Things I learned this weekend

Pizza in Italy looks nothing like pizza in other countries. This can be both good and bad.

A hot chocolate and small diet coke at St Mark's Square in Venice will set you back 30 euros, service not included (that's 27 GBP or 45 USD).

Italian ice-cream is THE BEST.

Milan is one huge shopping centre - even people with no intention to shop (and no money) will be tempted.

Greetings from Italy xxx

Island hopping

The Cyclades are an island group in the Aegean Sea, south-east of mainland Greece. There are 220 islands in total, most of them uninhabited. The islands are peaks of a submerged mountain range; two of them, Milos and Santorini, are volcanic. They are distinguished by their unique cubic architecture, which is not found anywhere else in Greece.

These are the islands I visited this summer.**

Syros - the capital of the Cyclades


Paros - windsurfers love it


Naxos - the largest of the Cyclades


Ios - Backpacker central


Mykonos - party island for people with money


Santorini - ideal for honeymooners and lovey doveys


** OK, so I didn't set foot on each one of them, but the boat stopped close enough for me to take photos from the deck, which is almost as good. I've actually been to all of them over the years, except for Ios. Maybe next year...

Channel hopping

At precisely 9:10 AM on 25 August 1919, an Airco DH4A single-engine biplane owned by Aircraft Travel & Transport (a predecessor of British Airways) left Hounslow Heath, a few miles east of Heathrow Airport, bound for Le Bourget Airport, Paris. It was the beginning of the world's first regular daily scheduled international commercial passenger, goods and mail service by air.

Piloted by Lieutenant EH "Bill" Lawford and carrying just one passenger - London Evening Standard journalist George Stevenson - plus a cargo of newspapers, several brace of grouse and "a considerable number of jars of Devonshire cream", this pioneering flight took two hours and 40 minutes, covering the journey non-stop at almost 100 miles an hour.

The DH1A was powered by a single Rolls-Royce Eagle engine. For the crossing of the English Channel, the aircraft climbed to an altitude of 5,000ft, which was considered a safe height for a single-engined aircraft that had been in military service.


These days, a BA Airbus will travel from Heathrow to Paris Charles de Gaulle in just 70 minutes, whereas the Eurostar train service via the Channel Tunnel takes 2 hours and 20 minutes (that's 20 minutes less than the 1919 flight).

It's amazing to think what a difference 90 years have made to the way we travel.

This post was based on an article of the same title in the August 09 issue of High Life, BA's inflight magazine.

Back from Dubai

What are the chances of two girls taking the exact same book on holiday? Pretty high, it would seem.

I liked: Flying cattle class (it was soooo cheap). The warm weather. The food. The 5* hotels. Sunbathing in March. The shopping malls. The architecture. The cosmopolitan feel of the place. Staying with a local who knew all the best haunts (thank you Kosta). The company :-)

I didn't care much for: Flying cattle class (it wasn't cheerful). The sand storms. The traffic. The driving skills of the locals. It's one huge building site.

I was shocked by: The weak pound. Ouch.

I was disappointed by: Afternoon tea at the Burj Al Arab - way over hyped.

I was surprised by: How happy I was to return to England. No sand storms in northern Europe, so you can breathe the air.

Would I go back? You bet!

Wordless Wednesday 55

Guess where? Guess what?

Now updated with answers :-)

Where was I last week?


Congratulations to those of you who guessed! Yes, I was in Athens. What you see in this photo is not the Parthenon, but a view of the Thisseion area from the Acropolis. From left to right you can see the Temple of Hephaestus, the Ancient Agora (or rather what's left of it - the pillars standing in a row) and the church of the Holy Apostles (Agii Apostoli). The expanse of cement in the background is the modern city of Athens.

And, most importantly, what did I do while I was there?


Oh yes, none of you guessed but I did go swimming. Twice. The weather was extremely mild for early November (24-25C during the day) and the water still warm from summer, and it was beautiful. When I booked my flights, the best I'd hoped for was T-shirt weather. Instead, what we got resembled late spring and we just couldn't resist taking advantage to lie in the sun and take a dip in the sea. Not just one dip either, we were in the water for over an hour on the first day and a good 40 minutes on the second day. The glorious weather didn't last, but it was still quite warm (well, compared to London) for the rest of our stay, never falling below 16C and not a drop of rain either.

The photo was taken in Glyfada, 30 mins drive from the centre of Athens, but in the end we swam a bit further down the coast (Vouliagmeni and Varkiza, for those in the know).

How many top travel destinations have you been to?

Tripadvisor, the travel information website and source of all knowledge for modern-day tourists, published today their 2008 Travellers' Choice Destinations Awards, which include a Top 100 list of destinations from around the world, and Top 25 lists for the US, Europe, Asia, South Pacific, Latin America/Carribbean, South America, Africa and Canada.

