10 Thoughts About Paris October 7, 2006
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Travel , add a comment1. Any Metro that has such beautiful signs has to be a good thing.
2. If you live near London, take Eurostar. Its better for the environment, and much, much less stressful. Waltz though checkin and the security checks in a few minutes carrying as many toiletries as you wish, and let it take you straight into the heart of Paris.
3. Walking around the streets of Paris is as good as any of the ’sights’. Its very easy to get lost with all the odd angles, but you’ll find something beautiful, or at least a good cafe. I was staying in the 3rd district, home of the Marais, and spent the best part of three days just wandering, stopping in at the occasional museum or interesting building, having coffee and just enjoying the area.
4. If you dine alone, the 25cl carafe is an excellent idea. Served with a small glass, you drink less, but it still lasts the whole meal.
5. If you’re looking for a meal near the Place de la Republique, try Fontaines d’Elysabeth on 1 Rue Ste Elysabeth (ph 01.42.74.36.41). Its very small, and there’s no name outside, but the cassoulet was delicious and two courses of the menu du jour was only €12 (about £8).
6. Apartment buildings above shops and cafes bring life into the central city, rather than separating residential and commercial districts. Its not much fun living on the ground floor anyway, and so much better to have a friendly local cafe on your doorstep. Parisiens are slim because so many of them walk up 4 or 5 flights of stairs every time they go home.
7. The whole thing about French people being snotty about speaking English is an utter myth. Its good manners to try to speak French, but like most big cities many people speak a fair bit of English, especially if they’re dealing with tourists.
8. The Musee Carnavelet has an excellent collection of the history of Paris, particularly of revolutionary times, and is well worth seeing. Its also free.
9. Every time I visit Paris, I find something new in the Louvre. Its so vast that a single visit is overwhelming, so its easiest just to aim for one area. 
This time, I saw the Mesopotamian collection, including the Freize of the Archers from the palace of Darius I at Persepolis. Beautifully coloured and lifelike, they’re works of art as well as interesting ancient monuments.
10. Finally, a word on hotels. I tend to go for a single room in 1-2 star hotels and small pensions in most places, with my own bathroom.
The Hotel Americain, where I stayed for four nights, was good for €72 per night for a single. Staff were friendly, it was clean and warm - a good basic hotel. The bathroom was a bit odd, with a shower tray and a shower head at waist height, as is common in Greece.
For the last two nights I stayed at Hotel Meteore, just down the road, for a mere €60 per night for a double room. It was clean and a decent room, but cold with a lot of street noise. They also demand upfront payment. Go in summer, and take earplugs.
Tomorrow, I’m not going to Naples September 7, 2006
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Environment, Travel , 5 commentsFlying is my biggest contribution to global warning, and I’ve decided to give it up. This isn’t entirely due to CO2 guilt, but the recent misery induced by the war on moisturiser has tipped me over the edge. Three or four days a week, I work at my main client’s offices near Gatwick, and walk through the departures area, wrestling through the queues of people waiting to start their holidays and business trips with tiny carryon bags, and it isn’t getting any better.
I try to minimise my impact and, with a small flat, rare use of central heating and no car, flying is my main contribution to carbon-induced climate change, but no more.
When I booked the weekend in Pisa, I also booked tickets to Naples, but they are now cancelled. My next holiday will be to Paris, on Eurostar.
It is very sad. I love travelling, and I’ve worked in the travel industry for most of the last ten years. However, the time has come to change.
Technorati Tags: global warming, reduce impact
Leave the Jet Planes August 27, 2006
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Environment, Green in the City, Politics, Travel , add a commentThe trip to Pisa last week brought me face to face with the new security restrictions at airports and, for the first time, I find myself seriously reluctant to fly. Guilt has been mounting because of the impact flying has on the environment but travel, and my love of Greece and Italy, have always won.
