Rod Gaynor
Middle aged Aussie romantic travelling around the Iberian Peninsula with his Beloved and two other middle aged couples who are less romantic.Old Cisco
Travel Blog Posts
October 6th 2010
People - can't explain 'em! Hi All As a finale to my blog I would like to ask a simple question. Well actually it is a question with a long lead in and probably has no answer but I'll ask it anyway. Consider this. Most people nowadays have flown on a plane and are aware of what a horrible experience it is. You are jammed into a long aluminium tube where normal human personal space rules are eliminated for abnormally long periods of time. You are asked to sit upright with sharp metal or plastic bits poking into you and are expected to sleep or at least not stand, wriggle or squirm and disturb the equally uncomfortable people around you. You are also required to do this while your body clock is as out of whack ... read more
October 3rd 2010
Andulusia Yeah I know it has been a while. We had 8 days in Andalucia in a mansion owned by a tight arse Pom who was fighting with Spanish Telstra so therefore we had no Internet. Was disaster and peace at the same time. Anyway this blog is about what we did there, or at least the parts that I can remember. When I was a lad I read a book by James A Michener called 'The Drifters'. It was about a group of six American twenty somethings who spent the summer bumming around Spain. In one part they came across a place called Torremolinos which was an isolated beach where they ran around naked for a couple of weeks and did rude things. Naturally then I have always wanted to go to Torremolinos so that ... read more
September 23rd 2010
Portugal Portugal has many things. It also does not have some things. For instance Portugal does not have the Internet. Actually it may do but it does not provide it for Aussie travellers therefore this blog will cover all of Portugal as I know it. Portugal also does not have mattresses or pillows or fridges. It has beds but actually they are slabs of lumpy concrete with a sheet over the top with pillows of gravel about the size of a Weeties packet. Otherwise the place is great! We arrived in the Douro valley near Porto to find that our accommodation was a house nestled in a vineyard surrounded by hills complete with a lovely hostess - Graca. She quickly made us at home, brushed aside inquiries about Internet and fridges and sent us off to ... read more
September 15th 2010
Oviedo Sean has been our best friend on this trip. He has guided us through cities and towns and down massive highways with multiple lanes and signposts and we have always gotten exactly where we wanted. We had come to trust Sean implicitly and thought of him as a member of the family, well as much as a GPS can be a family member anyway. Sean let us down. Apparently Sean does not know that a 1.6m wide car really shouldn’t try to go down a 1.61m wide road nor should a 2m long car be asked to sharp dogleg to the right on a 1.61m wide road. Apparently Sean also didn’t know about the new hotel being built and that the 1.61m road he had us on came to dead end and at a 70 ... read more
September 12th 2010
Basque Country You learn a lot about a region when you talk to the locals. We have had several conversations with several and I really, really wish I had any idea of what we were talking about. It starts with the obligatory smile and "Ola!', which is easy, but then there is a whole lot of 'Ah', "owyousay?' and 'Um' followed by lots of hand gestures and pointing. At this stage I have learnt to smile and say 'Si', because if I don't the same word gets spoken louder and louder until I finally understand it. Actually I don't understand it but I say 'Si' to protect my eardrums. The good news is that the local then runs off and comes back with a bottle of red as a present. Great system. The Basque people have ... read more
September 10th 2010
Isn't it strange? Pamplona is known worldwide for the running of the bulls. This is where silly young men, obviously trying to impress silly young women, run around in front of rather pissed off rampaging bulls through the streets of Pamplona towards the bull ring. We have all seen it on TV and either wondered at their bravery or shook heads at their stupidity. Never has it ever been mentioned that Pamplona is a really, really pretty place that deserves far more accolades for this rather than the accolades it receives for the clashing of bovine and human hormones. Please tell your friends.... read more
September 9th 2010
This may surprise many of you but we have made an important discovery. Sometimes the descriptions given of places on the Internet do not lie. Indeed, sometimes the owners actually underestimate their own properties. Scoff you may but I have the photos and video to prove it. Our 'rustic retreat' which should, in the normal course of events read 'crappy old dump on a main highway complete with vermin', actually should say '3 storey manor overlooking magnificent valley with a wow factor of 10 but still situated close to really cool places'. Yesterday we set off from Barcelona at the crack of too early and had a pleasant 4 hour train ride to Logrono where we had arranged hire cars. The plan was that the hire car person was to meet us at the station holding ... read more
September 7th 2010
You know when you have an impression in your mind of what a place will be like and are rather disappointed to find something different when you see it? This is Barcelona. Madrid is pleasant and quaint and pretty and relaxing and enjoyable. Barcelona is loud and brash and convoluted and in your face and can relieve you of your euros in many, many different ways. In Madrid we were in an apartment in a quaint street with our own piazza and hookers. In Barcelona we have a lovely apartment but it is on a main street and loud. In Madrid we walked through cobblestoned streets to go to other cobblestoned streets with their own piazzas and hookers. In Barcelona we get on a crowded, but still very cheap and frequent, metro and go the places ... read more
August 31st 2010
Madrid You know when you have an impression in your mind of what a place will be like and are rather pleasantly surprised to find something different when you see it? This is Madrid. In my head Barcelona is the great city of Spain and Madrid is simply the capital - a bit like Canberra and Sydney if you like. Without having been to Barcelona yet, I can now say that Madrid is a great city in it’s own right. In comparing it with other European cities I have visited I would have to say that: 1. Madrid has really impressive historical buildings, monuments and statues of dead people on horseback. So does Rome and Paris except that the people in Madrid aren't deliberately rude to you. Of course, as we all know, London doesn't have ... read more
August 31st 2010
So off we went. I kinda got the first bit wrong. In my head I had us leaving Perth mid-afternoon and landing in KL early evening. However according to all the bits of paper I was supposed to read we actually left at 6.30 am. This meant a 3.30am getup. Ouch. Apparently it was my fault because I failed to read the required material. Anyway we arrived in KL around midday at the tight arse terminal. One would think that this would be OK but one forgets that tight arse flights are now very many and very popular and tight arse terminals are very old, very small and very far away from real terminals. Consequently we found ourselves in a sea of humanity until we were finally sequestered on an ancient bus travelling on a high ... read more
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