According to them, the 25 best destinations in the whole world are:

1. Milford Sound - New Zealand
2. Queenstown - New Zealand
3. Philipsburg - St Maarten
4. Cayo Largo - Cuba
5. Rhodes - Greece
6. Charlotte Amalie - St Thomas, US Virgin Islands
7. Cruz Bay - St John, US Virgin Islands
8. Bridgetown - Barbados
9. Banff - Alberta, Canada
10. Lake Tahoe - California, US
11. Salzburg - Austria (finally, a destination I've been to!)
12. Cape Town - South Africa
13. Amalfi - Italy
14. Bath - England
15. Siena - Italy
16. Victoria - British Columbia, Canada
17. Hamilton - Bermuda
18. Dingle - Ireland
19. Lake Louise - Alberta, Canada
20. Bruges - Belgium
21. Marigot - St Martin
22. Sydney - Australia
23. Cairns - Australia
24. Kyoto - Japan
25. Lucerne - Switzerland

Other popular european destinations are listed further down, such as Edinburgh at no. 27, Paris at no. 57, Prague at no. 62, Amsterdam at no. 80, London at no. 84, Copenhagen at no. 86 and Barcelona at no. 90.

Now, I don't know how the results were compiled, but it seems to me that the sample was largely American/Canadian, as I've not even heard of most of these places, let alone been to them. Of the places I know, I'm baffled by Salzburg's popularity - I wouldn't in a million years consider it more interesting than Paris, Bath, Edinburgh, London, Barcelona, Brugge or any number of other destinations. I guess there's no accounting for taste, eh?

I'm also ashamed to admit that I've not been to the one and only Greek destination to make the Top 100 Worldwide and Top 25 Europe lists - the island of Rhodes! We were supposed to go there on our honeymoon a few years back but had to change our plans at the last minute due to a travel agent mix up. I never thought it was such a big deal, but now I'm wondering if it's perhaps time to reconsider our summer travel options ;-)

A weekend trip to Paris

The Louvre Museum

Two weeks ago my friend Sandi and I spent a chill out weekend in Paris. We'd been expecting it to be cold and wet, and had braced ourselves for endless hours in department stores and museums. Instead, we woke up on Saturday morning to bright sunshine which lasted until mid afternoon, so we bought tickets for the open top tour bus and decided to leave the museums for another time.

As it happens we managed to see quite a lot of the city in one day: the Louvre, Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower, the Latin Quarter, the Champs-Elysées, Saint Germain des Pres and everything in between.

Place de la Concorde

Parisian driving :-)

Buskers at the Ile de la Cité

Notre Dame cathedral

The Eiffel Tower at sunset

We wandered round Saint Germain and the Champs-Elysées and even caught a "just married" couple being photographed in front of the Arc de Triomphe. How special was that?

Congratulations, whoever you are!

Between sightseeing tours, we managed to fit in quick trips to Sephora and Fnac for supplies of cosmetics and DVDs, although we were unsuccessful in finding a LV bag for Sandi (apparently out of stock!!) and Diptyque candles for me (couldn't find the shop). We didn't have much luck with the cake shops either - Ladurée was busy at the time we visited and we never made it to Stohrer. Maybe next time.

TRAGEDY

We did have some yummy food though. Friday night dinner at L'Avenue (118 € for two risottos, two small glasses of wine and two giant desserts, but *so* worth it), Saturday lunch overlooking the Louvre courtyard at Café Marly, scrummy Berthillon ice-cream at the trendy Ile Saint-Louis, and Saturday dinner with friends at Le Relais de l'Entrecôte followed by drinks till late. It was gone 3 AM by the time we got back to the hotel and 7 hours later I was meeting another friend for hot chocolate at the Hotel Meurice. Life's tough in the fast lane.

The chocolate eclair was clearly happy to see Sandi

Club sandwich and croque-madame at Café Marly

Scrummy Berthillon ice-cream

Steak and fries at Le Relais de l'Entrecôte

Anyone for seconds?

All in all, a very relaxing weekend of good food, good shops and good company, and the sightseeing wasn't bad either ;-)

Sandi, we must do it again soon xxx

A little snow goes a long way

Hubby's just got back from a week's skiing in Les 3 Vallées area in France. He went with his sister and brother-in-law as I'm not too keen on skiing. I like mountains and I love snow, but I'd rather spend my holidays lounging in the sunshine than freezing cold on the slopes. Every time he goes away I think I might go with him this once, but never have so far. Having seen his photos from this year's trip to Méribel, I'm glad I didn't as there was more cloud than snow around. I don't feel anywhere near as jealous as I feel when he shows me photos of bright blue skies and thick white snow.


Still, a little snow obviously goes a long way, as they managed to ski every day they were there. The view from the room looks OK too.


Maybe next year...

Back to reality with a thud

Greece was great - sunny and hot - just perfect for lounging by the pool or swimming in the sea.

England, on the other hand, is just as miserable and wet as I left it. At least Harry Potter is keeping me company.

I can hear the rain outside. It's been pouring down all evening. I wish I was sailing round the Med on a pirate ship instead. Is there a spell for this kind of thing, I wonder?

Camping is a 3-star hotel

Many thanks to Gigi for donating this photo.

