Jan 5
¿Puedo ayudarte, cariño? – Can I help you, Darling?
I was stunned. No one on the Spanish mainland had ever addressed me as such, least of all a stranger in a sports shop. “¿Tenéis bañadores?” I asked. In my haste to come I had forgotten to pack a pair of swimming trunks. She sauntered over to a nearby clothes rack and pointed to a trio of brightly coloured briefs. “We only have these ones…” Read more
Dec 23
What do you do when you get a 5-day weekend in early December? For those of us in Salamanca, the answer was obvious: plan a brilliant escape to the Canaries. Read more
Dec 2
I could never claim to be a morning person, but somehow my last day in Lisbon began shortly before 8am with some soft rays of sunshine peeking through the shutters. Outside, a blue sky beckoned and the scene resounded with a silence I had not experienced since arriving in the city. It was Monday morning on a public holiday and the streets were practically deserted. Read more
Nov 29
Early on a Sunday morning, a red van pulled up to our hostel for the beginning of a 7-hour adventure. The weather was finally beginning to clear up and we had booked ourselves on the “X-Day Trip”, run by an alternative tour company with the best name I’d seen in a long time. Headed by Bruno, a graphic designer turned tour operator, We Hate Tourism Tours was hatched when he noticed that young visitors were leaving Lisbon without having seen many of its best parts. Read more
Nov 21
As the train crossed the border from Spain to Portugal, we began to get the sense that we had passed over into the unknown. Not only was the language different, but the scenery was turning increasing shades of green and our train began to rock from side to side. Read more
Nov 10
The Spanish call it the “City of Song and Saints”. Situated in the wilds of Castilla y León, and within easy reach of Madrid, the historic town of Ávila is a prime destination for a weekend day trip. Recently a friend of mine described it as a miniature version of Carcassonne – that legendary walled city in the south of France – and within 30 seconds I was sold. Read more
Oct 26
It’s 10am on a chilly Saturday morning and I am standing in the middle of Plaza Mayor, at the heart of Salamanca’s historic centre. Under a cloudless sky the morning light falls gently onto the carved stone facades and wrought iron balconies. Composed, elegant and lavishly decorated, it is the ultimate Plaza Mayor, easily besting the more famous one in Madrid. Read more
Aug 21
The end of my whirlwind tour around Western Europe was a signal that my life was about to take a very different course. After 4½ years of study, I was going to leave England for good. Read more
After two days of exploring Edinburgh, I was ready to seek some form of relief from the tourist hordes. So we jumped aboard a train bound for Stirling, a small historic city just 50-55 minutes away. Read more
Aug 11
After the tranquility of Oban and the Western Isles, Edinburgh seemed like a world away in comparison. Scotland’s pulsating capital is often regarded as one of Europe’s most beautiful cities, so it comes as no surprise that it is such a major tourist draw. Read more
Plus Ultra 