Travel notes

Cinque Terre gets a lot of tourist attention. We think it probably deserves it. A couple of times we just stopped in our tracks to confirm with each other it was pretty special. We walked four of the five towns and it was hard to leave for fear of never seeing it again. We were both exhausted though. Vicki commented that each section was like the Escarpment Walk at home (Due Terre) with steep ascents and descents. It's still low season so the ticket to walk the track is a bit cheaper. It includes train and bus transfers. You could plan something quite elaborate if you needed to but we just took the train to the far end and walked back to the start of the final section. The section we missed had to be walked in one direction only (opposite to our direction) and also you have to pay a surcharge and book a time. That's for the flat track between the two towns, or alternatively you can walk up and over the hill in any direction, like the rest of the walk, for no extra charge. Eithe...

I have to say that so far our experience on the Italian trains has been premo. Ticketing is online, the information at the stations is easy to follow and the trains have been comfortable. I also have to admit that I felt an unexpected hint of excitement as we walked from Pisa Centrale towards the leaning tower and we started to catch the odd glimpse. It's one of the symbol's of Italy we have known all our lives. Pisa beyond the tower seems like a nice town. A view crossing the river Arno in Pisa (same river that passes through Florence). We poked our heads into the little church on the right. The train journey from Pisa to La Spezia was very picturesque. Lots of small towns on hill tops and rural scenes and a decent mountain range. I tried to capture this in photos from the train but it didn't work very well on the whole. Carrara was one of the stops. Known for its marble. The plan from La Spezia is to walk the very touristic ...

Our hotel doesn't have breakfast facilities so we had to make do with some supermarket fruit, yogurt and nuts in our room. We had booked tickets for the Ufizzi with an entry time of 9:00 am. They stagger visitors across the day. We managed a solid 3 hours in the gallery. I think my take away favourites would be the collection of marble sculpture. They had some heavy hitters from the art world on show too. Please look away if you don't want to be confronted with male appendages Quite liked this Da Vinci A man with curly hair and a beard Pretty impressive galleries  Caravaggio Medusa was popular with the visitors Roman emporers were a plenty. Claudius. Also the view from the gallery was a good one After some food we walked to the Piazzale Michelangelo that looks down over Florence A copy of David is there. We didn't visit the original  Actually he turns up in a ...

Our flight to Bologna was mid afternoon so we decided to explore the southern bank of the Douro river. This is the location where most of the big port makers welcome you on tours. Vicki pulled me through this area down to the marina near the river mouth. It was a worthwhile trip as it took us slightly outside the tourist bubble. Local fishmen fixing nets and restauranteurs with fish in ice bins and charcoal barbeques on the go. We also stumbled on to a Lavadouro publico which is a communal laundry area.  We arrived mid evening at our Bolonga accommodation. Ryanair provided an efficient transfer but both Vicki and I think they specialise in making you uncomfortable. Everything is awkward angles, hard surfaces and confronting colours. No drama's of course on a short hop. Bologna is rather nice. We should maybe have given it an extra day. Anyway we're in Florence which is very over the top. The Italians so far have been very welcoming of us. I think I may still have a hangover fro...

A change of pace today. We booked a guided tour of Portugal's only national park. It's about 100km from Porto. Our tour consisted of a Citreon people mover, 2 x guides, 2 x Brits from London, 2 x Americans from Florida and us of course. We mostly avoided talking politics, especially with the Floridians. Peneda-Geres is beautiful of course. A national park here is a bit different to what we think of back home. It has streets and villages and farms etc. This has to be expected given human habitation was lots-BC.  The tour was a bit of a highlights trip with the odd waterfall, strategic outlook and a lunch provided in a small village with a farm house style setting. The food was so good. We enjoyed a local "Green wine" or Vino Verde. Not sure if we do this at home, but we should. The final act was a shot of "Fire water", another Portuguese style drink. The guide made us do this. We are howling like wolves. This village has history with the native wolves. ...

It was a beautiful morning so we decided to walk down the north bank of the Douro to the river mouth. We noticed quite a few back packers with walking poles and a quick search told us why. This is part of a very popular pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in the north. It was refreshing to be greeted by the wild Atlantic.  A view of the route from the park opposite our hotel Evidence that we made it Unverified, but we encountered Pohutukawa in Foz do Douro (the beach area near the river mouth). Eagle eyed Vicki. Local fisherman have adapted to their conditions fashioning rod holders from screw clamps Local fish have adapted to their conditions by avoiding the fishing spots The view the other way from our park Wellington residents concerned about the safety of our waterfront should avoid Porto. There's endless opportunity to come to grief here.

Intercity trains in Portugal aren't wrapped in security like Spain. You just go to the platform and board the train. As we pulled into Porto, one of my few memories of a previous visit came as we crossed high above the Douro river looking down across the city. We briefly tried to be old school back packers and transfer to our accommodation via the metro but the Wise cards didn't seem to validate at the payment gates. Bolt was way easier. Antonio drove us to our hotel for 5 Euros. The hotel is four star which is over the top for us. Anyway, Porto is somehow just cool. We spent our first morning catching up on our washing and then walked for hours visiting the must sees. Various vantage points look out over the old part of town  A much photographed railway station foyer Tiling on the churches is nice. The 76 metre tower on this church is on the list of things to climb. The food offerings are overwhelming. We're developing a patt...