bring a book to read and try not to think about it. Leave a phone number to be used in case of emergency—there probably won’t be one.

Travel

We went with a tour (see US Citizens, below). I have no useful information about either air or ground travel to or in Cuba because we had pre-arranged transport. Taxis are relatively expensive in Havana ($15-20 each way to the Tropicana and more if you take a vintage ride). As I mentioned in a previous post, we went with Insight Cuba and were very satisfied with the Cuba portion of our tour, and had excellent guides. We were less than satisfied with our pre-tour contacts, orientation and information.

Shopping

Cuba is schizophrenic right now. Some items are inexpensive, such as souvenirs at the many kiosks around interesting sites and in downtown areas like Old Havana or Trinidad. 10-21-16-trinidad-015Souvenirs purchased during visits to artist’s studios are enormously overpriced and rely on captive tour groups to purchase them before they find out that you can purchase a similar item for 2/3 less elsewhere. Art purchased from studios also varies wildly in quality and price. Artists who have been “discovered” by the outside world ask high prices, while undiscovered artists have more modest prices. 10-19-16-havana-021

We visited a gallery where the artist recently returned from a successful show in Minneapolis and tripled his prices. He is still selling and his work is very skilled—can we begrudge him this good fortune? Beware the artist who has merely tripled his prices without displaying commensurate skill!

 

Money

Cuba has an unattractive exchange rate. Each Cuban convertible peso (or “kook”) costs US$1 plus 13%, or US $1.13=CUC $1. There is no legal alternative to this exchange rate and it seemed unwise to inquire about a black market of currency. Cuba also has a currency called the Cuban peso (or CUP) that is not technically available to foreigners. US $1= CUP 23. A foreigner can possess this currency but it cannot be used in most places tourists visit. These CUP can be used in some stores and ice cream parlors where subsidized goods are sold. Thus nine of us ate ice cream one evening for CUP 24.50 or slightly more than US $1. We didn’t realize that the ice cream place only took CUP when we went in and we were amazed by the price (Our Cuban guide came along and paid our bill). On the other hand, there was only one flavor. Everyone in Cuba receives a ration book for highly subsidized food products each month with prices payable in CUP. That effectively eliminates hunger in Cuba because everyone gets rice, beans, oil, coffee, sugar and a few other things at minimal cost. There is probably a lively black market in these items, but our tour guides didn’t discuss it.

….and Tipping

An unanticipated outcome of the currency system is that tipping itself is a major industry in Cuba. We were told that a typical salary in Cuba is US $20 per month, or 460 CUP. A US $1/1 CUC tip therefore amounts to 5% of a regular Cuban salary and consequently even the woman who tends a restroom and receives twenty-five cents CUC per person has the potential to make far more money than a person at a salaried job. Restroom attendants clear away all the small change and leave 1 CUC coins in their little dish so that if you are confused about the cost of a pit stop you can feel free to leave them a dollar/CUC.

Music at Breakfast--don't forget to tip.

Music at Breakfast–don’t forget to tip.

There were also musicians everywhere, in the street, at every site, at every restaurant, even at the hotel’s breakfast buffet! Musicians offer you the opportunity to purchase a CD for about 8 CUC, or to give them a tip.

 

 

Everyone would like a tip. Normalizing relations with the outside world will require some difficult changes to the monetary system. NB: Our local tour guide had been a teacher, but realized that his income would be far greater as a guide. Cuba has a really admirable history of teaching everyone to read and write, as well as providing excellent low cost health care. Can this be sustained when all the teachers and doctors realize that they can earn a lot more money as restroom attendants, waiters and tour guides?

If you are NOT a US Citizen

10-23-16-casa-fuster-havana-022Go to Cuba—now—prices are only going up. Head to the beach spot of your choice and any side trips you want based on your own interests. In addition to the civic orchestra that plays community concerts twice a month in Trinidad, I enjoyed visiting Hemingway’s house outside Havana, and Carlos Fuster’s crazily mosaic-covered fantasyland and studio. 10-23-16-casa-fuster-havana-007The show at the Tropicana was also a lot of fun (skip the dinner). You might want to take a ride in a vintage convertible. Have a great time.

 

 

 

US Citizens

Was our trip to Cuba wonderful? Should you book a trip to Cuba right away, “before it all changes?”

Whoa.

