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The Fisherman’s Trail – a six-day hike along Portugal’s stunning coastline

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The Fisherman's Trail - one of Portugal’s most celebrated long-distance walking routes

We cover many possible holidays and tours here on Mild Rover but it’s not often that we can say “been there, done that”.  However, the Fishermen’s Trail Highlights on Rota Vincentina in Portugal was one of the first self-guided hikes that my friend Kieran Prendiville and I tackled together.

As you will read in my detailed (and surprisingly amusing) reports, it had its ups and downs but the scenery was spectacular, if the tramping through sand dunes was in the first couple of days was a challenge.

However, if you have some experience with hiking and a couple of trusty walking poles to get you up the sandhills and down the rocky traverses, we’d recommend it,

British tour company Natural Adventure is offering an almost identical six-day, self-guided adventure, taking in the “saltiest and most sumptuous” parts of one of Portugal’s most celebrated long-distance walking routes, starting at $950pp.

Starting in Porto Côvo and finishing in Odeceixe, this holiday covers 74km in total, with some transfer shortcuts to all the hot highlights of the main trail along the coast.

Explore the cliffs and coves, fishing villages and cultural traditions in a region protected by Southwest Alentejo and Vicentine Coast Natural Park. Stay in small, locally-owned hotels and guesthouses, with luggage transfers.

The best times to travel are February to June and September to November, as the national park surrounding the route is closed through the height of summer.

Itinerary

Day 1: Arrival – Porto Côvo/Vila Nova de Milfontes

Check in and find the tour materials at your accommodation.

Day 2: Porto Côvo – Vila Nova de Milfontes | 8-20km

If you are staying in Vila Nova de Milfontes, you have a 25mins transfer to Porto Côvo (included), where you can stock up on supplies as your first day of walking is in a fantastically remote area.

This is a moderate-to-strenuous walk, crossing several sandy stretches, with some superb coastal views en route. If you want to get off to a gentle start, there are options for shorter walks today, of either 14km or 8km.

  • Walking for the day: 20km, 6h ,↑160m ↓150m (or 14km / 8km alternative walks)
  • Accommodation: Mil Réis or similar

Day 3: Milfontes – Almograve / Longuerira | 15km

Today’s walk is an easy one, starting off by crossing the river by ferry, or via the footbridge, then continuing across fields and along cliffs, with access to several beaches, one of which is in Almograve, a perfect lunch spot. In the afternoon, walk to the village of Longueira, around 35mins inland.

  • Walking for the day: 15km, 5h, ↑90m ↓115m (full walk)
  • Accommodation: Vicentina Rooms or similar

Day 4: Almograve – Zambujeira do Mar | 21km

Continue along the trail from Almograve through the unspoilt seascapes of Alentejo, Zambujeira fishing village and onto the small village of Cavaleiro, with more superb coastal views en route.

Stop in Cavaleiro for supplies or treat yourself to some fine local seafood, before heading west to Cabo Sardão lighthouse. Your walk finishes in Zambujeira do Mar, considered by many to be one of the most extraordinary beaches in Portugal.

  • Walking for the day: 21km, 6h, ↑200m ↓200m
  • Accommodation: Rosa dos Ventos or similar 

Day 5: Zambujeira do Mar – Odeceixe | 18km

This is one of the most spectacular sections of the Fishermen’s Trail, taking you to Odeceixe, the first village in the Algarve region. Walk past the stunning Praia do Carvalhal, then on to the clifftop village of Azenha do Mar and harbour.

After recharging your batteries at Azenha do Mar’s seafood restaurant, or perhaps just taking a swim in their famous natural seawater pool, continue on to Odeceixe, where the bridge over the river sets the border between Alentejo and Algarve regions.

  • Walking for the day: 18km, 6h, ↑260m ↓280m
  • Accommodation: Casa Celeste or similar

Day 6: Departure

Departure or extend your stay.

Dates and prices Enquire now

 Download Trip Notes

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‘Doon hame’ to the history of Burns, Bruce and the bicycle

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Dumfries from the air, with Burns Statue in front of Greyfriars church.

The last time we met on this journey I referred to Glasgow as my adopted home.  My real home – where I was born and lived most of my childhood – is the town of Dumfries, 120km further south.

That makes me a Doonhamer, a name apparently drawn from Dumfriesians working farther north in Scotland – which most of the country is – referring to the southern town as “doon hame” (down home).

Nestled between the rolling hills of the southern uplands and the often grey waters of the Solway Firth, it would be unfair to say Dumfries has been by-passed both geographically and historically.

This is, after all, where the poet Robert Burns spent his last few years, died and is buried here. You can still see the indentation where his head lay on his pillow as he drew his last breath, as well as drink near his table in his favourite pub.

There’s even a statue to his wife, Jean Armour. One of the few memorials in the world, they say, to the long-suffering spouse of a celebrated writer.

A few centuries before that, Robert the Bruce murdered his political rival John Comyn in Greyfriars church (which is still standing), sparking a long trail of terrible revenge by the most horrific means but culminating in the battle of Bannockburn, where England’s King Edward II was “sent homeward to think again,’ according to the Scottish anthem.

It is also near here, just to the north in the town of Thornhill where, believe it or not, the pedalled bicycle was invented in 1839 by local blacksmith Kirkpatrick “Mad Pate” MacMillan.

Explorer Joseph Thomson, who also lived near Thornhill, was the first European to travel through Masai land, from the coast at Mombasa to Lake Victoria in East Africa, naming waterfalls and gazelles as he went.