Its certainly not fear of terrorism that’s done it, but the sheer misery of flying now. Rather than checking in online, and arriving at the airport less than an hour before the flight leaves, then waltzing off at the other end to bypass the luggage queues and get the first taxi off the rank, on Friday night, I queued for forty five minutes behind people with tiny bags to get to one of three security checkpoints open out of the six available. I watched people being told to throw away cosmetics, and a little four year old girl being frisked. The flight was about an hour late. On the way back, it was a similar story. Although Pisa airport were allowing normal amounts of hand luggage, they were not allowing liquids of any form through. That flight was just under two hours late.
The DTO, with their over-zealous regulations, and BAA with their obvious lack of contingency planning have done what fear of climate change has failed to do, and, I suspect, destroyed the short break market. All the airline investment in online checkin and enough handbaggage to go away for the weekend have come to nothing. The many people who take two or three weekends away a year may not be kicking up a fuss or cancelling their flights, but I bet they’re not booking them either.
Anecdotal evidence suggests business travellers are also reconsidering, and rethinking the practicality of trains for 4-6 hour trips, rather than just the very short ones. If flights are consistently delayed, and you need to be at the airport two hours before departure rather than one, Amsterdam is suddenly closer by train than by plane.
Longer holidays are probably not affected. If you were already going to check luggage in, and going for a couple of weeks, then an extra hour or two doesn’t matter so much. I suspect long-haul across the Atlantic, where you’re still not allowed to take a bottle of water even if it was bought airside, will become less popular for families.
The Green in me is pleased - air travel needs to be curtailed and if fear of climate change wasn’t enough to stop me then it wasn’t stopping many people. I will miss it though.
Technorati Tags: BAA, airport security, environment
Hotel Santa Croce in Fossabanda August 23, 2006
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Travel , 1 comment so farI’m always on the lookout for interesting, cheap hotels, clean and safe, but with personality and not too expensive. If it can be booked online that’s even better.
In Pisa, I stayed in the Hotel Santa Croce in Fossabanda, a former convent renovated in the eighties and now a delightful hotel. The thick, sturdy walls radiate tranquility and calm and although there are over fifty rooms, there is so much space it seems almost empty. Remnants of frescos on the corridor walls are a nice touch.
My room was basic, and I was surprised to find a TV and air conditioning. The bed was comfortable, but definitely a single and quite hard.
You’ll wake to the sound of bells for matins from the church attached to the building, but at a fairly civilised 7.30 am, and they don’t last very long.
Pet rabbits graze the grass in the central courtyard while you eat your continental breakfast in the cloisters. The breaksfasts are good, with fresh fruit, cheeses, meats and pastries.
It is about 500m from the river, and two kilometres from the leaning tower. Through venere.com I paid €45 per night for a single with shared bathroom, and breakfast, though this was a quiet time of the year.
Technorati Tags: Pisa, Santa Croce in Fossabanda
Pisa August 20, 2006
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Travel , 2 comments
I’ve finally found an open bar and a couple of restaurants, in a square by the river Arno. August is perhaps not the best month for visiting an Italian city, and the many signs saying ‘chuisi fiero’ make looking for that perfect restaurant in an ancient square rather more of a challenge than it ought to be.
It also makes the city and monuments less crowded, and I’ve spent the weekend wandering around looking at the architecture and sitting in the sun.
The famous tower is oddly beside the point. It sits in a large piazza dominated by the cathedral, a huge but light monument to the glory of God and the talents of late medieval Pisans. Together with the Baptistry, the three are a pleasing whole. It’s a treat to see an Italian cathedral with so much space around it, so it can be properly seen rather than hemmed in by tiny streets making it hard to see what’s there.
There’s something about Pisa that appeals greatly. It has beautiful churches and art but is less of a museum than Florence. It’s river seems to bring it together, with noble buildings on both sides and no obvious separation of North and South. People cycle everywhere and water in restaurant’s always comes in a jug. Recycling is big and this is the home of the slow food movement. It’s famous son’s include Fibonacci and Galileo. Political graffiti and posters are everywhere. It seems a very liveable place.
Off to Italy without toothpaste August 16, 2006
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Travel , 2 commentsA few weeks ago, in a fit of particularly un-ecofriendly wanderlust, I booked myself a cheap ticket to Pisa, flying out after work on a Friday night and back again on a Monday evening. The only way I can make this flight is if I take my luggage in the cabin, a simple proposition until last Thursday.
