It is great to be mundane

We have had a pretty interesting time recently, lots of travelling, visiting new sites, seeing old friends, and of course a lot of walking. (The walking increase was brought home to me by an update to the health app on my IPhone. It tracks progress in a much more graphic way. In 2015 I was averaging 8,000 steps a day, this improved to 10,000 last year, while to date it is around 11,800 this year). That I am discussing this illustrates that it has been just an ordinary old day. The strange thing is that it has been a pleasure, perhaps illustrating a truth that to appreciate something you need to experience the opposite.

I was able to undertake quite a lot of life organisation, tidy the garden, plant some bulbs, fix a few things in town, plan a potential walk next year and catch up on some TV. Even dinner was an old favourite, brown rice vegetables, and boy did it go down well.

The pleasure is that I am looking forward to getting on with day-to-day living; there is academic work to get stuck in to, which will start tomorrow. I am already brimming with ideas for a narrative for the talk that I am undertaking in November. This again illustrates that the holidays have recharged my batteries, bring on the winter…well as long as the weather is kind.  

Old Friends

Hugh and Helen are probably our oldest friends (this not a comment on their age but the length of time we have known them as a couple). Little did I know that when I walked into the British Airways Scheduling Office in 1977 that I and then we would make friends for life. So some forty years later we would be shared a weekend away. The nature of old friends is that when you get together even after a long time you never run out of things to talk about. These are wrapped in the shared memories that you have had over the years.

Hugh and Helen with the Sheppard's

 This time we remembered a holiday that we had taken to Spain in the spring of 1983. Thomas was in a pushchair and Laura was just a bump in Marion’s tummy. It was quite warm and Thomas was very fair skinned so he was well protected particularly with a rather fetching hat. The trouble was every time anybody mentioned the word hat; he threw it to the ground. It became a sort of bizarre game, which he found very amusing and we did not. Helen remembered how she resorted to saying h…a…t. Even at the tender age of eighteen months he recognised this and immediately threw the hat off. Helen thinks that they have an old cine film of this. It will be something to show the grandchildren!!!

So we had a lovely day and evening at a place called Goldstone Hall in the middle of the Shropshire countryside near Market Drayton.

Goldstone Hall

An added bonus of the hotel was that it had a full sized snooker table that allowed Hugh and myself to reprise our youth. I think the best break was a three ball with the score of seven. It just proves that you do not get better at these games.

The hotel was lovely a very typical English Country House. Large rooms, spacious soft comfy beds, log fires and excellent food. Much came from the extensive vegetable and herb gardens that adjoined the house. The gardens also provided the seasonal pumpkins that decorated each table in the dining room. We had some pungent local cheese with dinner made by an artisan cheese maker, Moydens. So this morning we set off to find the cheese, this was an adventure as they were actually situated in what looked like a storage yard. But a very helpful guy sold us some Wrekin Blue and Ironbridge Blue. We will look forward to eating these and with it remembering our friendship with Hugh and Helen.

The Final Photos

I thought that I would share some of the photographs that have only just become available to upload as I now have access to a good internet connection.

The first group were taken on the Smuggler's walk that I undertook. The way the border wanders around is illustrated by very small stone post that makes the transition from Spain into Portugal.

Portuguese Border Marker

You can see that the walk was marked in a somewhat rudimentary fashion.

The Smuggler's Walk or "Contrabando"On the 

On the walk I noticed for the first time together two of Portugal's favourite things.

A black pig

Cork Tree - already stripped

I have written about our last meal in Trujillo sitting under the stars, and here is one of the stars.

Marion on a warm night

It was at this restaurant that we ate the typical dish of Trujillo, migas.

Migas

I don't think that I did justice to the Case Marcia, here is a photo from probably it's less appealing side.

Casa Marcial

In the nearby town of Cangis de Onis there was an interesting Roman bridge.

Lastly a look back at Spain as the ferry leaves Santander.

Santander

Happy memories.

Home

What a shock, the sun is not shinning and there is this wet stuff coming out of the sky. It really has changed since we have been away from summer to early winter. It feels, as this transition has been overnight rather than a gradual evolution that we would have experienced if we had been here all the time.

Still the poor weather was an incentive to get on with the post-holiday clearing-up. In packing was completed by mid-morning. I always find it surprising that you discover things that you cannot remember buying, usually in a mad moment thinking it would taste good, come-in useful etc. There was noting dramatic in this years, although odd bottles of wine kept appearing. One thing is certain, it will be drunk.

