Arcticterntalk.org

The blog of a travelling psychiatrist and football lover. Who happens to be a halfway decent photographer. Takes a cynical view of the world

Archive for the tag “aviation”

23 Jul 2013

Aqualand Torremolinos- A Place to avoid in the summer


Aqualand is a great water park, make no mistake. However before yesterday we had only visited in May/June time. Yesterday it was an awful experience and really ought to consider a few aspects of its functioning.

  1. Firstly, car park was small and full meaning that most cars had to park on an odd dusty verge. cost 1 euro
  2. Cost to get in is high 26 euros and one becomes at adult at 10 years of age here!
  3. Pay extra for security locker.  5 euros
  4. Pay extra if you want your own ring ( if you can get one that is), 12 euros
  5. Pay extra for sunbed ( if you can get one).  7 euros for a pair
  6. Pay hideous amounts for ice creams, like 3.30 for a Magnum equivalent
  7. Then queue continuosly for 4 hours for 4 rides!  Something like 20 euros per ride!!

Facilities are good but go there out of season next time. We are. Last comment would be that on a positive side places like this are great for employment. Spain has youth unemployment rates of around 57%, and most of the staff here were not only nice but certaintly under 25 years.

Aqualand. Torremolinos

Aqualand. Torremolinos

IMG-20130722-00088

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13 Jun 2013
2 Comments

Photographic Competition. Please help us judge!


The 12- year old went to Marwell zoo on an educational school trip recently and having been allowed to take their cameras they can enter into a form competition only one photo each. But which one? We have narrowed them down to this selection and would be interested to know which one you think she should enter.  The entrants are

  1. Penguin
  2. Meerkat
  3. Amur Leopard
  4. Giraffe

P1013867 copy P1013894 P1013898P1013911f P1013911fl P1013926

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09 Jun 2013

Benalmadena Costa. No signs of unemployment here in Spain.


Mariano Rajoy, the Spanish conservative prime minister, is duly announcing to those who will listen that despite unemployment rates of 27%, that rise to 57% amongst the youth, that the worst is over. What this translates to is that unemployment will fall to 25% by 2016. Not overly encouraging. Although not an expert on the economic aspects of Andalucia I have to report based on a week in Benalmadena that there was no evidence of massive unemployment. That observation has to be caveated by the fact that I was hardly looking for unemployed Spanish youth whilst lounging on the beach. There was a single eastern european beggar outside Mercadona ( the Spanish Tesco equivalent). What was obvious though was that there were far fewer British expats and tourists there than before, a linear annual decline. Fewer English type restaurants and bars, and where these had closed down they were replaced by Spanish bars. As a consequence presumably of all this, less tourists and more indigenous Spainish, prices have fallen considerably. A beer would cost 1-2 euros. In the best bar along the beach side Palm 5, a beer cost less than 2 euros. Glass of wine, and thats of a proper size, was 1-2 euros.

The only clear evidence of economic recession was the absence of building of flats and apartments. But frankly the rate they were building 5 years ago was ridiculous. Benalmadena costa may be a nice place but not that nice. But it is not Monaco! Outside our apartment there is a crane towering over a half finished block of apartments. This in itself is not exciting but when put into context that I have taken the same photograph now for 5 years. That crane has not moved in 5 years. The half finished block remains unfinished and I imagine will look just like that next year.

 

Benalmar Playa

Benalmar Playa

IMG_1941

Benalmadena Costa

Benalmadena Costa

IMG_1894

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18 May 2013

Batalha Monastery


Batalha monastery is in Batalha around 130 kms from Lisbon along a nice toll autoroute. In fact it is really the only major thing in Batalha. There is a nice hotel Villa Batalha and some nice restaurants, but without the monastery there is little to entice visitors. You cannot miss the monastery as it towers over the town and is a great landmark to find your way around.