Now, I have to figure out how to pack my small laptop bag for the weekend. A change of clothes, a book, mobile phone and lots of washing is probably the answer. It had to be Italy, land of immaculate grooming, when all cosmetics and toiletries are banned.
Someone should set up a toiletries exchange at the airport, so passengers getting on flights can give their toothpaste and deodorant to people arriving. Pump action might be okay, though I can see rollons might not be too popular.
Perhaps its some sort of bizarre climate change karma come home to roost. Still, its better than last week when I would have had only my passport and unwrapped feminine hygiene products in a clear plastic bag.
Depending on the state of Italian wi-fi, I may be off the air until early next week.
A day in the Iliad July 8, 2006
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Travel , 3 commentsGold-filled Mycenae, strong-walled Tirins, Argos all are within a few miles of each other, and an easy day-trip from Nauplion. From the top of the citadel at Mycenae, you can just see Argos through the haze of the heat-filled afternoon. Tirins is a little further beyond, and only a few kilometers from Nauplion.
Of course, the gold from Mycenae is now in the archaeological museum in Athens or the smaller one on the site, and all that remains are the ruins of the walls and citadel, destroyed by fire in the late 13th century and never properly rebuilt. The tombs, shaped and buried to resemble hills, were probably completely forgotten for most of the time from that destruction until they were opened in the late 19th / early 20th centuries.
Mycenae is very different from the classical architecture the tourist in Greece is more familiar with. There are no elegant columns or wide spaces such as those at the Asklepios at Epidaurus or in the Acropolis at Athens. This is a tiny city built in heavy stone at the top of a hill, and must have been a tight mass of buildings with tiny narrow streets, perhaps similar to Greek hill villages even today. If the upper parts were built of wood, fire must have spread through very quickly.
It sits on a small hill, with high mountains immediately behind, facing down towards the sea and Argos. The natural barrier behind, and good visibility in other directions, must have made it easy to defend. Even today, walking up to the entrance alongside the walls is impressive. The blocks themselves are huge and, because of the way its built around the hilltop, the natural landscape enhances its sturdieness.
We’ll probably never know whether the tombs are really those of Agamemmnon and Klytemnestra (shown above), but it’s nice to imagine the possibility, and better than just calling them ‘beehive shaped grave A’. The so-called treasury of Atreus is much larger than the others, with a sideroom that was blocked off, and smelt very musty. These tombs look like they were built by digging away a lot of a small hill, then building up the beehive shaped tomb within the dugout earth before covering it again. They’re much larger than, say, the long barrow at West Kennet, and particularly much much higher.
Its surprising just how dry and hot this climate is. By the time I decided to walk down to the village for lunch, it was easily in the mid-thirties, and would get much hotter in August. I found I was drinking huge amounts, with the humidity very low indeed. Like many places in Greece, this would not be much fun in the high summer, so its hard to see why the tourist hordes flock to these sites at that time. I think I’d struggle to do more than move from shady spot to sea and back again. The thought of building this city in that weather is appalling.
Hellaphagaphillia July 3, 2006
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Travel , 2 commentsn. the enjoyment of eating in Greece.
The first Greek phrase I learned was ‘ιμε ορτοφαγος‘, and although I’m no longer a vegetarian, most of my vocab still relates to eating. Greece hasn’t given us one of the world’s great cuisines, but the food itself is simple and good. The real joy of eating in Greece is the way its done. Slowly, late in the cool of the evening, with a carafe of wine and another of water, courses coming out randomly, a cat or two wandering past, trying its luck.
On my recent trip to Nafplio, I had dinner a couple of times in the Taverna Markezines, just down the road from my hotel. Its not always true that the ‘barrel wine’ should be allowed out of the barrel and into the glass, but in this place, it was perfectly drinkable. Green salads of lettuce and rocket were very fresh, covered in olive oil, vinegar and lemon. The chicken kebab was well cooked but moist. They didn’t even mind when the nice American chap at the next table went and got gelati from across the road for dessert (and one for me too).
And here’s the compulsory Greek Cat picture, from a lunch at the village of Mykines, a kilometer or so down the hill from the ancient site of Mycenae. You’ll never eat alone at an outside table in a Greek taverna.