There are things to consider before you rush off to Cuba. The most important issue applies only to US citizens. You cannot go to Cuba for a beach vacation until the embargo is lifted. If you’re thinking of a week or two in the sun, forget it. US citizens must go on a “culturally meaningful people-to-people exchange” program. We had a good time, but only had one noontime opportunity to swim in the gorgeous warm Caribbean water.

10-22-16-orquestra-del-sur-cienfuegos-cubaWe did have the chance to visit a polyclinic, listen to the adult choir at a geriatric center, visit an animation studio for a short film, and see the Bay of Pigs museum for the Cuban side of the story. We saw a wood carver’s studio, a print studio, and a ceramicist’s studio. We heard the civic orchestra in Trinidad, and they turned out to be a passionate, wonderfully skilled group of eight professional musicians who filled a concert hall all by themselves. They even had a handsome young violist as spokesperson. Cuba was interesting and surprising, but not relaxing, because the US doesn’t allow it, yet.

10-19-16-melia-cohiba-hotel-from-pool-001You should book your tour to Cuba if you are avidly interested in a) the history of Cuba’s wars of independence, the Cold War and the Bay of Pigs, or b) Cuban baseball, or c) automobiles from the 1950s that survive in Cuba (approx. model years 1947-1961).  Otherwise, I suggest you wait until the US embargo is lifted, possibly in 2017. (It didn’t get lifted). Then book yourself a beach vacation, whether at a resort in Varadero or an AirBnB anywhere, and enjoy sitting in the sun and staring at the impossibly beautiful water, because the ocean is one of Cuba’s greatest resources. It’s worth waiting for.

 

 

Good to know about Scotland

09 Sunday Oct 2016

Posted by in Scotland

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Good to know about Scotland

People

The smaller town, the nicer the people. Not that people in Edinburgh aren’t great, but it’s a city and you can’t talk to everyone on the street. If you ask a question in a smaller place, the person you’ve asked hasn’t already been asked that question innumerable times, and may have more time and interest in chatting. I have learned from others:

  • Say hello to people.
  • Ask a question, don’t hesitate.
  • If you admire something about a person (hat, walking stick, parking maneuver…) tell them if you have a chance. Everyone likes to be appreciated.

Travel

Whatever your interests are, Scotland has specialized places to visit.

9-21-16-groam-house-museum-015For ancient ruins, the Megalithic Portal provides detailed maps, descriptions and photos of ancient sites that can be visited all over the UK. We used this site to find stone circles and carved stones to visit.

www.megalithic.co.uk

A stone "rope" on a balcony at Dunrobin castle.

A stone “rope” on a balcony at Dunrobin castle.

 

For castles and historic sites, Historic Scotland is wonderful. We bought an annual membership and then used the member guide to visit places all over Scotland, even in the Orkneys. The guide suggested places along our routes that we would never have known about otherwise.

www.historicscotland.org

 

For birds, fatbirder.com,  or

https://www.rspb.org.uk (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (that is, wildlife)

There are several other websites that record recent sightings and good places. I like the British Trust for Ornithology

https://www.bto.org/

Check into local festivals by looking at the community web page if there is one, or look at posters on walls and utility poles. We got to a few, but missed others. We went to a local agricultural show (The Stewartry Show), a bit like a county fair, complete with animal judging. The sheep races at Moffat were associated with a monthly market day in the summer. 8-21-16-drumlanrig-castle-012smWe saw the annual fair (Civic Day) for Dalbeattie, where we stayed in the south of Scotland, complete with parade and music. We missed the Kirkcudbright fair that included “riding of the marches,” a traditional horseback circuit of the local boundaries. We saw Highland Games, and a local music night, though we missed both the Edinburgh Tattoo and the Kirkudbright Tattoo. Just before we left, we heard about an event that would have been fun (we were in the Orkneys). Avoch, on the Black Isle outside Inverness, has a regatta for St. Ayles skiffs, four-oared rowboats. The man we chatted with on the beach was helping two of the boats land, but said they’d had 14 of them out the previous day. You can’t get to everything, but you should definitely try something off the main routes. We skipped both Stirling Castle and the Culloden battlefield (Gasp!) but enjoyed many other smaller, less crowded places. We enjoyed Skye but found it very crowded when there are so many gorgeous spots in Scotland that are not bursting at the seams with people. Southern Scotland as well as the west and north coast of the Scottish mainland are less visited and have a lot to offer.

