Travel Archives - Page 12 of 21

Sailing along the Seine

A boat trip along the Seine was the perfect start to a day in Paris.

Having spent a long time living in London, I’m now of the belief that a proper city has to have a river running through it.

A big river.

A river that can be called the lifeblood of the city.

As London has the Thames, so Paris has the Seine. Of course, I gravitated towards it.

I saw some very crowded tour boats chugging up and down, but it was later in the day and the tourists were out in force. The following morning I made sure I was up in time to get on the first trip of the day when it was much quieter. The light was nicer too.

The trip gave me a good overview, but now I’m thinking of how nice it would be to go back and do a long a walk along the banks and explore properly.

I really enjoy walking the Thames Path (even if, after 15 years, I’m still only about a third of way along it). I wonder if there’s a Seine Path?

I’ve put my photos into a Flickr album. Click on the photo below to access it.

Paris – the aftermath

I’d already booked my trip to Paris when the attacks happened. Of course I was asked if I was still intending to go (by people who don’t know me very well) and when I said ‘yes’, asked if I was scared (by people who know me even less well). Until people started asking, the idea of cancelling hadn’t even occurred to me.

Having lived in London through two IRA campaigns, lived on the Lebanese border of Israel during the first Intifada and lived in Kinshasa during the build-up to an attempted coup to oust Mobutu, I’m not easily railroaded onto the fear wagon.

There are two kinds of risk in life: foolhardy and calculated. Although Damascus has always been high on my wishlist of places to visit, I’m not planning any trips in the forseeable future. But Paris? Come on, really?

Here are my reasons for why I considered Paris to be the safest and best possible place to visit over the Christmas and New Year period.

As one of the largest cities in the EU and with a population of nearly two and a quarter million, the statistical chances of my being involved in a terrorist attack were miniscule.
Paris had already had ‘its’ attacks. If others were to happen they’d be far more likely to be elsewhere.
Because it was so soon after the attacks security would be really high making it much less likely for further attacks to succeed.
As so many people were cancelling the city would be much quieter than usual, meaning less queues and possibly reduced prices.
I don’t want to live a life governed by fear. I don’t want to let extremists (of any persuasion) dictate what I do and don’t do. I don’t want to add to the ‘success’ of their atrocities by adapting my life, particularly when it’s to the detriment of the city affected. The BBC reported that 7% of the French economy and two million jobs are reliant on the tourism industry, so the sharp drop in hotel bookings immediately after the attacks and the knock-on effects on shops, restaurants, taxis and tourist attractions, has a serious impact.

So how did I find things once I was actually in Paris?

Soldiers at the Christmas market – I especially like the one in red!

The presence of armed soldiers on the streets was unusual for a European city. I don’t think I’ve seen this since Belfast during The Troubles. Even during the IRA campaigns in London I remember only occasionally seeing armed police on the streets and never soldiers.

soldiers at the Eiffel Tower — Soldiers at the Eiffel Tower

I felt the soldiers were there more as a public reassurance measure than for any practical reason. Adding ‘friendly’ machine gun fire to any terrorist incident could increase the death toll rather than reduce it. And it would be unlikely to deter a suicide bomber from detonating their bomb, let alone prevent a car bomb from going off.

Many of the posher shops along the Champs Elysees had security guards outside who were carrying out bag searches and waving a security wand over customers before allowing them to enter. Again, I wasn’t sure how much of a preventative measure this was as anyone with a bomb or gun could just as easily started their attack outside the shop as inside.

The November attacks happened inside crowded stadiums and theatres. I can see how security checks outside these places may have prevented the attacks or at least scaled them down. But a shop on a busy street? Particulary a shop with a queue of sitting ducks lining up outside? Would it really make much difference if it happened inside or outside? I think not, but even so, it was still kind of reassuring to see.

