Off roading

For our outing today we headed off into the hills to a village called Piodao. It's a small, remote village known for its schist houses and unusual church. It reminded us very much of houses, both old and new, found around Wanaka and Queenstown. It would appear that a fair amount of money has been pumped into it by the EU, and it's clear that they must subsidise road signs and the blue and white aluminium windows and doors , because they're everywhere. There's also a big, new, swanky hotel overlooking the village. We had a bit of a stroll around then went for J's birthday lunch..As usual her being vegetarian completely flumoxed the staff. After we established that there were no vegetarian meals, the waiter offered us mixed salad - sounded good. I had a traditional goat meal (the meal was traditional, not the goat) which was lovely if rather salty. J's vegetarian mixed salad came with 4 pieces of ham of course.

When we came to pay it turned out that neither our Maestro card or my Visa card was acceptable, 

and between us we couldn't scrape up enough to pay for the meal! We tried the swanky hotel but there seemed only to be a 

skeleton staff and he couldn't speak any 

English so there was no help there. We went back to the restaurant and the owner let us off the remainder. It was so embarrassing. I've got the address so will probably send the outstanding amount.

The drive out was... interesting. We were supposed to have 

followed a scenic ring route and in a way we did. Unfortunately a slip by the navigator meant we took a wrong turn. This was followed by a diversion that sent us up a dirt track. That dirt track 

put us on what I would guess was the old road to Piodao but which at any rate had not seen traffic other than forestry for some time. It was like Skippers Canyon, with huge drops on one side to the valley (and the correct road) below. I had to drive for what seemed like hours to get back to civilisation or at least a decent road. I'm afraid our Navman couldn't help in those conditions. It even gave up telling us it was "recalculating".

Bom Dia

And that folks is the end of my Portuguese. 

We had the bad news that an ex-colleague, ex-flatmate and friend, KY died of cancer last weekend. She was far too young. RIP K.

It has been lovely here, with the high not being below 20 so far. We've had a few clouds and a bit of wind at worst. We've done a little exploring. First off just the local villages, but last week we headed into the mountains to see the source of the Rio Mondega. 

The peak used to be 1893 m but some king decided that wasn't a nice enough number so added 7m of rock and a tower. Now it has an observatory with two domes that can be seen for miles - part of the Cold War network apparently - as well as a skifield (still open and oh so tempting, though groomed beginners' slopes only), and several shops that were selling toboggans, winter clothes, and for some reason cheese, and lots of it. 

We did have a little problem with the hosts' car. We stopped for a look at the snow and a dam about 3/4 of 

the way up but when we came to start again... nothing. After a quick call it turns out the starter motor is prone to overheating so we left it for a while then off we went as if nothing had happened. How the hell does a starter motor overheat?

The Garmin worked well most of the time which is amazing given the small roads, often one way. How do they build these maps? 

Unfortunately the battery ran out on the way home so I took the odd wrong turn, but made it home anyway thanks to J's logic. The 

hills are covered in terraces so they look a little like the rice paddies of Indonesia (and elsewhere in Asia). Some date back at least to Roman occupation, and there are Roman roads and bridges scattered through the massif.

Yesterday's trip was to Coimbra, which used to be the capital and 

is famous for its university - the second oldest in the world. It has some lovely architecture, as well as a pleasant river-side location. We strolled around, saw some sights, and looked for a present for 

J's birthday, without success. Lunch in the sun watching everyone go by and a family of beggars in action. Actually, technically they weren't begging, they were selling band-aids, but it was sad to see 

even the toddler walking around with her hand out. Portugal is not a welfare state by the way.

Some good news is that the memory I ordered in December has finally turned up after bouncing from address to address. I now have 2 Gb so that should help with the picture editing. Anyone need some more RAM for a laptop?

Today we had a quiet day. I was supposed to get some writing done, but although I did some more reading, I didn't get anything written. Other than this overdue blog that is. I did get most of the pics edited (nice and fast with all that RAM) and even chopped up some video which you can view on J's blog. We're now trying to find something decent to watch on Sky, something that is surprisingly difficult to do...

For you early readers I'll add some pics tomorrow. Otherwise just check J's blog...

And hello again

We've got free WiFi so might as well add a note.

We got into Paris OK and negotiated public transport to Nation. A friendly Parisian went out of his way to help us find our Hotel. It's funny that the Poms complain about rude Frenchmen when both of my visits have been marked by the opposite. Vive le France!

We had a nice meal in a local, busy, restaurant. I had sausages and mash, though in French so ever so sophisticated. J had Quatre Fromage, Tataline, blah blah - cheese on toast with salad. My French is atrocious (well, non-existant really) and I keep saying si instead of oui. Dumbarse.

We had a bit of a wander but it was dark and cold so we came back to the hotel to watch the Simpsons dubbed in French, some musical 'where are they now' show in Spanish, and a US cop show in German. The hotel is nothing special, but not too bad either and in quite a nice location. We're only here two nights anyway. It does have this free WiFi though, so there's a bonus!

Adieu, Adios, farewell

Another era over. Yesterday we packed everything in a van and put it in Safestore. We are now sitting in an empty apartment waiting for the time to catch the bus.

Paris today, Portugal on Thursday, and then probably Bath, as J got a job offer yesterday. It's an interesting life.

The car theft will leave us about L600 worse off than two weeks ago, even though we had insurance. Insurance, lawyers and bankers - scum of the earth. Next time someone tells you that's what they do for a living you should respond ("That's OK, maybe something decent will come up in the future.") And of course we won't have a car to move our gear from Edinburgh so add haulage fees to that.

Anyway, we have Internet access in Portugal so will keep you posted, hopefully with some interesting pics. The weather there has been up and down, but mostly in the low 20s so that's an improvement already.

Latest, not greatest

Well, it seems that like a poorly matched donor organ Edinburgh is rejecting us. Not only have we no work, but last week our car was stolen. It took us two days to realise it as we had no need to use it, but we walked past after a night at a pub quiz and it was't there. We looked around in case we had parked it somewhere other than where we remembered but it was gone.

We now have to sort this out with only a week to go before heading off to Portugal, and worse we will have no car to make the move to wherever we go next! Bummer.

Not much else to write about except we met up with a few ex-workmates on Friday to say farewell. We skipped off early while they went on to a few nightclubs. Bye guys!