Driving

If you plan to drive in Scotland and haven’t driven on the left previously, I strongly recommend taking a driving lesson. Jonathan and I took one hour each with a driving instructor and benefitted a great deal from it. We also drove observantly, looked out for one another while trying not to shout at each other very much (Ack! Too close!).

9-22-16-kinlochbenvie-004Driving in Scotland is more difficult than driving in the US. Everything is narrower, you are required to maneuver in and out much more frequently than in the US, parking spaces are narrower and the space to back out of a parking space is smaller than in the US. In the UK you are permitted to park facing against traffic and it can be confusing. Roads are narrow and often lined by stone walls and hedges. There are often no shoulders, or worse, where the pavement drops off several inches if you get too far to one side. Many rural roads are a single lane with “passing places” meaning you have to pull to the side if someone is coming, creating an eternal game of chicken.

There are national speed limits with lots of posted exceptions and there are many, many speed cameras. We decided to go the speed limit all the time to avoid problems like tickets arriving in the mail out of the blue. We made it through about 10 weeks of driving with only a minor paint scratch that I believe was done by another vehicle—I don’t recall it happening. Overall, be careful, don’t ever hurry, and always check behind you before you back up.

Language

Scotland is wonderful. They speak English, which is a great convenience for native English speakers, despite George Bernard Shaw’s cautionary description, “England and America are two countries divided by a common language.” I don’t find it difficult to understand people when they say lorry for truck, queue for line, garden for yard. New ones this trip ore “toilet roll” for toilet paper, “squash” for juice-type drink. There are many others.

What obscures communication for me is a distinctively Scottish accent. Most people use their “school,” or “tourist” accent with us, so it’s not usually a problem. A charming neighbor wished us well when we left by recounting the story of a traditional saying “shall there always be smoke in your chimney,” though we couldn’t understand any of it when he repeated it to us in Scots.

My favorite word here is “wee”. It means a lot of different things, something small or not small, such as a wee dragon; a brief period of time or a long period of time, like “a wee while” describing a long wait; short stature such as a wee lad six feet tall playing in the Highland Games; and the famous “wee dram,” of whisky, actually an uncertain quantity. There’s great humor and irony in this single word. It’s also used seriously in all those contexts, so when something is described as “wee,” I have to listen up.

Food

9-27-16-skye-tomatoesScotland has excellent dairy products including interesting cheeses, and very fine meats not limited to haggis and black pudding. Both of these latter can be good if cooked properly. Home cooking is not fancy, usually meat, potato and veg. Dessert is called pudding, and can be very enticing for those with a sweet tooth. In addition to traditional English desserts like bread pudding, sticky toffee pudding, Eton mess, and fruit cake, there is cranachan, a combination of fruit, honey, crumbled sweet oatcakes and crowdie, a cross between finely strained cottage cheese and cream cheese. It sounds strange but can be delicious. There is also athol brose, which you should try if you ever get a chance. Again, it sounds weird to mix oatmeal, cream, honey and Scotch whisky, but I can attest to its being delicious and possibly lethal.

9-16-16-macbeths-meat-forres

MacBeth’s Meats, Forres

We found a new meat product being offered in stores, called hogget. Stores were vague on what it was other than not lamb and not mutton. In fact, it is young mutton, and producers claim it is delicious. We ended up leaving our lovely hogget roast behind because we ran out of time to cook. Technically, hogget is lamb that has lived over a winter, thus the animal is 6-12 months old when slaughtered. Lamb is younger, mutton older.

Last Thoughts on Scotland

We had a lot of fun and kept very busy. Below are a few last photos I like.

10-2-16-avoch-001

Celtic alphabet mosaics created by a community project.

9-29-16-to-orkney-010

Boats on the Orkneys.

9-21-16-rosemarkie

Cobbled walls.

9-6-16-invergordon-003

Decorative ironwork fence.

9-6-16-invergordon-002

Interesting architecture.

10-2-16-sea-glass-002My beachcombing.

8-27-16-kirkcudbrightLovely antique car in Kirkcudbright.

Good to know about Edinburgh

04 Thursday Aug 2016

Posted by in Edinburgh

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THE Festival

If you plan to attend the Edinburgh Festival, I can’t help you. We are leaving the city before it begins, in part because the cost of housing skyrockets and we can’t keep to our budget and stay in an apartment. Perhaps another year we’ll come for a Festival week and listen to lot of music, see a lot of theater and appreciate the scene.

However, I have advice on a few things for people planning to visit at other times.

