Europe

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North Nicosia and the Green Line

Crossing to the Turkish side I had set the alarm for 0630 because if I woke up later, there’s a risk of feeling like death warmed up, due to the time in New Zealand.  The hotel buffet breakfast at 0730 was good with the usual selection of Mediterranean or Middle Eastern stuff (eg. tomatoes, cucumber, […]

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Arriving in Cyprus

Continuing to Dubai We landed at Kuala Lumpur at midnight, from Auckland, and had a 1h35 turnaround before continuing to Dubai. Emirates don’t appear to have traffic rights for bringing passengers from Auckland to KL.  We remained on board during cleaning, catering, security and refuel, after which the joining passengers boarded. Airlines talk about the […]

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Flying to the capital

As if my body was adapting to Brazilian time beforehand, I woke later than normal around 0800 then just before 0900.  We had a leisurely breakfast and then rushed to ready ourselves for the 1100 check-out. As part of our TAP Air Portugal ticket from Madrid (or London in Kim’s case) to Brazil, we had […]

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Port wine

Quite unusually, I had a lazy morning.  Kim and Greg went out to do their laundry at midday and it was around 1400 when they returned and we went out of lunch. We wandered across the Luis I Bridge to get better pictures of Ribeira as the light was contrary on our first afternoon.   Continuing […]

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Some sightseeing

We had a leisurely start with breakfast of warm bread, cheese, tomatoes and fruit in the apartment.   With a free walking tour booked for 1000, we didn’t have much time afterwards but had to walk uphill to the starting point near Clerigos Tower, which I learnt was the tallest building in Porto (surely not, perhaps […]

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Meeting in Portugal

Leaving Spain I walked to Atocha station a little before 0700 only to miss the bus to Madrid airport by seconds.  That was the bus that I hadn’t counted on taking but it was running late.  It was a short wait till the bus I had planned on taking at 0720.  The good thing was […]

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Holy Toledo!

On my last full day in Spain, I take a daytrip to Toledo, the historic capital of ancient Spain, or more correctly the Visigothic kingdom around the 7th Century. I had booked the fast train departing at 0850 and the return at 1725, at a highly discounted price.  The journey was only 30 minutes each way […]

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Back to the mainland

Today I return to mainland Spain after my week of school in Tenerife.  I took an early bus to Tenerife North airport, 30 minutes away, getting to the terminal around 0900.   I settled into the lounge airside and had my own muesli with a few other bits. The location gave me a good view of […]

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Lago Martianez

After school today, I checked out the waters that had been beckoning me over the last few days.  I had hesitated because the weather wasn’t exactly hot hot. I tested the waters in the sea nearby.  With the black sand/rock the water wasn’t as cold as I had expected.  But I thought I’d leave it […]

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La Orotava

In the afternoon, after school, I made a trip to La Orotava.  This is one of several old town on Tenerife but it is the nearest one to Puerto de la Cruz.  In fact, it is just on the hills behind Puerto.  I had to walk uphill to my bus station to catch the bus […]

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