The great Shakespearean actor John Laurie – probably best known as Private Frazer – “we’re doomed… dooooomed, I tell ye!” – in the TV series Dad’s Army, was also a Doonhamer. I served the great man a strawberry milkshake when I worked in the Golden Arrow café in my early teens.

At nearby Caerlaverock Castle I had my first TV gig, as an extra – literally a spear carrier – in The Legend of King Arthur (1979).  This 13th Century citadel is unusual in that it’s triangular.  The ruins of Sweetheart Abbey are just down the road

JM Barrie, author of Peter Pan also lived and was educated in Dumfries, but even so, the town is not Neverland and, in fact, feels as if it has been hooked to the side.

The border with England lies less than 50 km to the south but the road from Carlisle to Glasgow and beyond passes 25 km to the East, through the sadly, much better-known town of Lockerbie, scene of the terrorist bombing of a Pan Am flight, 35 years ago.

Dumfries lies just off the trunk road that takes goods trucks to and from the ferry at Cairnryan, in the west, near Stranraer, for the shortest sea crossing to Ireland.  Larne lies only two hours away in Ulster, although through geopolitical pretzel logic, goods are transported to and from the EU without, technically, traversing a border.

If Scotland, which voted overwhelmingly against Brexit, ever gains independence and rejoins Europe, the transit from the Irish Republic which is in Europe, to Ulster which isn’t, then back to the Euro zone in Scotland, then out again in England will be borderline insanity.

But for now, Dumfries is spared such agonies.  When we visited last year, the town seemed to have settled into a peaceful slumber unperturbed by the valiant efforts of the local football team, Queen of the South, to extricate itself from Scottish League One, which is really the third division, behind the Premier League and the Championship.

The club has a glorious history and was top of the first division for three weeks immediately after I was born – but never again, although it’s had its moments.

The highway to Ireland has long-ago by-passed the town, taking lumbering HGVs off its narrow streets.  But apart from that, nothing much has changed in the 50 years since I last lived here.

The Camera Obscura, the oldest working version in the world,  still projects images of the townsfolk going about their business from the streets far below the museum in the old windmill. It’s still a wonder, even in these days when a phone is also a movie camera.

The old suspension bridge and the ancient Devorguilla bridge parenthesise the Whitesands – a broad street mostly given over to parked cars that might have had sand at one point and which may have been white but the nearest seaside is all grey mud flats, so I doubt it.

Twenty-first century Dumfries seems to be reshaping itself as a launch pad for hikers and outdoorsy people, Burns fanatics and history buffs and it does all of those things tremendously well. 

A little train runs from to Glasgow and back every hour and before you think that too is a trip back in time, it boast surprisingly good wi-fi.

And that’s Dumfries, just as modern as it needs to be and just as old as it feels. Next stop a town that taught the world about workers’ rights.

I hiked hidden Bali: a tour that goes far beyond bustling bars and beaches

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The kind of breathtaking scenery that rewards those that stray from the beaten track.
The kind of breathtaking scenery that rewards those that stray from the beaten track

A few weeks ago, we featured a unique walking tour through hidden Bali, offering an experience far removed from the beaches and bar culture of our northern neighbor. Now, intrepid traveler Les Latchman shares first-hand insights into what the hike was truly like.

Bali. An island that has captivated travellers for generations, known for its sun-soaked beaches, lush green landscapes, cascading waterfalls and rich cultural traditions. But as breathtaking as it is, its popularity means many of its most famous spots are often filled with bustling crowds, making it harder to have a Bali experience that’s natural and truly immersive. 

That’s why I was intrigued when I came across The Natural Adventure’s Hiking Hidden Bali tour. It promised a different kind of journey, one that would take me beyond the usual tourist trails, deep into Bali’s remote Highlands, working rice paddies and ancient forests. It promised a way to experience the island not just as a visitor, but as a traveller connecting with its landscapes and people. I have to admit, I was a little sceptical. Could a place as popular as Bali still hold hidden corners untouched by mass tourism? Could I really find that sense of adventure and authenticity I always look for when travelling? Curiosity won out, and I booked the trip.

A heartfelt Highlands welcome

The trip got off to a great start as our local guide Jony drove us from the bustling capital of Denpasar, deep into the remote Balinese Highlands towards Megati. Two hours away from the typical tourist trails, we found ourselves exploring working rice fields where, instead of throngs of tourists posing for photos, we found farmers tending their crops. I had a sense this day would be special, having previously visited the famous Tegalalang rice terraces – yet these paddies surpassed the beauty of any I’d seen before. This was further emphasised through the absence of crowds, and I admit to feeling a little nervous about how the farmers might perceive me in this remote setting, given how tourism has adversely impacted other parts of Bali. But their smiles and openness quickly put me at ease. One unforgettable moment was meeting a husband and wife farming duo. After exchanging smiles, they saw my camera and gestured for me to take a picture. I couldn’t believe how friendly the local people were and we all found ourselves, ironically, posing for photos in an impromptu photoshoot.

Sharing that moment with the very people who cultivate Bali’s staple grain, was refreshingly real.

Wild dining Balinese-style

Later, as if on cue, we got to taste that very rice we’d seen growing and being harvested in the paddies. Jony had arranged for a freshly-cooked lunch to be delivered to us on the trail, a kind of jungle-side Deliveroo – except that it felt like pure luxury in the middle of nature.The sumptuous rice was paired with chicken satay skewers, golden corn fritters, shredded green beans and sambal matah – a spicy, citrusy relish that became an instant favourite of mine. It was unlike any lunch experience I’d ever had: we were in the heart of nature, eating sustainably-sourced food which was delivered right to our shady spot in between the Megati and Kemetug villages.

