Retirement Trip Number Two
Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton
And so Retirement Trip Number One went better than we could ever have hoped! Neither of us murdered the other, and we had a fabulous time. Rather than satiating the desire for an expended period of travel, it has served to make us more than eager to repeat the experience. Our thoughts therefore turned to where to go next and how to do it, with greater recourse to sea-going vessels, rather than trains, as the primary mode of transport, but inevitably with some planes, trains and buses thrown in along the way. Our trip in Autumn 2018 involved flying from Edinburgh to Oporto, with its famous port wine houses in Vila Nova de Gaia, then travelling by train along the Douro Valley to Murca, as a base to visit archaological sites, and the odd vineyard. Down to Coimbra, to see its ancient and beautiful University, and to sing some fado, and on to Guarda, where we boarded a bus to take across the border into Spain. First stop there was the wonderful city of Salamanca, where we stayed a few steps away from its superb Plaza Major, particularly magical as its lights came on at dusk, then on to Avila, for a walk around the walls, and great tapas.
Back on the train to Madrid, to catch the high speed AVE to Sevilla, for sunblasted sightseeing and high quality flamenco. On down to El Puerto de Santa Maria on Spain’s Atlantic coast, from where we took day trips to Cadiz, and to Jerez de la Frontera, and viewed a leather embossed mihrab in El Puerto which had been concealed behind stone for 700 years. Only the second flight of our journey took us across to Palma for a couple of nights in the city’s mediaeval quarter, then an early morning departure on the Mediterranea ferry to Mahon, for a final two weeks at La Gardenia in Menorca.
After much discussion (naturally) Trip Number Two began to take shape, and indeed to grow arms, legs, and possibly further appendages. The plan is to fly via London to Catania in Sicily, from where we catch a ferry to the Aeolian Islands, off the tip of Italy’s boot. We stay a week on Lipari, then five days on Stromboli, before returning to Sicily for ten days, spread over three main locations: Taormina, Syracusa and Ragusa. Back to Catania to catch a plane to Genoa, which will allow us to visit the beautiful town of Portofino for a day.
In Genoa, we then board a five day cruise on the MSC Preziosa, which will take us to Malaga, Casablanca and finish up in Lisbon, which means Portugal will be the fourth country we visit on this trip. Plane from Lisbon to Barcelona, then on to Mahon, as last time, to round off with a couple of weeks at La Gardenia.
The initial inspiration for this trip, which started off with us visiting the Aeolian Islands was, believe it or not, a report by Sankha Guha on the BBC Holiday programme, which first aired in January 2000. Nineteen years later, his report was still stuck in my head, so we decided to fulfil a long standing desire.
I recently managed to locate a “draft” version of this report, originally on VHS but now uploaded to Vimeo – the picture quality is not great and the voiceover sections have not yet been added – it is defintely not the finished article! However, the scene in which Sankha walks out onto his hotel room terrace on the island of Panarea is the one which flicked the switch, all those years ago….
