Blogs from Europe - page 12

When you live in the same place for a while it is hard sometimes to think of places to visit . You find you have done them all. Sometimes more than once . The choice of places to look at diminishes over time or the distance between each becomes too great for a day trip out. There is something to be said for moving home on a regular basis . Perusing the local maps doesn't always give you new ideas. Trawling through the internet draws blanks . Sometimes I find somewhere we have not been to but it is either too far to drive to or the weather puts us off . February is an inclement month . We can expect frosty nights or exceptionally mild ones . We may get high winds or torrential rain. ... read more

1st February Originally Ferrol was a fishing port, but its development was due to Philip V recognizing the strategic value of its estuary and building the A Graña arsenal and shipyards. Ferrol came to control Spain's maritime interests in the North Atlantic, threatened by England. In 1800, the British fleet landed on Doniños beach, in what is known as the Battle of Brión. The objective was to take Ferrol and destroy the shipyards, but the local forces responded quickly, causing the English to withdraw. Currently, Ferrol continues to suffer the effects of the economic depression of the 80s, as a consequence of the naval crisis and a reduced military presence, plus the effects of the recent real estate crisis, this was obvious as I walked around. I took the shuttle bus from the ship, the bus ... read more

In other news…the first picture I took early this morning while having coffee on the balcony is the sky over the ocean just down the way from our house. Isn’t it beautiful? And there’s a picture of Suki. She’s the cutest little thing, very smart and appropriately pampered. She’s a little Papillion, 12 years old and walks everywhere we do. She never gets tired and keeps looking back to see if we’re coming. She doesn’t need a leash, just stays close and listens very well. We are taking a break from driving today and exploring the Old Town of Albufeira which is only minutes away from our house. It’s typical of all European towns with the medieval centre of the business area full of very narrow streets and small shops with apartments on the upper floors. ... read more

Journey to the land’s end! Perched on high cliffs Cabo de Sao Vincente (or Cape St. Vincent) is the furthest southwest point of Europe that points out into the ocean at the bottom of Portugal. But the first stop was Sagres (pronounced Saw-gresh). Sagres is slightly east but further south of Cape St.Vincent and also perched on top of towering cliffs. Boldly guarding the cliffs is Sagres Fortress which was built in the 1400’s to protect against any potential invaders from north Africa. It’s quite a hike all the way around the promontory but well worth the walk. There were fishermen pitting their luck against the sea and the 200 feet high cliffs but as we watched one fisherman won the lottery. After much winding of line he pulled up a nice silver fish - dinner ... read more

If you are going to go anywhere you might as well try to build in a few things to the trip to make it worthwhile . We drove back down the narrow toll road arriving back at the parking near to the toll booth. The rather large young lad was out again. In between catching motorists and charging them to drive the toll road he was talking to what must have been locals . I did not envy his job sitting on a cold day in a shed . It could be miserable, wet and lonely . He would need to see three cars an hour to make up his hourly wage . I doubted he would see many through the day in the middle of winter . We parked up and headed for the medieval ... read more