Lunch with a view.

Fruits, spices and the warmth of a local home

Over the next few days our journey took us deeper into the areas of Belimbing and Pupuan which were brimming with fruit and spice plantations. Everywhere we turned, there were cacao pods on tree trunks, ginger roots peeking through the soil, and avocados strewn across the trail. Jony gleefully shared that you can buy a kilo of avocados for less than $2 here. It’s safe to say I was in millennial heaven.

However, the real standout moment came midway through a hike, where Jony invited us into his home near Pupuan. We met his family and picked fresh fruit together from the garden, including mangosteen, passionfruit, guava and something known as snow fruit. This is a velvety treat which, when opened, revealed a cool cotton candy texture. Jony’s wife brewed me a fresh cup of robusta coffee. It felt like a genuine privilege to be welcomed so warmly and share a meal with his family, in such an intimate setting. I couldn’t help but think back to my initial scepticism and desire for authentic experiences exactly like this. 

Walking in a floral wonderland

In all my excitement about exploring fruit plantations in the earlier part of the trip, I never realised we would stumble upon endless fields of blue, yellow and white hydrangeas. It took us all by surprise and Jony confirmed he had purposely kept quiet, allowing this spectacle to catch us completely off guard. It’s these little touches that allowed us to feel like we were discovering them for ourselves, which is that rare feeling I hope for when travelling. The sense of wonder reminded me that even in a place as frequented as Bali, there are still surprises waiting around every corner.

A family home with their hydrangea harvest.

Into the heart of Bali’s ancient forests 

I thought the trip had peaked visually with the hydrangeas, but how wrong I was. By day six, the terrain had changed again, with the next hike leading us into the heart of an ancient, otherworldly rainforest. Located in the Bengkel region, the humidity hung in the air, and the sound of tropical birds echoed all around. Towering above us were Banyan trees, some over 40m high, 300 years old and wrapped in bright yellow cloth with well-tended shrines at their bases. Jony explained that these mighty giants are considered cosmic, bridging the physical and spiritual realms, which is why people come to worship there.

My favourite waterfall out of the five.

As we watched local people make offerings to honour their significance, I couldn’t help but think how these incredible trees have stood as silent witnesses to generations of change. Through drastically different eras when Bali’s landscapes were largely untouched, through decades of growth, and now into a time of bustling cities and overtourism. The island had greatly evolved around them, and yet here they remain: still majestic, still rooted in the beating heart of the island.

Chasing Bali’s spectacular waterfalls 

As the trip drew to a close, we finished in style with a sweaty adventure to seek out Bali’s most spectacular waterfalls. Jony thoughtfully planned a route so that each waterfall somehow surpassed the last in grandeur. It was 32C, the hottest day of the trip, so being able to swim at every waterfall was the ultimate reward – like nature’s own air conditioning. Having them all to ourselves felt a bit naughty, as if we’d stumbled onto true hidden gems that the rest of the world had somehow missed.

A trip that makes a lasting impression 

My earlier experiences of Bali had led me to believe its authentic charm was overshadowed by overtourism, traffic jams, crowds and tourist traps. Yet this journey proved to me that this is not the case everywhere. By venturing into lesser-known areas, such as Kemetug and Pupuan, and connecting with a local guide who truly understands the island, I found a Bali that’s alive with warmth, wonder and a vibrant culture seemingly untouched by the everyday hustle.

It wasn’t just about collecting pretty pictures, it became about forging genuine connections, tasting home-cooked meals in the most unexpected places, and realising that even in a destination as famous as Bali, there are still new adventures to be had. Travelling like this felt meaningful. I wasn’t just a tourist. I was part of an experience that respected and celebrated the destination, benefiting both the people who call it home and those of us fortunate enough to explore it.

My lasting feeling from this incredible trip is that the best adventures aren’t just the ones everyone else is having, but the ones that are thoughtfully crafted by those who truly know and love a place – allowing you to experience it in a way you never thought possible.

This post was originally featured on thenaturaladventure.com

How green is my valley: Qld Scenic Rim joins eco-tourism global elite

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The Lost World, Lamington. Photograph: Lachlan Gardiner

Anyone who has ever experienced its many wonders could have told you this – but now it’s official: the Scenic Rim is now one of the world’s top environmentally conscious tourist destinations.

Stretching from Canungra to the Lost World, Beaudesert to Boonah, Tamborine Mountain to Kalbar, the Scenic Rim boasts historic national parks, adventure parks, craft breweries, boutique wineries, ecolodges, world class camping and glamping and – most importantly – a stunning array of dramatic landscapes, ancient mountains and World Heritage Gondwana rainforests.

Now there’s even more reason to plan a visit: the region – which is just an hour from Brisbane and 30 minutes from the heart of the Gold Coast – has just achieved ECO Destination certification with Ecotourism Australia, a result of meeting global best-practice standards in ecotourism, responsible travel and environmental conservation.

As the first destination to achieve certification in 2025, the Scenic Rim becomes only the 12th in Australia to earn this prestigious recognition. To achieve the ECO Destination certification level, the region was rigorously assessed on more than 90 sustainable management criteria and now joins a global network of more than 160 destinations in 60 countries through Ecotourism Australia’s partnership with Green Destinations.