As for my non-altruistic reason for visiting Paris at this time – less queues and lower prices – did I find a difference? Well, due to security checks some queues were longer than they previously would have been and the Eiffel Tower still had a queue that it was estimated would take about half a day to get to the front of. At other attractions however, less tourists did make it quicker and easier. As I wasn’t familiar with Parisian prices beforehand, and we’d already booked and paid for our hotel, I don’t actually know if it was any cheaper or not.

What I do know was that I enjoyed my time in Paris, felt completely safe and would happily return (though maybe when I’ve booked the Eiffel Tower well in advance).

Montparnasse Tower

I’ve never been up the Eiffel Tower. Many years ago when I interrailed around Europe my budget was so low all I could afford to do was to stand underneath it and gaze up through its iron girders.

Having a slightly higher budget this time round, I did consider ascending but thought the queues would put me off. As I was only going to be in Paris for a short time I didn’t want to spend half a day standing in a line.

As lots of tourists are reported to have cancelled trips to Paris since the November terrorist attacks, I did wonder if this would mean less queues than usual. On our first morning in Paris we headed straight for the Tower to find out. But no, the long snaking line still meant a wait of several hours. Not to worry, we had a Plan B.

The Montparnasse Tower is lesser known than its rival even though it has one huge advantage. The iconic view of Paris has to include the Eiffel Tower. When you are at the top of the Eiffel Tower you get a great view of Paris, but of course it’s missing that one thing that turns a great view into an iconic view.

View of the Eiffel Tower — That iconic view

We timed our trip to the top of the Montparnasse Tower for late afternoon / early evening so we could take in the view in daylight, watch the sun go down and then see night-time Paris lit up below us.

The tower is easy to get to – Montparnasse Bienvenue Metro Station is right outside. There was only a short queue to buy a ticket (another advantage over the Eiffel Tower) and then we passed through airport style security to get to the lifts.

The lifts are among the fastest in the world and, reaching speeds of 22kmph, zoomed us up to the 56th floor in 38 seconds.

The 56th floor consists of a shop, restaurant and indoor viewing gallery. We didn’t want to stay here though; we wanted to be at the very top. We climbed the stairs to reach the 59th floor roof terrace.

The roof terrace covers the entire roof and although there are glass walls around the sides, there are gaps which make it easier to get clear photographs.

I wandered from end to end and from side to side taking in the 360° view of Paris. The most popular side was, of course, the one with the view of the Eiffel Tower.

As the sun went down and the city’s lights began to sparkle the Eiffel Tower started to twinkle.

Once it’s fully dark the Eiffel Tower puts on a whole flashy, twinkly lightshow for a few minutes each hour.

We sat on comfy seats gazing at the view for a while longer before starting to feel the cold and heading back down to the 56th floor for a warming cup of hot chocolate.

View from Montparnasse Tower — View from my comfy chair

The website for the Montparnasse Tower is here.

It costs €15 per adult.

The Golden Circle at New Year

A New Year’s Day trip round Iceland’s Golden Circle.

Having posted my wintry Reykjavik photographs yesterday and having my first Flickr experience, I’ve got a bit carried away and put another album together.

The Golden Circle is a popular day trip from Reykjavik. The 300km loop encompasses Þingvellir (the site of world’s oldest parliament and the place where the tectonic plates that form Europe and America are being slowly pulled apart), Gullfoss waterfalls and the geysers at Haukadalur which include Strokkur and Geysir (the one after which all other geysers are named). The tour also includes Kerið volcano crater, Skálholt church and the small geothermal town of Hveragerði. I chose to visit on New Year’s Day in 2012 when everything was frozen and under a thick layer of snow. The scenery I saw that day still takes my breath away when I think about it.

Click on the picture below to get to the album on Flickr.

Wintry Reykjavik

As there seems to be no chance of a white Christmas this year, I’m reminiscing about whiter times in Reykjavik.