Weather

7.25.16 Linlithgow Castle-045

It rained most of the time we were at Linlithgow Castle.

Like everywhere else in Scotland, you can experience four seasons in a day. The sun may turn up early or late, the rain may pour before breakfast or after dinner–or in the middle of your plans. Be a good Scotsperson and ignore the fact that there is weather and keep going, or modify your plans enough to get out of the rain by going to a museum or a cafe. Either way, the weather will change soon enough. (Imagine you’re in Portland.) Wear waterproof shoes. Don’t go out without your raincoat.

Local Travel

7.19.16 Holyrood Palace-018

Waiting for the bus.

If you aren’t on an organized tour, consider purchasing a weekly (or monthly) bus pass. This year the first week is £21 and subsequent weeks £18. Additional weeks can be added in many corner shops (pay point), though to start you need to go to a Lothian Buses travelshop because they take your picture and put it on your card. A monthly pass is £57. Bus passes are especially helpful once you find out that there is no such thing as a bus transfer in Edinburgh, and you must pay £1.60 each time you board a bus. A bus pass includes tram service, and service to the airport by either bus or tram. It is not possible right now to purchase your bus pass at the airport, so even if you travel light, you have to pay £4 to get from the airport to the city on arrival (A taxi is about £20). Our bus passes are for Lothian buses, and that does not include every bus in the city. Sometimes you have to wait until your Lothian bus arrives. Overall, it’s been worth a lot. (I’ve rarely been tempted to call the bus line Loathsome buses.)

Visiting the Sights/Sites

If you are a fan of historic sights and sites, you might consider a membership in Historic Scotland. This gives you free admission to several of the major sites in the Edinburgh area, including Edinburgh, Stirling, and Linlithgow castles. You get a discount (20%) on admission to Holyrood Palace. Historic Scotland also manages many other sites throughout Scotland, many do not charge admission. I’ve taken advantage of their booklet to identify interesting lesser-known places to visit.

Outdoors–Gardens and Walks

Edinburgh is full of wonderful gardens and gardening. Often a small front garden is beautifully arranged with beds and pots of plants.

There are wonderful walks throughout Edinburgh. Several paths climb Arthur’s Seat and the Salisbury Crags in Holyrood Park. Walking through Princes Street Gardens is lovely and there are more paths around St. Cuthbert’s church at the west end of the garden. There is a trail along the Water of Leith (see my post on the Modern Art museum) that you can follow for miles. Just because you are in the city doesn’t mean the outdoors isn’t nearby. Also, you can get to the beach on the bus. My only caveat: we saw very few birds in the city itself.

Food

We rarely eat out, but had an excellent dinner at Field, a tiny restaurant near the university. Make a reservation, because it seats 26 if every seat is filled.

Outside Edinburgh

Both the train (Scotrail) and buses go from Edinburgh to Glasgow (and other cities). There are websites for each and a variety of options. Train travel is reliable as well as a bit faster and a bit more comfortable than the bus. It costs slightly more.

A Last Word

We left Edinburgh with many places still to visit. Small museums, historic houses, even Building 2 of the Modern Art Museum (Building 1 took all our time on our first visit). Living in the city full time may not be for me, as I enjoyed our walks along paths as much as the big attractions. Who can resist a street called Ravelston Dykes? Or a path that looks like deep woods but actually circles a private school and takes you to Sainsbury’s (grocery store)?

 

 

Good to know about Northern Norway

04 Monday Jul 2016

Posted by in Norway, Paula

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Shopping

7.1.16 Oslo-053smLiving in northern Norway is an exercise in planning, because it takes over 30 minutes to get to the nearest store of any kind, and an hour to get to a place with even a very modest shopping area. There are two principal grocery chains, REMA 1000, and Co-op. Their offerings are similar. Most stores take credit cards with a chip, though at some gas stations you need to pay inside unless you have both a chip AND a pin (we have chip/signature cards).