Here’s how to travel the incredible Scenic Rim sustainably 

Sustainable travel is more than simply choosing a destination and the activities you do while you’re there – it’s also about how you travel and what you pack, and taking the time to slow down to fully appreciate and learn about the place you’re visiting. So, if you are keen to wander wisely, tread lightly and make a positive impact, here’s how to enjoy a more sustainable journey within the Scenic Rim:

Engage in ecotourism-certified activities

To nature enthusiasts and adventurists, the Scenic Rim is nirvana. You can explore the ancient rainforests and natural landscapes of the region with Southern Cross Tours for a day, with tour guides sharing the history, culture and stories of the places and unique natural environments throughout. Take a tour with Leisure Solutions or learn about the region’s fantastic native wildlife including koalas, birds and platypus with wildlife experts Araucaria Ecotours or experience the magic of glow worms at Tamborine Mountain’s Glow Worm Caves.

Families can get their share of outdoor excitement with minimal environmental impact at Thunderbird Park, which has embedded sustainable practices throughout their operations. Home to the Tree Top Challenge, an awesome high ropes course and Australia’s largest zipline, there’s hours of entertainment on Tamborine Mountain.

If hiking through the wilderness is your style, lace up your boots with local legends ParkTours and Horizon Guides and join a guided bush walk through ancient Gondwana rainforests. Or challenge yourself to scale cliffs in Mount Barney National Park with the help of the ecotourism-certified rock climbing guides at Mt Barney Lodge, where you can also join Kruze Summers, a local Ugarapul man, on the Yarriba Dreaming First Nations immersion experience.

For those who want a little luxury, Spicers Scenic Rim Trail offer multi-night adventures through lush rainforests and along the Great Dividing Range, ending each day with gourmet meals and a peaceful night in a private eco-cabin.

Travelling sustainably also means supporting local businesses, and the Scenic Rim is brimming with fantastic spots to tame a rumbling tummy and relieve a thirst by eating and drinking hyper-local: from charming roadside farm stores to a stop in at ecotourism-certified Tamborine Mountain Distillery to taste their internationally-awarded liqueurs and spirits. 

Stay in eco-friendly accommodation

Visitors are spoiled for choice when it comes to sustainable stays in the Scenic Rim. With over a dozen tourism businesses holding Ecotourism Australia certification in the region, there’s no shortage of places to sleep soundly knowing your stay supports the environment.

At Binna Burra Lodge, stay in the gorgeous sky lodge apartment, a cozy tiny wild house, or even a glamping tent, all cradled high in the sub-tropical rainforest of Lamington National Park, 800m above sea level. Another famous eco-icon is O’Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat, a mountaintop haven that’s welcomed guests for nearly a century. From pitching a tent to staying in a modern villa with a spa overlooking the valley, or booking an eco-cabin at Pat’s Farm, there’s the perfect blend of comfort to soothe tired muscles from a day of hiking. Famed fellow eco-stay Mt Barney Lodge in Mount Barney National Park is home to plenty of activities like rock climbing, abseiling, bushwalks, mountain expeditions and navigation courses that both kids and adults can immerse themselves in. Find the perfect sustainable night’s stay at Tamborine Mountain Glades, with their Hillside Rooms, Self-Contained Lodges, Woodlands Glamping Tents and Vista Suites offering stunning views with a touch of style. For a truly secluded high-class experience, Wander leaves no trace with its with its B-Corp certified off-grid eco-pod accommodation overlooking Lake Wyaralong and the vineyards of the Overflow Estate 1895. WanderPods prove less is more, using solar energy, rainwater harvesting and zero-waste practices to ensure your stay treads lightly on the land. What’s more, they even support the work of Bush Heritage Australia and the Scenic Rim’s Million Trees program to protect and regenerate nearby bushland.

Travel lightly, adventure big and make sure you see the sunrises and the sunsets of the Scenic Rim, as they are the perfect bookends to the wonder within this incredible region.

 For more on where to visit, hike and see, click here.

My travel Waterloo on the trail of Wellington

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The Duke of Wellington's statue in Glasgow

There can be few more ignominious failures for a self-styled seasoned traveller than falling for the marketing exaggerations of service providers in your home town.

The last time, we were flying from Southampton to Glasgow, my adopted Scottish home and my favourite city in the UK.  Yes, Edinburgh is very nice with its castle and fancy-dan festival.  But its streets of the capital are swarming with tourists, herded in droves from one café where Harry Potter was allegedly written to the next.

Give me the gritty and gutsy streets of Glasgow any time, where people dressed up as fictional characters aren’t hustling for ten-pound selfies, and the statue of the Duke of Wellington has a traffic cone – witches hat, to you – permanently plonked on his head. 

This iconoclastic crowning, originally a student prank, was declared illegal by Glasgow City Council at one point, a decision that was reversed by public demand. Now it has become such a feature that it is a landmark that appears on official tourist maps.

And, funnily enough, it is the Iron Duke who has brought us to Glasgow on this great European adventure. You may recall that last week we were in Southampton where the University library houses the Wellington archives, as Sue continues her research into Wellington’s life and times for her next book.

As fate would dictate, Glasgow University is home to one of the most vivid accounts of the immediate aftermath of Welllington’s most famous and, as it turned out, final battle.

Curry in a hurry

Glasgow Merchant Thoms Ker was living in Brussels at the time and visited the battlefield on the day after Napoleon was defeated. He wrote a book (by hand) which is now in Glasgow Uni’s archives and madame had to see it.