I’ve been seeing so many beautiful, wintry, snowy photos on Facebook recently. Each time I look at them I’m reminded of the snowy New Year I spent in Reykjavik a few years back. Nowhere else has ever come close to the jaw-dropping, fingertip-freezing scenes I saw there. Even ordinary streets and shops looked like something out of a Bruegel painting. Although the sun barely rose above the horizon the light and colours were stunning. I took hundreds of photographs, even though it meant I had to keep taking my gloves off, just because I wanted to capture every last icicle and snow-covered rooftop.

I’m enjoying looking back at those photographs so much I’ve put some of them together in my first ever Flickr slideshow. Unfortunately, WordPress and Flickr don’t seem to like each other and so rather than a smooth link I’ve embedded a link to Flickr in the picture below. Clicking on the picture should take you to the album. If anyone knows a better way of doing this, your advice will be gratefully received!

Chungking Mansions

Living in a heaving, chaotic metropolis I found tranquility by getting high (no, not like that!).

This is a piece I wrote recently for a Wanderlust competition. I didn’t win, but it’s still nice seeing my work on their website. The criteria for the entries was to write about a ‘high place’ you’ve travelled to. Instead of mountains, I chose to write about my time living as a backpacker in Hong Kong in the mid-1990s.

The Seventeenth Floor

Fifteen people stood waiting for the lift, the one that stopped at even-numbered floors only. Most of them were Westerners. That was no good. Although the sign inside the lift claimed it was designed to carry six people at a time, it neglected to mention that this didn’t include Westerners. Being on the whole much larger and heavier than the local Chinese, the lift would refuse to budge if more than four squeezed in at once.

If I was going to have to wait for the lift to do its journey more than three times, it was quicker to walk. I turned and pushed through the doors leading to the stairs. I was good at this now and no longer needed to pause for breath as I climbed to the seventeenth floor.

Living on the seventeenth floor, I felt like I was part of a secret club. Most people didn’t know it existed. Of course the even-floored lift didn’t go to the seventeenth, it stopped at the sixteenth, but for some reason the odd-floored lift didn’t go to the seventeenth either. It stopped at the fifteenth.

My building was officially called a Mansion, but was more often referred to as a ‘death-trap’ or a ‘den of iniquity’ and sometimes, when a journalist needed to pad out his word count in the South China Morning Post, as a ‘cockroach-infested, iniquitous death-trap’. He wasn’t far wrong.

I shared a room with ten people. Those on the top bunks had to carefully manoeuvre onto their beds so as to avoid decapitation by the uncovered ceiling fans which were constantly whirring in a vain attempt to counteract blood-boiling temperatures and humidity levels of nearly 100%.

We shared two toilets, not just my roommates and me, but the people in the other rooms too. The toilets were holes in the floor. The limp bit of hose dangling from the wall was the shower. To use it, I’d stand straddling the toilet hole; if I dropped the soap, I was never getting it back. I’d wave the hose around as tepid water dribbled out. Water pressure was an unknown concept on the seventeenth floor.

When the air became too stifling; the noise too deafening; the smells too overpowering, there was an escape. If not many people knew about the existence of the seventeenth floor, even fewer knew of the rickety ladder leading to a trapdoor at the corridor’s dark dead-end. Pushing up through that trapdoor led to the roof.

In among the grimy water tanks and pipes, leaning on the low wall that edged its way round the roof, I could look out over all the other buildings and peer down onto the flashing neon billboards strung across the road and plastering the buildings. It was quiet up here. Peaceful. Almost tranquil. It didn’t even smell too bad.

Overcrowding and a lack of land meant there was a need for tall buildings, but the jumbo jets circling low as they descended to the airport, put paid to any idea of Dubai-style skyscrapers. Planning regulations in Kowloon dictated that buildings couldn’t be higher than seventeen storeys.

On the roof of the seventeenth floor I was the highest person in Kowloon. I was up there with the planes, trying, but never quite being able, to see the faces of the passengers which I knew would be glued to the glass the same as mine was when I first flew into Hong Kong. I’d never had an introduction to a city like it; a pigeon’s eye view of the streets I’d soon be walking down.

