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 “vacation”

Reflections on Vienna


In summary I really like this city. Although have not seen a great deal of the buildings or architecture, the people are nice, the ambience is warm and importantly the wine is superb. Dinner in a venue like below is not done that often.  The food is interesting and relies on veal, either served in small burgers or as Weiner Schnitzel. The streets are complex to cross to avoid meeting trams coming head on but unlike in Milan the aim of the tram is not to hit you but preferably miss you. I shall return.

Dinner Venue Vienna

Dinner Venue Vienna

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

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Benalmadena Costa

Benalmadena Costa

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Milan demonstrations against ADHD June 2013


My third and final musing over Milan. Whilst walking outside the Milan Convention Centre where an ADHD congress was taking place, a group of maybe 200 protestors aged from 5-60 years. Placards, balloons and a huge inflatable buffalo. The signs do not make sense to me but generally seemed to be protesting against ADHD. No idea why. A lively group but not really threatening at all.

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Reflections on Milan Part 2


As promised a return visit to Milan was part of the second part of my week, the original visit was a few days before. In summary I remain underwhelmed. Would I go back for a holiday? Never. Would I enjoy a day back there maybe for work? Maybe.

Lets start with the good things. One of the best meals I had for a long time was in a restaurant in the suburbs of Milan called

Refettorio

Via Dell’Orso, 2, 20122 Milan, Italy

There was no menu, although it became apparent after a while that there were maybe 3 menus on offer. The 30 euro menu, a 20 euro menu and maybe a 18 euro menu. We had the largest menu. Food and wine were superb. Nothing was less than 100% here.  You may ask what was the menu? Well let me try and describe what we had.

  1. Bowl of salad and separate bowl of mozzarella on the table with oil and excellent bread. We presumed this was the starter. Wrong
  2. Slices of thinly cut veal with a sauce maybe like thousands island? Starter? Wrong again
  3. Dessert type dish full of cold rice salad.
  4. Dinner plate full of excellent risotto, cheese and tomato sauce. At this stage we all asked if this was our main course. All food was excellent but we were getting a little embarassed that we could not finish any of our dishes.
  5. Spaghetti Bolognese. Again excellent.
  6. Chicken and vegetables. Main course! Wrong. This was one of two main courses! We at this stage said enough……we give in…….no fish main course please……
  7. Ice Cream

Wine was also excellent and I could have been fooled into thinking it was a claret.

The meal aside I found nothing to inspire me in Milan. It seemed that every street was being dug up and walking is a supreme hazard as the one place where cars do not stop are pedestrian crossings. The city seemed grubby, dirty and I saw nothing worth photographing, other than maybe standing on the tram track. Cars seemed to have no rules, overtaking,undertaking, speeding,  driving up/down one way streets, rarely stopping at pedestrian crossings, just frankly it all looked dangerous. Milan can be added to my list of places that I will not be driving in, ever.

Signs are almost absent and even somewhere like the Milan Convention Centre was not signposted. Roads all seemed designed to confuse. Cars parked at all angles in all places. If there were happy smiling faces then maybe I missed them. ImageImage

Fossilised Bird from Spain


An unusual finding while walking around a swimming pool in Southern Spain. At first I thought it was leaves and twigs in an odd pattern but then when I picked it up realised that it was a fossilised dead bird, totally preserved and totally dried out. I have a number of photos and will post a few more later this week but one to keep you going.

Fossilised Dead Bird

Fossilised Dead Bird

Reflections on Milan


View from Bedroom window. Sheets or large underwear?

View from Bedroom window. Sheets or large underwear?

This post I have to admit is a little unfair as being there for 2 days spent most of it underground in a conference room, cut off from the world seemingly. Awful telephone reception and little better wifi connection ( which at least was free). And then when one factors in a 12 hour sleep, to recover from missing a night, you can agree that my views of Milan are not exactly complete.

On balance I was not enthused about the city. The trip from Linate airport to the hotel did not inspire me and neither did the driving ability of the taxi driver, who gave a decent rendition of having ADHD. Those who are not familiar with ADHD just need to understand that the key symptoms of impulsive behaviours and/or inattention are not ideal qualities in a taxi driver in a busy city centre. The first learning was that pedestrians who step onto a crossing should consider a few things. Making a will would be obligatory and consideration to not crossing would also be a good judgement to make.

The streets were not full of colourful fashionistas nor shops and the restaurants did not make me want to jump out of the taxi. The same process was repeated on the return journey. The positives? Well certainly not the costs. Lets talk cocktails, not that I was offered any. In Spain where I was sunday night, a Pina Colada would cost 3.50 euros, and in the hotel here 11.50. The fact that they were advertising their drinks and prices in the elevator suggests they considered these prices reasonable.

On a positive note the food was good. A large lunch buffet and a meal of Salmon in breadcrumbs with aubergine that got me thinking it might make a good dinner party dish.

Rooms are always small in Italian hotels but this one really was. The view from the bedroom window was not exotic but did make my mind question whether what was hanging out was sheets or rather large underwear.

So I make my biased and unfair decision that Milan is off my holiday destination list. But lets give it a second chance as I am returning on friday and hopefully may see a little more. I may even take my camera.

Worsley Park Marriott Manchester


Not too shabby a hotel.  The entrance from the main road sweeps around through a golf course until the hotel entrance is reached. The morning of this photograph it was foggy and with a little play on the computer I ended up with this which I may well use as the title slide to one of my talks.

Worsley Park Marriott Hotel Manchester

Worsley Park Marriott Hotel Manchester

Worsley Park Marriott hotel. The mist of Manchester

Worsley Park Marriott hotel. The mist of Manchester

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

 

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

 

The Best Alien Bookmark in the world


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