Surprises:

  • Typically people purchase frozen meat. Don’t count on fresh meat being available.6.9.16 Fishing-003
  • In our area, most fish in the store was dried or frozen. If you want fresh fish, you need to go fishing. That’s a great idea, but then you have to fish until you get what you want.
  • Ocean fishing is permitted anywhere in Norway if you plan to eat your catch. A fishing permit is required for lake and river fishing.
  • The coast is open to all. You can walk along the shore anywhere except posted military installations.
  • Speed traps on the highway. Just as mean-spirited as any you’ve been caught in at home. They are aimed at those unfamiliar with the area and tourists.
  • The self-serve economy. There are many things that you have to do for yourself even it you’d rather not, because there just isn’t anyone to do them or to hire to do them. At the airport, for example, there is no staff at check in. You check yourself in, weigh your own bag, put on your own tags, and heave it onto the conveyor belt. (There was also no security check.) Our host said there was not anyone available to do weekly cleaning at our rental, or to mow the lawn. If you think about it in the context of paying everyone a living wage for their work, perhaps that’s the explanation. After Jonathan sprained his ankle, however, we really wished there were alternatives.

No surprise, but true:

  • Everything is expensive. If you look at the prices, you won’t eat. We had delicious blueberries, some memorable strawberries, and a pineapple. I noticed that our excellent red Thompson Seedless grapes came from Egypt.
  • Gyetost (whey cheese) is strange (brown, a bit sweet) but delicious, especially on hot toast. If you don’t think you’ll like it, try White Gyetost, which has a milder flavor.
  • Alcoholic beverages are startlingly, shockingly, expensive. Inexpensive beer is $25 per six pack. Approximately three quarters of the price is the tax.

Driving

6.21.16 Finland trip-006Distances are great, everything is far from where you are in northern Norway. If you make plans to visit a lot of well-known places, you will be on the road for many hours.

There is no tolerance for drinking and driving. Everyone pulled over gets brethalyzed, no matter what hour of the day or night. The legal limit is .02, so designated drivers are a must. This has been true since my first trip to Scandinavia in the 1970s.

  • I got caught in a speed trap, going 80 kmph (50 mph) in a 60 kmph (37 mph) zone. The fact that the radar was set up in a short zone of 60 at the end of a long downhill posted 80…. Well, never mind. The bad news is that tickets are costly, and the only good news the policeman had for me was how lucky I was not to be going 1 kmph faster because THEN my fine would have been 50% higher. Lucky me.
  • Roads can be narrow, some stretches are 1 ½ lanes shared by two way traffic, with pullouts for one vehicle to pull aside for the other. No one drives very fast (see above). Plus there are speed cameras, though those are posted in advance.

Weather

6.10.16 viking ship burial tjeldoya-024

  • July and August may the best months to visit. There is more sun. We heard that this June was unusually rainy, but I’m not sure I believe it. A typical week included 2 sunny days, 3 cloudy days possibly with damp mist, and 2 rainy days. On the other hand, we only used bug spray twice, and I suspect it is a daily necessity in July and August.
  • The weather can change rapidly, for better and worse. One day the sun came out and the temperature rose more than 5º C in 12 hours. We were delighted because it had been cold. Conversely, our first two days were sunny and warm, followed by 3 weeks of cool, often windy weather with temperatures as low as 9º C. I gratefully wore my new fur hat from the resale store, and all my layers of clothing.

Cell phone service

You may be happiest if you can use your US cell phone as you travel. It is expensive but usually works. We change SIM cards in each country, with fair results. Norway was the exception. Jonathan’s phone didn’t always work (though the coverage was fine, he got an error message when he dialed), and mine never worked. The lesson is a basic one that all websites tell you. 1) Don’t be in a hurry when you purchase phone service. 2) DO NOT leave the place where you purchase your SIM card until you have made a call on it, and tested that the data portion works. 3) If you don’t, remember that I told you so.

We made an impulse buy of phone service in the Evenes airport from a young man who didn’t mention that he was going to leave us in order not to miss his train home. So he left, encouraging us to call the help number. I suppose I could have tried that, but when I stopped in a phone store I got no help, and I was told that my phone wasn’t fully unlocked (not true).

Community

  • People are as varied here as anywhere else. We had delightful conversations with people we met at the Sunday café (noon-3 pm one day per week in the summer), where we ate waffles, drank coffee and enjoyed the fact that all Norwegians under the age of 70 speak excellent English, even when they say their English is not so good.
  • Many people will smile and nod without engaging in conversation. Norway is very much a mind-your-own-business society, and many people will answer questions if asked, but may not be chatty. We waved at passing drivers and they waved back.

Good to know about Lisbon and Portugal

02 Thursday Jun 2016

Posted by in Portugal

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This is my last post on Portugal, where I provide a few observations that may prove useful to anyone considering a visit. Portugal is a wonderful place, so very much worth planning your trip.