I knew I lived in a dive. It was a place my Chinese students were too terrified to enter. It had weirdos and people hawking up phlegm. It had police raids at 5 o’clock in the morning. It had cockroaches and rats. But it also had the best Indian food and the friendliest people. It was a hive of activity. It was a hub of multi-culturalism. And there, perched on that roof top, gazing out at the lights reflecting in the harbour, caressed by the warm night air, I knew Chungking Mansions was the only place I wanted to be. It was home.

Chillin’ in Chania

A few days in Chania wasn’t nearly long enough.

This was the view from the balcony of my £11 a night apartment.

It was hard to tear myself away, but I had to because Chania is far too lovely a place to miss seeing properly.

When we drove into Chania late at night, I was a little disappointed. I’d loved Paleochora so much and Chania seemed modern and busy in comparison.

We checked into our 3rd floor apartment with a balcony and sea view, but couldn’t see much in the dark. I took this photo which showed a lot more than I could see with the naked eye and was surprised to see it look quite promising.

The next morning I awoke to the amazing view above. Standing on my balcony with a coffee and looking to the left I could see the snow-capped mountains.

Sandy beaches snaked along the left side of the harbour. This was Nea Chora or ‘New Harbour’.

The views at sunset were pretty good too.

A short walk led along the seafront to the Venetian Harbour, so called because it was built by the Venetians in the 1300s. It’s lined with restaurants and tavernas, an old fort, a lighthouse, a mosque that was being renovated and the maritime museum. Tantalising glimpses of the distant, appropriately named, White Mountains drew the eye just as much as the harbour did.

A morning visit to the Maritime Museum gave me a good overview of the history of the area. Whilst there I discovered a room with three elderly men working on a model ship. The level of detail was phenomenal. They told me it was a hobby and each ship could take several years to make.

Another museum I tried to go to was the Greek National Football Museum. It was started by a local fan, hence it being in Chania rather than Athens. Unfortunately, each time I passed it was closed, so I never made it inside.

I drank thick coffee and shots of raki in the tavernas and celebrated a friend’s birthday with one of my best ever meals at the To Stachi vegetarian restaurant.

Exploring the narrow, winding backstreets behind the harbour I found a synagogue. The Jewish population had dwindled over the years so by the time of the Nazi occupation there were only about 300 Jews left. In May 1944 they were imprisoned and then put on a ship heading to Piraeus. The ship was torpedoed by a British submarine killing all onboard.

The synagogue fell into disrepair until the late 1990s when it was placed on a list of endangered monuments of cultural importance. Money was raised and the synagogue reopened in 1999 following renovations.

Many buildings were covered in graffiti which I put down to mindless vandalism. Later, someone translated it for me and I realised this wasn’t ‘I woz ‘ere’ or ‘Shaz luvs Wayne’ type graffiti, but rather political slogans. I saw it in a new light, and although I still thought it spoilt the buildings, was impressed by how politically engaged people seemed to be.

On my final afternoon, I discovered the market. Called the Agora (meeting place) it was filled with goodies like olives, cheeses, Cretan knives and mountain tea.

The following morning, I drank in the views from my balcony for the last time. I may have arrived feeling disappointed, but it was nothing to the disappointment I felt at leaving.

Stray Cats of Paleochora

I’ve realised I don’t have enough cat pictures on my blog. Actually, I don’t think I have any. This is an oversight that obviously needs to be remedied and my recent trip to Crete has given me the opportunity to do this.

Although stray cats are ubiquitous in Crete, it was in Paleochora that I first really noticed them. Walking along the rocky section of the beach on Easter Sunday there seemed to be an awful lot of cats just hanging out among the rocks. Watching them for a while, it became obvious that they weren’t out for a day at the seaside, but the beach was their home. They were beach bum cats.

Some were quite hard to spot as their colours helped camouflage them against the rocks. They lay in the sun taking in the rays, scrabbling about for titbits amongst the flotsam and occasionally disappearing into hollows.

