My Blogs including travel logs and sketches

  My travels in the Algarve   Below are extracts from a travel log from September 1991, when I took my backpack, and set out on a journey around the Algarve. I hope you find it interesting. You may even want to visit some of the places  yourself. 23/9 Well it's come around again. Summer holidays, and I've left it too late to stay in this country. So last Friday I booked a flight to Faro, Portugal. I should have arrived on Monday afternoon, but my plane was delayed by 3 hours, and we didn't touch down until 21:00, and everything was closed, including the bank.  What didn't I have ? Money.  I thought it would be a good idea to take travelers cheques. I asked around but the only advice I got was to find a hotel in town. But I needed some Escudos to get to town. !  Bit of a problem. I was surprised how provincial the airport was, considering that it is the only international airport in the Algarve. Security looked scarce, but I didn't want to spend th...

  Wednesday 2/10/24  We'd booked 10 days at the Sun Bay Park Hotel , Marmaris, flying from Luton to Dalaman. We boarded the plane Ok and were all set to depart on time at 16.10, but we were held up on the runway for 50 minutes. We still landed on time though, 22:20. (Turkey were 2 hours ahead).  Apparently, flying a bit higher can pick up a jet steam which increases the speed of the plane.. There was a massive queue at the airport going through passport control. By the time we got through our bags were waiting for us.We had been instructed to find a desk where we would be directed to our transit bus. Unusually, the desks were actually outside the airport, on the  forecourt outside the arrivals entrance.. We found our one and were taken to our little mini-bus straight away.. There was supposed to be at least one other tourist on it, but we left after about 5 minutes, with just us and another local guy on board. Our driver didn't hang about, and he didn't seem to bothe...

  KING ARTHUR ;  Who was King Arthur  ? Let's start with the legend, first recorded by Geoffrey of Monmouth, see references at the bottom of this post. Geoffrey's story King Uther was a British king, 430-496 , who was attracted to Ygerna, the beautiful wife of Gorlois , Duke of Cornwall. In order to escape from the King, Ygerna was shut inside a cliff fort on the north coast of Cornwall called Tintagel. The fort could not be easily stormed, so Uther received a magic potion from Merlin which made him look like Gorlois. Thus disguised he fooled the guards and found his way to Ygerna. The meeting resulted in the birth of Arthur. Gorlois was later killed in a battle and Uther married Ygerna. When Uther died Arthur succeeded him when he was 16, with Merlin's help, when he withdrew the famous sword, Excalibur, from the stone. He  ruled from his court at Camelot,  thought to be in Somerset, with his Knights of the Round Table. He fought twelve battles against the S...