Language

How disappointed we were to find that speaking Spanish is of so little assistance in Portugal! For people who don’t speak Spanish, however, this may be a good thing, because far more Portuguese people speak English than speak Spanish. We could read some signs, but the accent is very specific and it was difficult to follow spoken conversation. Many words are similar to Spanish, but not all words, so Spanish speakers get lost trying to follow the familiar. For example, ygrega=iglesia (church), praia=playa (beach). But also, lettuce=alface, apple=maça, turkey-peru (I am not kidding.)

Rental cars

Driving can be expensive. In addition to the cost of renting a car, fuel is expensive and there are significant tolls. For example, the highway toll for our drive to the Algarve and back (2 ½ hour drive) on excellent highway was €19.45 (about $22.50) each way. There can be cash tolls on additional short segments and bridges, and there is also the cost of parking that ranges from € 1 for 24 hours to the same amount for 20 minutes, depending on your location. Most parking is marked if payment is required and the hours that must be paid (e.g. 7:00-20:00). Usually there is a kiosk nearby where you insert coins and retrieve a slip of paper marked with the time your parking expires that you put on your dashboard. Not all meters take credit cards.

In Sesimbra, we met the most helpful Tourist Information person ever (!) by mistakenly putting the credit card too far into the parking kiosk where it fell inside. At the tourist office, we explained what had happened and a young woman got on the phone for a bit then said she would call us and tell us when to return to the kiosk. “We will solve your problem” she said. After dubiously giving her our cell number (it was our second day in Portugal and we had visions of having to get a replacement credit card) we went off to the market and indeed got a return call, telling us to be at the kiosk at 3 pm. We went, and a guy came up the street, opened the kiosk, fished out the credit card and gave it back. (I love the Sesimbra tourist office—it’s in the fortress.) It seems unlikely that we will ever have a more impressive experience at any tourist office anywhere.

Parking!

In the city, a car is not necessary, but if you plan to go beyond Lisbon you need fortitude and patience to take the train or bus to visit other towns. If you have a car, you can park and take the train into Lisbon, or like us, drive in and look for parking. I had some luck finding parking on:

http://en.parkopedia.pt/parking/lisbon/

though the information only applies to part of the city. We had pretty good luck just driving around looking for parking, but that probably is not much of a plan on sunny weekends, during the summer, etc.

Along the coast, only a few beaches have parking lots, much of the parking is along the road. It was much easier to park for beaches in the off season. Even small beaches may have a café/restaurant and 40 or more beach umbrellas. With only 15 parking spaces along the road, I can’t really understand where people park in the summer and what it will be like to drive along the coast.

5.30.16 Praia Galapos.16-015

This is legal parking for the beach.

Pedestrians have the right of way on every striped/zebra crossing.

In Portugal, people tend to cross the street at striped crossings, BUT, they know you are looking out for them and that you will naturally stop, even if you are going at a good clip and they can see you coming. They still step out and you need to stop. There’s also something of an expectation that a driver will stop under most circumstances zebra crossing or not. You might get a look, or a wave, but you might just get a young person lighting up a cigarette while talking on the phone wandering out into the intersection, or a mom with a stroller, or an older gentleman who will take about 75 steps to get across that lane. Be prepared.

Signage is a problem, and I’m not saying that because I don’t speak Portuguese. Road signs sometimes appear right before you need to make a turn leaving you no time to get to the turning lane, sometimes they appear so far before the turn that there are two or three other unmarked options before the correct turn. This lets you tour the neighborhoods around the base of the big bridges into Lisbon, usually when you are most wishing to go home. It is much easier to find your way to beaches, even well-known ones, by checking maps before you leave home. There may be one road sign off the highway and nothing else, or every road may be marked as going where you are headed. For example, in Portimao it seemed like every street had an arrow that said “Praia de Rocha.” We occasionally provided directions to lost drivers—Portuguese ones!

A thought about restaurants

As in other places in Europe you’ll often be served bread, olives and cheese when you sit down in a restaurant. This can be very nice, especially if you are starving before a late lunch. BUT, keep in mind that these are not complimentary, so if you are not interested in them or on a tight budget, tell the waiter to take them back. You are not obliged to have these items, but you need to speak up. At the end of the meal it is too late to refuse to pay for them. (We had a really good meal at a very moderate price at Portofino in Sesimbra. It’s right on the beach.)

And that’s all I’ve got on Portugal.