The flight north was uneventful, if delayed, meaning by the time we got to our hotel, CitizenM, just 200 metres from the Buchanan St station where the airport bus terminates, restaurants were starting to close.

However, local knowledge comes in handy.  The Curry Cottage, just a couple of blocks away, does a fine fish pakora and a salmon prawn curry that would get Wellington’s equestrian statue galloping up Buchanan St if only he could get that damned traffic cone off his head,

It stayed open till 10 pm so we treated ourselves to an Indian feast, eschewing the haggis pakora – and not just because we are pescetarian.

Funny moment: The owner came up and asked if it was my first time.

‘No sir,’ I said. ‘I come here regularly.”  He looked puzzled and embarrassed that he didn’t recognise me.

‘Once a year, every year for the past five,’ I explained

A quick word about CitizenM Hotels (raved about elsewhere in these pages).  Since there are none in Australia or South-East Asia, I’ve never previously been able to justify paying for their CitizenM+ membership which costs AU$180-ish a year.

However, for that you get 15 per cent off everything (except breakfast – a bargain, anyway), including the room rate, non-breakfast food and booze.  You also get to choose the best rooms if they are available and a free late check-out to 2pm.

Since we’d be staying there in Glasgow, London (twice) and Paris, suddenly it made economic sense to pay the membership fee, and yes, it was well worth it.

However, if you think I’m sounding like a savvy traveller, let me introduce you to a little con I fell for that someone should shut down, if only because it gives visitors a bad impression of the city.

Waterloo… again?

I booked a rental car from Budget in advance and the booking form said it could be picked up at Glasgow Central Station which is straight down the hill from the CitizenM.

It’s a con.  There are no longer any car hire firms based at Central Station, although there were, once upon a time. Instead the cars are in a multi-storey car park three blocks away along Waterloo St.

Yes, it would have to be Waterloo.  While Sue was leafing through Ker’s account at Glasgow Uni, I was doing battle with our luggage, a cavalry charge away from where I thought I’d be dropping them off.

Just goes to show, local knowledge is only useful if you keep it updated. And knowing where you’re going counts for nothing if everything has moved when you get there.

Trains, planes and priorities – a queue-jumpers guide to travel

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The Tower of London from our room in CitizenM, Tower Hill. Honest!

Continuing their grand tour of Europe, Jimmy discovers that priority booking can be worth the extra bucks, but there’s no guarantee the trains will be there when you land.

It doesn’t matter how much you pay or how well you plan, there’s a point in every overseas holiday where everything falls apart.

I am not a fan of Britain’s (and Ireland’s) cheapo airlines. EasyJet left me stranded in Glasgow once and then compounded it by repeating the trick when I had taken a 4am bus trip to Edinburgh the next day to get an alternative flight to Paris to pick up my flight back home to Sydney.

Meanwhile, Ryanair has one of the worst reputations for customer service of any airline. Some might call their charges for normal baggage opportunistic. Others say they are predatory. After all, this is the airline that once toyed with the idea of “standing” seats for short flights and, rumour had it, forcing passengers to pay for using the toilets.

The real problem is that they operate like mobile phone companies – offering complicated packages so that it feels like the only way you know for sure that you’re going to get what you want is to buy everything

So that’s what I did for our flight from Berlin to London. If I paid for priority boarding and seat selection, I got a free check-in baggage allowance and extra carry-on bag. Or something. Maybe there was a snack involved, too.

I thought the priority boarding thing was probably a scam until we got to the airport and were hustled past long lines of irritated and anxious travellers, some doing the desperate repacking shuffle to avoid extortionate excess baggage fees.

But not us. We glided past to the fast-track check-ins, bag drops and security queues like royalty. So far, so good.

We landed at Stansted – which appears to be Ryanair’s UK hub – and were feeling so seasoned as travellers that we pre-booked our tickets for the train to London – one of those stations on the Monopoly board and just two tube stops from our hotel.

Our smug smiles evaporated when we disembarked and realised the Stansted line was closed for maintenance and our train would take us north to Cambridge before we’d get on another going south to King’s Cross, half a city away from our digs (CitizenM Tower of London, if you must know). We should have waited till we got off and bought an express bus ticket for less money and hassle.

To make matters worse, we had a long-standing dinner date with a dear friend that we’d arranged thinking we’d have hours to spare. By the time we’d done the Cambridge cha-cha and tried to get an Uber because “the Tube would be too much hassle” – another faux pas – we were nearly an hour late.

We only had two nights in London before we were heading off to Southampton then Glasgow, where there was material in universities in both cities that Sue needed to read as research for her next book, partly about the Duke of Wellington.

Southampton University library has all the Wellington papers stored there. We were only allowed to read 10 documents each – there are hundreds of thousands of items – but it is kind of thrilling to hold a congratulatory letter from a European prince to Wellington, knowing that both had also held the same piece of paper at some time.

Just as an aside, a research side-trip to the British Library led to us looking for somewhere that serves vegetarian food near Kings Cross station.

Now, Spagnoletti is no one’s idea of a vego restaurant – suckling pig and veal are a bit of a giveaway – but the meat-free food was superb, even if it did come in small doses with typically inflated British prices.

The trip to Southampton required a short tube ride to Waterloo station (surely a good omen in this Wellington-related trip) followed by a train ride to the south-western city.

Travel Tip: The London Underground map is a visual depiction of connections, not distances.