The following day, as I sat outside a bar on the main street sipping a coffee, I noticed a ginger cat waiting outside the fishmonger’s opposite. It seemed quite confident of being served. Sure enough, the fishmonger’s young son came out and offered the cat a snack. The fishmonger, realising what was going on, chased the cat and reprimanded his son. Moments later, a black and white cat appeared and behaved in exactly the same way as the previous ginger. The ritual was repeated: cat waited patiently; young boy came out and fed it; dad chased cat and told son off. I could have sat watching this all day.

Fish please!

Next!

The stray cats of Crete are well-known and seem to be tolerated in much the same way the birds are. Sometimes people feed them, other times they ignore them, but I didn’t see anyone being cruel or getting annoyed at them. Even the fishmonger, who must have been pretty frustrated, wasn’t horrible when he shooed them away.

From the numerous calendars, bags, tea towels and postcards I saw with pictures of Cretan cats adorning them, I supposed they’re quite good for the tourist and retail industries and maybe this is why they are tolerated?

Of course, being strays they are not neutered, deloused, wormed or even fed regularly. Although they look cute, they have to deal with a much tougher world than our pet cats in the UK.

Spot the cat

Tourists, falling for their cuteness whilst on their summer holidays, will feed them, enabling the cats to become healthier, stronger and, consequently, more fertile. In the winter the tourists leave and the cats, along with their kittens, are left to fend for themselves. Many don’t make it through the winter. A sad thought, but if they did all survive, especially at the rate cats breed, the towns would be over-run and the local government would, presumably, have to organise a cull. If the tourists didn’t feed them in the summer, maybe they wouldn’t be healthy enough to breed and this would be a natural way of keeping numbers down. Or maybe the cats would adapt to a year-round lean diet and breed anyway. It’s not possible to know. But I do know that I enjoyed seeing them around and getting the chance to photograph them.

To Stachi veggie restaurant

One of the best meals I’ve ever eaten.

Was it really a week ago that I was in To Stachi eating one of the best vegetarian meals of my life? I don’t think I’ve stopped salivating over it yet.

We discovered To Stachi when wandering around the Venetian Harbour on our first morning in Chania. The friend I was travelling with remembered an organic food shop on a street set a little way back from the harbour and we went to see if it was still there. We found it, but it’s no longer a shop and instead has been converted into a small restaurant.

The place was empty as it wasn’t yet lunch time, but we went in and ordered coffee and sat with it at the tables outside the front. The owner, cook, herb-picker, vegetable grower and slow-food aficionado brought us a free piece of freshly-baked cake with our coffee and stayed outside to chat with us.

Stelios owned the shop that was previously on the site and decided to turn it into a restaurant a year or so ago. He’s passionate about vegetarianism and food that is local, organic, traceable and slowly cooked with love.

He explained that the name To Stachi means an ‘ear of wheat’ and told us about his family land where he grows a lot of his own produce. We’d also learnt during the week that Cretans are great at foraging, making use of all the wild herbs and greens that grow rampantly on the island.

Helen was so enamoured with the place she decided this was where she wanted to come on Friday evening to celebrate her birthday. Stelios was delighted and promised to make something very special.

On the Friday evening five of us arrived for dinner and were looked after wonderfully by Stelios and his daughter; he brought a constant stream of food to the table and took time to explain what every dish was. Unfortunately as I didn’t write everything down, I’m already struggling to remember what I ate. What I do remember was that it was all amazingly delicious. Here are photos of just a few of the dishes we were served.

Best of all, at the end of the meal, Stelios brought out a birthday cake he’d made specially. It’s called galaktoboureko and is made from filo pastry and a thick gooey layer of semolina custard. It’s making my mouth water just thinking about it.

galaktoboureko

The quality of the photos is poor because not only had I not taken a notepad and pen, but I’d also not taken my proper camera. I expected the food to be good, but really thought I’d be focussing more on the conversation, so I only had my mobile phone with me. Now I’m regretting that decision.

