My Portuguese travels continued from Lisbon to the Algarve’s sunny south. I chose to explore the eastern Algarve, near the Spanish border, rather than the heavily touristed stretch between Faro and Lagos to the west. I’m told that tourism didn’t develop heavily down there because the coast to the east of Faro is made up of sandy barrier islands. A lagoon sits between these long narrow islands and...
It’s Banned Books Week. I’m sure the majority of people aren’t aware of this. And even avid readers may have missed the news. But this is the special time each year when we pause to think about censorship, and to remember all the great literature that has been banned, suppressed or otherwise made purposefully unavailable in an effort to control what we read and think. I’m talking about monumental...
My Lisbon wanderings took me outside the city one day, and into the magical hills of Sintra. And I don’t use the term “magic” lightly… Magic has long been associated with the area. And it’s moss-clad forests resonate with otherworldly chants. Even the Romantic poet Lord Byron wrote about the place in the 18th century. His poem “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage” cites “Cintra’s glorious Eden.” It was a...
I’m kicking back in Lisbon at the moment, and I want to share some of my impressions with you. This is a very laid back city with a great multicultural feel. I love the strong links to the history of exploration (I’ll have more to say about that in my next blog…). And, although it’s past its prime on the world stage, Lisbon has a vibrant energy that’s lacking in other European capitals. You can...
There are hours of the night when we reach our lowest ebb. Dark hours when doubts creep in. We question ourselves. And everything is up for grabs — even our most deeply held beliefs. I wrote the following words in Spain last summer. I was sitting on a bench in a deserted Barcelona airport concourse at 3am, struggling to stay awake. These are the worries I confided to my notebook: I find myself...
Berlin is a city where art lives and breathes. I went there recently for a dose of art and culture. My little Mediterranean island is piled with history, many stones deep. And beauty is present too, but art is scarce. And I need art to remind me of what my work could be. I was searching for a serious injection of creative inspiration. And so I began with the area I understand least: modern art...
I spent a week in Berlin right before the Christmas holidays. We rented an apartment in Mitte, near the Rosenthaler Platz U Bahn station. A gentrified neighbourhood of ethnic restaurants, dimly lit bars and newly renovated apartments with enormous windows, modern furniture, heated floors and soundproofed walls. Close to the fashion district, and to small galleries filled with big fringe ideals. I...
I was in Berlin this past week, getting a huge dose of art and culture — something I’m starved for on my small Mediterranean island. I went there to soak up the gritty feel of the city, and to hang out in museums and small galleries. But I also ended up wandering through a bunch of Christmas markets. They were everywhere. And they had good food. The Christmas Market tradition goes all the way...
The British overseas territory of Gibraltar guards the entrance to the Mediterranean. The landward side of the peninsula borders the Spanish province of Cadiz. It’s a rather contentious border, and if you stretch it a bit I guess you could call it one of the last potential flashpoints in Western Europe. That’s what Spanish politicians would have you believe, anyway. I drove there from Conil de la...
You’ll recall that in my last blog I was scouting out the Costa de la Luz in Spain as a potential candidate for my “life after Malta” base. And I promised to reveal more about how I choose my next location. I’ve heard so many horror stories about folks who sold their homes and cashed in all their chips to move to their dream “place in the sun,” only to realize they absolutely hated it and wanted...