After our shenanigans at Kings Cross trying to get an Uber to Tower Hill, I decided we should take the Tube to Waterloo. It involved a short ride to Embankment where there was a connection to the Northern Line and Waterloo.

The only problem was it was rush hour and that “connection” required a 10-minute forced march up and down way too many stairs with all our luggage for four weeks, plus our travelling offices.

The train to Southampton was a breeze with comfy seats and tables to work on, and the city has a free bus service that transports students around town and allows the uneducated to use it, too. The only downside, if it is one, seems to be that every bus goes through the university campus at some point.

I had spent hours trying to work out the combination of trains and planes that would get us from Southampton to Glasgow cheaply and efficiently and, hitting our old friend Google, had found out to my astonishment there were two direct flights leaving that day.

How could this be? And the answer is cruise ships – Weegies (Glaswegians) love a cruise. And Southampton is the UK’s main embarkation port for such excursions.

Apart from a kerfuffle over checking in my carry-on bag as hold luggage – the self-service scales that normally cause palpitations for travellers who have calculated the weight in their bags to the last gram – said it was too light rather than too heavy.

As a result, I had to queue again and then go and press a buzzer on the wall and wait at a door marked “oversized baggage”. We got on the plane and had a fast and uneventful flight to Glasgow. But I still think EasyJet’s logo should have quotes around the “Easy”.

Next time: Curry in a hurry and mental rental cars

‘Where are we now?’ – from Brecht to burlesque in David Bowie’s Berlin

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Sue and Jimmy at the huge hologram outside the Hansa Studios where Heroes and Low were recorded

Jimmy recalls a day in Berlin following in the footsteps of David Bowie, the rock star who sought refuge in the divided city when fame had almost killed him.

One of the first tours I noticed among the various options for what to do in Berlin was an excursion based around David Bowie. I recalled vaguely that Bowie had decanted to the then still-divided city for a couple of years when he’d burned out in the USA.

More significantly, my fellow traveller Sue was a big fan of early Bowie so I thought this would be a treat for her (and me, too).

It turned out to be an absolute blast, tracing the city’s influences on Bowie, from Bertholt Brecht through the Weimar decadence of Cabaret to the effect of the wall and its ultimate removal.

I won’t ruin too many surprises for anyone who takes the tour with the knowledgeable and entertaining Dan, suffice it to say that David Bowie arrived in West Berlin in 1976, raddled with drugs and basically dead on his feet from the excesses of an extended stay in LA.

That’s not to say he and his chum Iggy Pop lived like monks while they were in the then former German capital but it would take another 40 years for his over-indulgence in alcohol to finally silence the Thin White Duke.

In between times he recorded two of his Berlin Trilogy albums Low and Heroes while prepping Lodger and producing The Idiot for Iggy. Berlin had a profound influence on Bowie and there is plaintive reminder of his time there on the track “Where Are We Now?” on his penultimate 2013 album The Next Day.

Had to get the train from Potsdamer Platz … you didn’t know that I could do that ...” he sings. When he lived there, you couldn’t. Potsdamer Platz was a “ghost” station, beneath the no-man’s land between East and West. The video accompanying the song (below) is a virtual tour of old Berlin.

And Bowie has had a significant effect on Berlin. In 1987, he returned to perform the Glass Spider tour in front of the crumbling remains of the Reichstag building. He had quarter of the speakers turned back towards East Berlin and they could hear the crowd on the other side chanting: “The Wall must fall!”

Bowie and Iggy would frequently visit the Eastern side of the city, which was remarkably easy to do for Westerners. My dentist told me just the other day that, as a young backpacker visiting East Berlin, he went to the Wall because there were rumours of a free concert and witnessed music fans arriving in droves, and East German police trying to drive them away then just giving up.

Less than two years later, the wall did fall and, when Bowie died in 2016, the German government paid tribute to him, saying he had lit the fuse that brought it down.

As for the tour, it helps to make sense of Bowie and Berlin but there’s nothing quite like wandering the streets down which he walked listening to his music on a little Bluetooth speaker – although that did scare the crap out of one man who was dozing on the street outside Bowie’s former flat as we walked past with Sound and Vision pumping out.

If you want more detail, you can read a pretty comprehensive description of the tour – although it doesn’t mention it – in this Rolling Stone article. I’m not saying the writer just took the same tour as we did – facts are facts, after all – but there’s nothing in the feature that we didn’t do.

A peek into the lives of others

It’s fair to say that Berlin’s past is very much part of it’s present. We visited the German spy museum, which was fascinating and where you can read all about defectors and double agents and even take a lie detector test or try to wriggle and slide your way through a web of laser beams that trigger alarms when broken.

In the museum of East German everyday life we learned that East Germans were very heavily into naturism – frolicking about in the nude at holiday camps – in a weird and politically non-threatening liberation from their otherwise heavily censored, surveilled and repressed lives.

In that vein, we also took in a very odd burlesque show in a strange little cocktail bar called the Prinzipal Kreuzberg, where a junkie-thin woman completely covered in tattoos took most (but not quite all) of her clothes off.

After that, an amply proportioned lady stripped and sexually assaulted anything that didn’t move – including one female customer’s leg and a bannister – all to the music of Led Zeppelin.

We left before the second show, not concerned by anything we had seen or might see, but because the four people next to us started smoking. It seems the bars under a certain size and at which food is not prepared can still allow smoking in Berlin.

And suddenly, amid all this retro-decadence and sophisticated Boho abandon, we felt like we were the civilised ones.