To Stachi can be found at 5, Defkaliona Street, Chania.
Here’s the Facebook page

Manto Studios

A beautiful place to stay in Paleochora. I never wanted to leave.

Manto Studios from the front

Arriving in Paleochora, down on the western edge of Crete’s south coast, we had no problems finding our accommodation on a corner of the town’s main street. Parking was free and our host had cordoned off a space for us right outside the door.

Manto’s gallery (L), stairs to roof terrace and reception (R)

Entering the reception area we already knew we’d come to a place we were going to love. Art work decorated the walls and hung from the ceiling; a long sofa sat opposite a large TV (we never saw it switched on – Paleochora is far too nice to spend time indoors watching TV); the scent of jasmine drifted in from the courtyard outside the back door.

Reception

Manto, the owner, appeared. She was welcoming, friendly and spoke good English. After moving the buckets she’d set out on the road to keep a parking space for us, she showed us to our room. We had booked a studio which turned out to be on the ground floor. We had our own little veranda with a table and chairs and a stable-style door that led into the room.

Love the terracotta pots set into the walls

The room itself had twin beds with thick, red satin duvets, chairs, a table, wardrobe, dressing table and TV. Hidden behind a set of cupboard doors was a little kitchenette with sink, fridge and hotplate. The en suite had a spacious shower, toilet and basin with towels and basic toiletries supplied.

Manto is an artist and has a large gallery at the back of the guesthouse. Her work is displayed throughout and even the headboard, mirror rim and dressing table top had been painted by her.

Easter treats

As an Easter treat she had laid out a selection of goodies on the table. A bowl of fresh fruit, sweets and wafer biscuits; a bottle of wine; three chocolate fondant ladybirds (ladybirds symbolise Easter); a couple of dyed red, hard-boiled eggs (red being the colour of Easter); and a loaf of sweet Easter bread inlaid with another red hard-boiled egg.

Outside the room, the narrow courtyard opened into a much wider space at the back of the cafe area. The plants were just starting to blossom and a line of mint was pushing its way through the soil. The large jasmine tree shaded the area and made it a really pleasant place to sit and linger over breakfast.

Just part of the amazing buffet breakfast

Just a small part of what was on offer

Breakfast was included in the price and was served in the cafe. The buffet was a help-yourself affair laid out along three walls. Juices, a choice of teas, coffee, a range of breads and home-made jams, fresh and canned fruit, compote, cereals and muesli, scrambled or hard-boiled eggs, bacon, sausages, yoghurt, honey, cheeses and cold meats, pizza, warm freshly-made cheese and spinach pastries, meat pastries, cheese croquettes, olives, three kinds of cake … it went on and on. I wanted to try a bit of everything, but even taking tiny portions, there was no way I could do it. The food was delicious, the coffee was good and Manto and her husband helpfully explained what everything was and made sure I knew which pastries were vegetarian.

Just when we thought the place couldn’t get any better, I noticed stairs leading up to the roof from just beside the reception door. I climbed them to discover the roof of the gallery was a large sun terrace with loungers and spectacular views of the mountains. Peering between buildings I could just glimpse the sea a block away.

I loved this place and although I wanted to see more of Crete, I could have quite happily spent the whole week here. If anyone is planning a trip to Crete and looking for accommodation, definitely check out Manto Studios. And if you’re in the area, but not actually staying, then at least call in for breakfast.

An example of Manto’s artwork on the wall in our room

Cost: 2 people, 2 nights over Easter weekend, including breakfast = €75 (total)
Non-guests can have breakfast for €6.

You can find the website here.

Category: Travel

Sailing along the Seine

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Paris – the aftermath

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Montparnasse Tower

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The Golden Circle at New Year

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Wintry Reykjavik

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Chungking Mansions

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Chillin’ in Chania

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Stray Cats of Paleochora

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To Stachi veggie restaurant

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Manto Studios

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