travel tales
Travel Notes 3: Water Wisdom
01/January/2007 13:06 .Permalink
Disembarking in Venice you are confronted with an Inconvenient Truth. The place is sinking. If Al Gore is only 20% right, then this city´s visitors will need more than a pair of Wellington Boots to move around.
In a sense, Venice is the innocent victim in the global warming scenario; it is a pedestrianized place where people walk everywhere, and pause to talk or take a coffee. It is a place where there are no cars, no car exhaust fumes and no parking problems. The streets are clean and there to serve the community, not the vehicles. There are no parking wardens, zebra crossing nor traffic lights. It has no noise pollution and is a example perhaps of how cities can survive without the omnipresence of the car.
And it is trying to develop public awareness about the imminent ecological issues - the serious subsiding problems, rising water levels etc.
And will an exhibition be enough? Or will it be the eventual sight of tourists wearing snorkels to travel through the city that finally pushes the authorities to take a more realistic step?
Read:The economics of climate change - Nicholas Stern
Watch: An Inconvenient truth - Al Gore
Buy: Wellingtons and snorkel with waterproof ipod holder.
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Travel Notes 2:The Missing Tapa
26/December/2006 13:06 .Permalink
How wonderful to sit inside any bar or restaurant for a while and not leave 20 mins later stinking of an un-emptied ashtray. How is it that this country can abide by a ban on smoking in bars when Spain goes out of its way to get round such legislation. And what does this say about its people?
Are Spaniards less law-abiding? Or is it that they just have a healthy disregard for laws?
Smoke free or not, I do miss a tapa with my drink. Oh for a tapa lojeña of deep fried pimientos in batter, or caviar and brie on small toasts or even just uncarved simple plate of olives. Some plates serve wu-wei, others just are.
And what of the coffee in Italy? Cappuchino or expresso or latte machiado?
Perhaps Im just too set in my ways now. I find the cappuchino mostly froth hiding a small pool of luke warm milk. The Expresso, a teaspoon of concentrated caffeine, and the latte - just a litre of hot milk that has been merely shown, rather than brewed inside a coffee pot.
Maybe I´m being to harsh. But the Monk sought the perfect manchada amongst the gondole gente of the north - but returned sin exito.
Travel Notes 1: In search of the perfect Expresso
20/December/2006 13:05 .Permalink
Xmas and New Year in a new town can be exciting and novel, or it can be depressing and lonely. Having moved into new towns before it is so often the later, so we have fled to Italy to visit distant family and to search for the perfect expresso.
Granada recently started a new flight to Milan, and we caught the opening offer for just 1 euro! Little did we suspect that there were hidden costs. Low priced flights are such a scam when you take into consideration the return flights, taxes, enforced overnight accommodation etc the price turns a tad higher.
Heres how the price rose on the RyanAir ad from just 2 euros:
2 x 1 euro tickets = 2 euros
Airport taxes and fees = 50
2 x coffees = 52.40
2 Bottles of water
(only purchasable from Dept. Lounge) = 56
Bus to Milan centre = 64
Arrival at Hotel by 12midnight = 124
2 x return flights at 65 each = 254
So our total costs from a 1 euro flight to Milan
for two people worked out at 254 euros due to the
late arrival time and added extras. Not such a bargain after all!
E per favore? Why were all the announcements on the plane in English when we were traveling from Spain to Italy?
Ciao
Play: Amorie by Dean Martin