The building took over 100 years to build starting in 1336 and represented the commemoration of a battle. An earthquake in 1775 did some damage and pillaging Napoleonic soldiers did rather more in 1811 but the restoration began in 1840 and was added to UNESCO world heritage sites in 1983. To view all the various segments takes around 2 hours and some degree of internal sat-nav. The Portuguese are not recognised for their signage skills and the first difficulty one has is finding the way in. The second one is to work out that although entrance to the main Nave is free, to get into all the interesting parts costs a mere 6 euros, but no-one actually tells you this. The ticket desk is in fact just that, a desk in the corner.  The interior is beautiful. There are many tombs and chapels and there is little point me detailing these as Wikipaedia does a wonderful job. I will only focus on the curious architecture around the monastery. Roads seem unfinished. Piles of sand seem randomly deposited on the road blocking the way for example to the only hotel in the town. The town has great sports complexes, football grounds, swimming pools and even an athletic track. What seemed missing was people. The place other than a few dozen tourists was empty. Cafes and restaurants all with nice smelling foods were essentially empty. Maybe the rain did not help. This is a place worth visiting. A night in the Hotel Villa Batalha. A dinner in a restaurant . A 2 hour visit to the monastery and maybe some coffee and people watching in the squares. I like this place. Even the graffiti is worth looking at.

Woman Sleeping outside a shop. Presumably not dead

Woman Sleeping outside a shop. Presumably not dead

 

Batalha Monastery

Batalha Monastery

Batalha Monastery

Batalha Monastery

 

Piles of random sand in random roads in Batalha

Piles of random sand in random roads in Batalha

 

Batalha Monastery

Batalha Monastery

 

Soldiers in Batalha Monastery

Soldiers in Batalha Monastery

 

Batalha Monastery

Batalha Monastery

 

Batalha Monastery Soldier

Batalha Monastery Soldier

 

Batalha Monastery

Batalha Monastery

 

Batalha Monastery

Batalha Monastery

 

IMG_1691Graffiti at the Monastery of Batalha

Graffiti at the Monastery of BatalhaIMG_1693
Batalha Tree

Batalha Tree

Batalha Monastery

Batalha Monastery

Batalha Monastery

Batalha Monastery

Batalha Monastery

Batalha Monastery

 

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18 May 2013

Reflections from Portugal


Portugal is not a country that UK folks travel widely to. Maybe a trip to the Algarve or a cruising stop in Lisbon. After a short trip there I must report that this is a great country to visit and remarkably cheap. Arriving at Lisbon airport one is greeted by a slightly run down airport that is undergoing some sort of renovation but this is not Terminal 5. The facilities are a little jaded. Drving out of the airport one is in an industrial hinterland where some familiar and some unfamiliar names can be seen. But it is when one gets 30 kms outside Lisbon that the scenery becomes  green and old castles can start to be seen. There are mainly toll roads so driving 130 kms from Lisbon to Batalha will cost around 9 euros. The Portuegese in fact have invented the technology that allows a little electronic tag on the car windscreen that means that queueing at toll booths can be a thing of the past. The striking observations are what a hilly and mountainous country Portugal is. Just all up and down. Everywhere. The people are friendly but not all speak English. Some understand a lot but cannot speak much, but most smile a lot. Most things seem cheap. Around £1 buys you a bottle of water in a hotel room that would be double that in UK. Generally everywhere is more relaxed. On arrival at the hotel there is no interrogation about credit card etc, in fact no-one asked. Another quaint difference is that food is often served lukewarm rather than hot. Scrambled eggs and bacon at breakfast were if I were kind warm. I only got to stay in one hotel Villa Batalha hotel in Batalha. An incredibly good hotel, friendly, comfortable and with nice chairs and furniture all around, so no need to sit in a reception area such as is the norm in UK. The most striking observation however is that there are so few people around, now to put this into context this was 130 kms from Lisbon. But few cars, few people, little noise, nice looking sports facilities and so on. A place that is well worth coming, however one night in Batalha would be enough. Finally back at Lisbon airport, the airport lounges are distinctly not UK. A moany sort of woman asked for some healthy food, the stern girl said  “you can have an apple”, and meant it! A woman in Batalha was either dead or sleeping soundly outside presumably her souvenir shop, now that something we do not see in Primark or Costa!

Batalha

Batalha

Woman Sleeping outside a shop. Presumably not dead
Woman Sleeping outside a shop. Presumably not dead

 

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31 Mar 2013

Met Police 1 Carshalton 0


This year has been a good one for Met Police as they sit on the verges of the Ryman Premier play offs. To those not familiar with non-league football, this is 3 promotions below the football league. The ground is a decent small ground near Thames Ditton with a car park and is on the same grounds as the social club for the Met Police. The only problem are small crowds and in fact only 115 arrived for this game and maybe 20 of those were visibly from Carshalton.