At the moment there is a sense of panic, of the number of things that need to be done over the next week or so. The folly of placing a quite a few things in the diary now becomes apparent. Still feeling relaxed; it should be easy to get everything done. After all much of it is for pleasure.

Coming Home

As usual with the last day of the holiday the weather was dismal and overcast, the first day that we have had to use windscreen wipers on the car. Certainly not a day to put the roof down. So as the ferry did not leave Santander until early afternoon we had a leisurely breakfast.

I am now writing this on aboard the Pont Aven about two hours out from Santander gently rolling across the Bay of Biscay. So no photos due to the slow internet connection. It is time to look back on the holiday and reflect.

We have both thoroughly enjoyed the holiday; it has been everything we hoped for and more. Described as a “slow” holiday through the Alentejo, it was certainly that, although we managed to pack an awful lot in. To me the holiday was the right combination of rest and activity. I think that there were three underlying reasons - the weather was magnificent. There was barely any rain and the temperatures were always in the mid-twenties. However in general the nights were cool, so sleeping was never a problem. Secondly the hospitality that we experienced was exceptional. Everybody we came across was so helpful and understanding, particularly in Portugal where we did not speak any of the language. Thirdly all of the planning paid off with tours, restaurants and off-piste accommodation. As always of course having a great partner in travel was the icing on the cake.

So what were the highlights, this will be like an awards ceremony -

Best Hotel

Evora – The staff were just exceptional, the hotel was comfortable, very well located and was all in all superb.

Runner Up – As Janelas in Lisbon. Again location, location, location, but also the facilities. Being able to spend the evening overlooking the Tagus was superb.

Actually all the hotels were great except the Herdade de Touril, that disappointed.

Best Restaurant

This is very difficult as we ate right across the spectrum, however Casa Marcial in the Pico’s was a star. The food was imaginative, had great taste combinations and was beautifully presented.

A honourable mention must go to As Barca on the coast in Portugal. This was an unpretentious restaurant but served lovely simply cooked fresh fish that you selected from the fridge.

Again throughout the holiday we only had one poor meal.

Best Site

I think that for all round pleasure the small village of Marvao was stellar. Its situation was exceptional with 360-degree views while it was completely unspoilt and a pleasure to explore the castle and meander through the lovely village.

Lisbon was lovely city and offered much in both situation and atmosphere. A special mention here must go to Taste of Lisboa whose tuk-tuk tour enabled us to see so much and enjoy some of the local gastronomy.

Best Walk

The walk along the coast in Touril, continually stumbling on superb coves hewn out of the rock with sandy inaccessible beaches at the bottom.

I also enjoyed the smugglers walk in Galegos, mainly because of the history and that it was through the “real” countryside.

So a great holiday, back now to the reality of winter in Scarborough, but so much to look forward to and plan for next year.

Returning Home

The journey home has started. We packed up in Trujillo very early this morning leaving our cosy apartment at 7am. This was because we had made a late lunch reservation at a restaurant in the Pico’s de Europa, roughly 600 kilometres from Trujillo.

Before our early start we enjoyed our last night in Trujillo. We found a recommended restaurant near our apartment. This had a lovely terrace with great views of the floodlit cathedral.

It was a lovely warm evening to sit out even though we did not start eating until 9pm. We have really enjoyed Trujillo; it is a lovely small town, about the size of Malton, which has a lovely feel about it. It helps that we stayed right in the middle of the historic quarter, and even with this great location have had the quiet and privacy of a little garden.

So it was with regret that we made our early departure, however with the customary almost empty Spanish motorways it was easy to make simple fast progress. Soon we were leaving the brown plains of Extremadura behind as we entered the coastal mountains north of Leon. The temperature also plummeted to the high teens.

Finding Casa Marcial    contents had been prepared mouth-wateringly, the mussels in tomato liquor while the oysters were prepared in lemon with a hint of Tabasco.

was not easy as it is in the middle of nowhere however we just made it in time. Well the final meal of our holiday was spectacular, with probably the best food that we have eaten. The menu is reproduced for your perusal.

However we both thought that the service was not as good as we had experienced in Portugal. Maybe it was the natural ease of the Portuguese compared to the stiffness of the Spanish. The highlight of the meal was definitely the Cantabrican fish course, which was a simple fruit de mer. However the

At the end of the meal the chef, Nacho Manzano came and introduced himself. All in all it was a lovely experience for the final meal of the holiday. We are staying tonight at a Parador near Cangas de Onis. There was just time before it got dark for me to walk into town and take a picture of this lovely Roman bridge.

There maybe no blog tomorrow as will be on board the ferry and Wi-Fi maybe at a premium.