  • For more information on the David Bowie Walking Tour, and how to book tickets ($185 per person), click here.

Passing through Paris… then we take Berlin

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Checkpoint Charlie

I don’t know what I was thinking when I decided we should only have four days in Berlin in our Grand Tour of Europe late last year.  It’s a city neither of us had visited before and I thought, incredibly naively, that once you’d “done” the holocaust and the former Wall, that would be about it.

We could not have been more wrong, but we had been misled by friends who’d arrived without specific plans, decided to take an organised bus tour of the city and said that they felt they had seen it all before they had truly arrived.

However, before we even left the airport, it felt very different.  There were no luggage trolleys anywhere near the bag collection carousels. I found hundreds of them all chained together in a passageway – this is what happens when people have to part with a Euro coin to release one, when they have wheels on their suitcases anyway.

Having worked out that our pick-up  to the city was trying to contact us on Whatsapp, rather than waiting out side, we eventually made it to the small apartment hotel we’d booked into.

Called the Homaris Boxi Studios, it was in Boxhagener Straße, Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, the latter part of that hyphenation supposedly being the trendy part of Berlin although we found ourselves firmly in the Friedrichshain area, a fairly lengthy Bolt – an alternative to Uber – ride from the action.

We had booked three walking tours – one based on the TV series Babylon Berlin, another a history tour and the third all about British Rock star David Bowie. We cancelled the first because there was a timing clash at their end and we realised we weren’t that familiar with the locations on the TV series anyway.

The second tour, we thought was one hour, for some reason, but turned out to be closer to three. We walked a long, long way and crammed a lot in.  Berlin looks magnificent with wide boulevards and beautiful old historic buildings. Well, kind of old and pretty historic.  The city was almost flattened and many of the older buildings were rebuilt or significantly repaired or restored.

Staure of Martin Luther

A diorama of the old part of the city a few hundred years ago

The TV tower – as sunset you can see a cross on the globe – it’s calle “the Pope’ Revenge” on anti-religious Communists. on

Statues over the Spree river

Thrill seekers are swinging off the top of that building

What we discovered was that, even though the Berlin Wall fell 35 years ago the city still has a split personality. For instance, the pedestrian crossing lights in former East Berlin feature a cartoonish character called Ampelmann, complete with a little hat.

Also, as our guide explained, you can tell when you’re in former East Berlin because the trams are still running.  After the war, the Americans and British ripped up the tramlines in their half of the city because they saw a future in which everyone would use cars and light rail would be obsolete. Sound familiar?

There are so many things to do and places to visit.  It would take four days to do any kind of justice, just to Museum Island – an area of the city with five major museums and a modern art gallery all within metres of each other.

Nearby, one of the most poignant reminders of the political lurch to the extreme Right that presaged the Holocaust in Germany is the Empty Library on the spot where in 1933, German students burned 20,000 books from many, mainly Jewish, communist, liberal and social-critical authors, before a large audience at the university’s Old Library and in the middle Bebelplatz.

There you can look down through a window in the ground to see a room of empty white shelves. Think of that every time you hear about a library being pressured to remove books because someone wants people not to even know there are other ways of thinking.

Checkpoint Charlie is a must-see, of course, even though the barriers have gone and the actual checkpoint booth is in a museum somewhere else in the City

Our tour took us to one of the remaining sections of the Wall, where you’ll find the Topography of Terror  exhibit and library which includes the remains of cells where the Gestapo tortured dissidents, Jews, gays and Roma people before sending them off to concentration camps.

After we walked to a sad and inconspicuous carpark under which is buried the bunker where Adolf Hitler killed his wife, Eva, and shot himself rather than be taken alive by the vast Russian army that was laying siege to the city.

And we ended up at the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe aka the Holocaust Memorial, which is where our tour guide left us after extracting well-earned donations.  The tour is advertised as being free but you can give the guide what you think it was worth; only budget-challenged backpackers would baulk at handing over ten or twenty bucks or even more.

Next week, we’ll explore Belin’s world of spies and strangeness. But before we go, I have to mention the one thing we forgot to do which was to buy a Berlin Welcome Card which not only gives you free rides on public transport but offers genuine discounts at museums and restaurants.  Next time!

Flying up front has bonuses – even on a budget

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The sitting, working, eating and lie-flat sleeping pod in Vietnam Airlines Business class.

It was a fellow writer and occasional tour guide who first alerted me to the budget luxuries of flying Vietnam Airlines business class to Europe.

Prices vary depending on how far in advance you book and how full the flights are but for around $7k return to Paris, London, Munich and soon Milan, you get a lie-flat bed for the most punishing legs of the trip.

The 13 hours between Saigon and Europe are hard in coach and tolerable in premium economy.  But for anyone who can afford it, those lie-flat beds are like time travel – you go to sleep after a very nice meal and wake up in your destination in the morning, ready for a full day of touristing.

Kudos then to Dr Will Davis, historian and author, who leads guided tours to the battlefields of Northern France , who first alerted me to this relatively luxurious way of getting to France and the UK.

As he pointed out, the daunting 16-hour layover in Saigon on the way back is far from punishing if you book into a hotel for a night or two, especially if you organise an early check-in and late check-out.

That means you get two full days at the beginning and end of the layover.  You could even book a room for the day, depending on the hotel.

Our choice – the Silverland Ben Thanh – allowed a 7am check-in and 6pm check-out for 50 per cent of the room rate each. For us, slipping one night in between, that meant breakfast, a snooze and a shower on the morning of day one, and a full day including an early dinner on departure day.