The game was as one-sided as a 1-0 game ever could be. Met Police missed a penalty, hit the bar and scored a single goal early in the second half. Realistically this was the last chance saloon for Carshalton who now can look forward to relegation with certainty. The season has been complex for them, with some decent, though apparently highly paid players moving on. One who will certainly move is their keeper Nick Hamann, the best keeper in this league and he kept Carshalton in the game in the first half with a series of superb saves. A conference level keeper in my humble view.

Nathaniel PinneyIMG_9968IMG_0086IMG_0095IMG_0033Met PoliceIMG_0011Goal

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26 Mar 2013

Scotland from 10,000 feet


Just occasionally a flight is interesting. Sometimes the cabaret that some passengers bring, sometimes the crew but also sometimes the view. Flying into Edinburgh yesterday it was fascinating to see the snow. There was a fair amount from the Borders up to south of Edinburgh and then none at all. Edinburgh seemed devoid of its fair share of snow. Today also driving up to Perth and Stirling, there were areas that looked whited out and areas that were luscious green, that seemed to have also missed the snow. I suspect there are complex geographical reasons that will remain hidden from me till eternity.

View from plane

View from plane

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25 Mar 2013
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The Hoopoe bird


To come across this bird twice in a month is quite co-incidental .The first time was when the 12-year old conned me into buying a game called ” bird bingo”. This as it suggests is bingo but instead of numbers one pulls types of birds out a bag. Needless to say I never win just as with normal bingo. There were many exotic and odd birds in this game and in fact only a very few that  I vaguely recognised. The Hoopoe bird caught my eye with an interesting name and exotic looks.

the second visitation of this bird was in Dubai. Peering over my hotel balcony I heard some rustling noises and caught a shadow under a tree. On closer inspection it was a Hoopoe bird. The third visitation was when walking around the grounds of the hotel, I saw one maybe 10 yards away, too far to get a photo on a Blackberry, so these photos are not mine but do demonstrate exactly how this wonderful bird looks. When it flies it has a low trajectory but takes off rather fast. I have chosen a few photos that demonstrate well what the bird really does look like.

They eat mainly insects and live in usually warm climates, but did 30 years ago appear in Southern England. Wikipaedia is enlightening as always. These are a few facts that caught my eye.

In the Bible, Leviticus 11:13–19, hoopoes were listed among the animals that are detestable and should not be eaten. They are also listed in Deuteronomy (14:18) as not kosher. The Hoopoe was chosen as the national bird of Israel in May 2008 in conjunction with the country’s 60th anniversary, following a national survey of 155,000 citizens, outpolling the White-spectacled Bulbul. It is also the state-bird of Punjab province of India. The Hoopoe appears on the Logo of the University of Johannesburg, and is the official mascot of the University’s sports. The municipality of Armstedt, Germany has a hoopoe in its coat of arms.

bird common_hoopoe_09.03.13_a.das images

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21 Mar 2013

Dubai in the United Arab Emirates


Sometimes travelling for work has its pleasures and this is one such occasion. A routine British Airways flight was turned into a great experience by being upgraded to first class. Nice service and nice staff. Worth paying for? Definitely not. Save your money for your hotel room in Dubai. This hotel The Park Hyatt is superb. every little thing is special. The free coffee machine in the room, the two Danish Pastries left for an early morning arrival, the staff showing me how various things work in the room ( like the coffee machine). The balcony overlooks the marina and at sunset looks gorgeous. Not quite a Cayman Islands sunset but not too shabby either.

The Immigration process was not too bad either. Decent numbers of officials, quick entry and then quick exit from the airport. Terminal 5 please take notice.  Busy enough but not too chaotic, so all in all a great first impression. Some unusual birds pecking away on the lawn next the marina, bizarre colourings, have no idea what they are. Now wishing that I had brought my cameras…….

But work to do, an ADHD talk to write. Marina View from Park Hyatt Dubai Black Image Dubai Marina Marina Sunset Balcony View copy Sunset Balcony View

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18 Nov 2012

Ice Dancing on Navigator of the Seas


Ice Dancing was not actually what I had expected to see on a short cruise aboard Navigator of the Seas, but there was an ice rink and there was a show. A real challenge to get photographs essentially almost in the dark, but working with high ISO speed and trwating the skaters as though they were Formula 1 racing cars helped. Anyway a few shots from what was truly a brilliant spectacle that was enthralling.

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