I guess it's fair to say that I'm not overly keen on camping. I can't see the attraction of sleeping on the floor, surrounded by creepy crawlies, separated from the great outdoors by nothing more substantial than a piece of cloth and having to share a bathroom with a load of strangers to boot. Not when I could have a proper bed, a concrete roof over my head and an en-suite bathroom.

I've been camping once - in Cornwall, during a rare, hot summer a few years back. It was OK. We had a double sleeping bag, bedsheets that fitted into it like a pocket (so the creepy crawlies couldn't crawl in) and proper pillows. The bar was lively, the atmosphere was good, the toilets clean. I spent most of my time in the car. My parents subjected my brother and me to a lot of car travel when we were kids. As a result, I'm quite happy in a car. Much happier than I am in a tent.

Since that trip to Cornwall I've not been anywhere near a campsite. However, I've stayed in several 3-star hotels, B&B's, rooms-to-rent and a cabana on a beach near Athens (now that was what I call camping: a little square room on the beach with a thick mattress on decking instead of a proper bed, air con, CD player, mini fridge, plasma TV with DVD player, en suite bathroom with jacuzzi shower, and a private porch with loungers - all within a short walk from bars, restaurants, cafes and ice-cream parlours).

So it was with great interest that I read about a campsite (in Cornwall, as it happens) where the tents are fully furnished. Hurray! Civilisation at last! They've got with real beds, tea lanterns, bedside tables, solar-powered lamps, chest of drawers, batik throws and wall hangings. You also have your own kitchen tent, which I'm not too excited about (your own kitchen implies you have to do your own cooking, and surely this defies the purpose of going on holiday?) but I suppose it's handy for making tea and coffee standing up as opposed to sitting cross-legged on the grass next to the creepy crawlies.

Even so, personally, if I went camping again (which is a big if anyway) I'd rather go in a caravan. I think I'd be quite happy in one like this:

Paris in the spring

Sunning ourselves at the Louvre on Saturday afternoon.


Trying (and failing) to keep dry at the Ile St Louis on Sunday evening.

It's amazing what difference 24 hours can make...

Flying is such fun not

I was planning to write a long post detailing my journey back from Greece, but I ran out of steam before I got round to it. The highlights of the story are as follows: my flight left Athens late due to the late departure of the plane on its outward journey, but we managed to arrive at Heathrow more-or-less on time (and most importantly, without first going round and round in a holding pattern over London, as is sometimes the case). The food on the plane was edible and the crew not too irritating. So far so good.

On arrival at Heathrow, we spent 20 minutes taxing through the airport, because it's impossible to land anywhere near your allocated parking spot - that would be too efficient. Instead you land as far away as possible and then taxi all the way back to where you should have been. We finally arrive at said parking spot to find it occupied by another plane. Once this plane vacated the spot, we still couldn't move, as someone had to come and take away an unidentified object which was on the ground in front of our plane, apparently preventing us from moving the final 40-50 feet. Grrrr.

Patience, as we all know, is a virtue. Sadly it's a virtue I don't possess. Especially after a cramped 3+ hour flight, when I'm still fastened onto my seat while merrily rolling round Heathrow airport. To add to our frustration, the purser made an announcement informing us that he "could hear mobile phones being turned on and could we put them away immediately as the engines were still on". Tsk tsk tsk. Don't people know about the silent mode?

Once the object was removed from the ground, we rolled forward just a little, docked, the doors were turned to manual & cross-checked, and we were finally let out to find our way to the allocated arrivals area at the other side of the airport (possibly the same side we originally landed at). I walked as fast as I could and it still took me a good 20 minutes to reach the baggage reclaim area (by comparison, when I arrived in Athens it took me 15 minutes to leave the plane, go through passport control, pick up my luggage and find a cafe to sit and have a drink). This however is Heathrow, and fifteen minutes will get you nowhere. Still, as it was now almost an hour since we'd landed, I figured our luggage would already be going round the carousel, but no such luck. There wasn't even a reclaim belt allocated to our flight, so we patiently waited under the "Which Reclaim" boards, along with scores of other hapless passengers who looked equally jaded.

To cut a long and arduous story shorter, by the time I picked up my luggage another 20 minutes or so later, and once more walked through the airport to the Heathrow Express platform, I'd narrowly missed one train and realised that Heathrow Express were operating a half-hourly service that day. They apologised "for any inconvenience caused" but what good was that to me, when I had to wait 27 minutes before I could board another train? Not to mention it was almost 11 PM by that time (or 1 AM in Greek time), I'd been in transit for 7.5 hours and I was getting tired, thirsty and increasingly fed up.

So. I was going to tell you all this (in even more detail) because it pisses me off that it takes me some 3+ hours to fly back from Greece and another 3+ hours to get from the airport to my home in London, and I wanted to vent. Then I heard about a couple who returned from honeymoon that same day and were stuck on their plane for an hour after it landed, as there were no steps available (been there, got the T-shirt, and totally sympathise with their predicament). To add insult to injury, they had to wait 45 minutes for their baggage to appear, and when it did, it came through on two carousels at opposite sides of the terminal. At least I was only returning from a fortnight's holiday & only had one piece of luggage.

You've got to love Heathrow.