Add in two free (and scrumptious) afternoon teas and you feel you’re being treated like royalty.

So what else does this minor extravagance get you? There’s the Vietnam Airline Lotus lounges as you pass through Saigon. These are not the most salubrious airline lounges you will ever encounter – far from it.  But they have good wi-fi, mostly edible food, comfortable seats and, if you prefer to fly pre-loaded, unlimited alcohol.

The real treat is at the other end where the access to Air France lounges in Paris get you all of the above plus very fancy shower and nap rooms.

The seats on the flight are very comfortable – you are in a semi-enclosed space in a 1-2-1 herringbone formation – and uncurl into a flat bed, literally at the press of a button.

Just to be clear, I don’t always fly business class – I wish I could afford it – but I will choose Premium Economy, if it’s available.  My new rule is any flight of more than nine hours has to be nearer the pointy end.

And there are a lot of tier two airlines that offer reduced rates for seats closer to the flight deck, although the definition of Business Class can vary considerably from airline to airline.

Madame Mildrover does not share my preferences in this regard. She thinks Business Class is overpriced and elitist.  However, since she doesn’t drink alcohol and doesn’t eat on the flight – and I mean no food between take-off and landing – many of the little luxuries aren’t available to her anyway.

Speaking of food, even in business class and armed with a top-level frequent flyer rating, you still have to book your vegetarian or other irregular meal at least 24 hours before departure.

But the food that you do get is a cut above what you normally get further down the plane, with proper cutlery and a cloth napkin with a buttonhole sewn into one corner, so you can fasten it on and don’t end up wearing more of your meal than you eat.

That business class flight to Europe in October was also enhanced value because of the queue-jumping privileges of being a “priority” passenger.  Check-in, immigration and security were all a breeze.

I was also a good, civilised start to the trip that I outlined last week which took us to Berlin, London, Glasgow, Limoges in France, and Paris. It was the last time we flew Business until we headed home, but it was worth every cent.

Next week: Berlin, from Burlesque to Bowie

How the best-laid travel plans often go astray

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The departure Gates at Charles De Gaull airport in Paris ... before the plans went to pot.

Welcome to our European vacation – something to keep you amused over the Christmas break.

At the end of October, Sue and I embarked on our first long holiday together for ages.  When I say holiday – it was largely a work trip as she (to the greater extent) and I had some research we needed to do for upcoming books and travel features.

The trip was to take us to Paris, en route for Berlin, then to London, Southampton, Glasgow, London again, Avignon, Paris and Saigon before returning home.  This was all intended to be done as sustainably as possible, by taking trains wherever they were available.

In terms of what was intended, and what eventually occurred, it was an unmitigated disaster. The intention was to fly to Paris Charles De Gaulle – no way of avoiding a flight if you want to go to Europe – then take a train into Paris, then from Paris to Berlin, including a sleeper.

The next train would take us from Berlin to Brussels to catch the Eurostar under the Channel to London.  We’d then take the train to Southampton, for reasons I’ll explain later, then somehow take the train to Scotland, then another back to London.

From London, we’d take the Eurostar to Paris, then the fast train to Avignon, then back to Paris and, after a few days, board a flight to Sydney via Saigon.

For a variety of reasons, almost none of that happened, apart from the flights from and to Sydney.

For a start, sleeper trains do not agree with madame and, after 22 hours of flying from Sydney, she did not relish the idea of a long and sleepless train ride to Berlin, so that became a two-hour flight instead.

Obviously, the train trip from Berlin to London was even less attractive, so that became a flight to Stansted with a quick train ride to London at the end of it. Except the Stansted Express wasn’t running so we had to take a train north to Cambridge and then south to London.

The train ride to Southampton two days later was fast and comfortable.  Sue is writing a book about the Duke of Wellington and the university there is where all his papers are held.

Now, I had spent hours trying to schedule trains, via wherever, to get us from Southampton to Glasgow and it was going to take days.  Finally, I consulted a travel website and it revealed that there are a couple of fights a day from Southampton Airport to Glasgow. What? Why?

I didn’t even know Southampton had an airport. But a lot of UK-based cruises leave from the city and Scots love a cruise.  Once again, the trains lose out. 

At this point, I have to say that trains in the UK can be horrendously expensive and often unreliable. One of the biggest mistakes they ever made in the UK was to denationalise this critical element of their infrastructure.

It would be the biggest mistake, but then there’s Brexit – the error of which you don’t fully appreciate until you are in a non-EU passport queue at any immigration desk.

So we flew to Glasgow and, having given up on our sustainability quest, flew to London.  Now, this is where it gets embarrassing. The trip to Avignon had been cancelled because Madame has a dear friend from her university days who lives in Limoges and you can guess the rest.

You can also guess that there are flights from London to Limoges that cost very little more than the cost of trains and are a lot less hassle.  I also have to confess that I had anticipated that at this stage of our journey we’d be done with queueing so I purchased every fast track option available.

The train from Limoge to Paris was slow but comfortable and the seats had flip-down tables so we could work.  But the score of trains versus planes, which should have been 7-2, turned out to be 2-7.

Now, there’s an awful lot more to this than how we got from place to place, but it’s worth noting that we flew business class on Vietnam Airlines for just over $7,000 return, each. That bit, at least, we got right.

Next week, I’ll tell you all about what we did Berlin and why we’d go back there in a heartbeat.

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