Waters of Chania June 19, 2006
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Travel , add a commentIn Heraklion, the water is awful, over-chlorinated and salty. Its probably safe for teeth-brushing, but is undrinkable. In Chania however, its lovely. The white mountains of the Lefka Ori are limestone, and the water comes down through them to provide the drinking water of the town.
This is a limited resource though, and in the summer with the increased usage by tourists, it is not enough. Despite its excellent drinking water, Chania is plagued by the same problems which occur in virtually every tourist destination around the mediterranean. Overuse of local water resources by tourists having too many showers, hoteliers providing fresh water swimming pools to cater for those who want to look at the sea but not too bathe in it, watering gardens which look lovely but are unnaturally green for such a dry climate.
In many places, local villages are put on water restrictions to allow the tourist hotels to keep working in their profligate way. A few years ago, I visited Paphos in Cyprus, and had dinner with a rep who lived in a village just out of the town. Her village only had water available for two hours a day during the summer months, and this is not unusual in all summer tourist destinations around the mediterranean.
There is an argument that, because tourism is the major industry in these areas, that is a choice made by governments and people living there. That’s probably true, but someone living in a village not far from a big resort doesn’t necessarily profit much from mass tourism, and may not have a say in the allocation of water. It may not even be necessary as so much of this is put down to the ‘demands’ of tourists. Perhaps tourists could start demanding something different.
Here are some suggestions:
Take short showers. In Greece, you’ll often be confronted with a handheld shower with no way of attaching it to the wall. That’s good. It forces you to clean yourself quickly without lingering. Don’t complain about it, and tell the hotelier how much you like it. This may discourage them from replacing it with a full shower.
Don’t take too many showers. Try to keep it to one a day. Remember that in the high season, when the hotels are full, the populations of many resort towns expand by a factor of 5-10 or more, so water systems will struggle to cope. If you normally shower in the morning, but are planning to be on the beach all day, try switching to taking a shower just before dinner.
Swim in the sea. If you have children, and are worried about their safety, how about getting them swimming lessons in the UK. Make sure you swim between the flags, and keep them in sight. Sea water is much healthier, and possibly cleaner, than chlorinated pool water. After all, when small boys do what small boys do in the sea, there’s a lot further for it to dissipate than in a pool.
Encourage hotels to build salt water pools. Tell them how much you like salt water for bathing. Waterfront hotels can do this fairly easily, pumping water from the sea and round, though it needs more infrastructure for hotels set further back from the beach.
If the tap water is drinkable, drink it. This isn’t so much to save water, but to save all those plastic bottles that are a blight on the landscape everywhere. It is very unusual for the water in EU countries to be dangerous to drink, but it is often very salty, which makes it unpalatable. Try a little and make your own decision. If you have to buy water, get the biggest packs you can find, and decant into a smaller bottle.
Ask your hotel / restaurant if they provide filtered water, rather than bottled water. Express surprise if they don’t. Many good hotels and restaurants will do this now, particularly the more environmentally conscious ones.
Play golf in Scotland, not the Algarve. Scotland is lovely in the summer, and being outside all day in August will be much more pleasant there than in the boiling hot sun.
Visit in the late Spring or early Autumn. Many of these places are much more attractive in May or June than in July and August. They’re not so crowded and not so very hot. If you have to fit in with school holidays, maybe taking a holiday Britain, in northern Europe, or on the Atlantic coast of France, Spain or Portugal would be a better idea. Its not so far to travel, the weather is still good, and most places on the Atlantic coast of Europe have better water supplies.
Happy holidays!
Good hotel booking site June 15, 2006
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Travel , add a commentOn my recent trip to Crete, I used Bookings to book both the hotel I stayed in on the first night in Heraklion and the main one in Chania. I am impressed.
Its clear and easy to use, with a clickable map showing where all the hotels in an area are, lots of photos and guest reviews. I was quite dubious when I booked the hotel in Hania, knowing it only had four rooms, but it was fine. There’s no cumbersome registration process, and they only ask for information that’s needed to make your booking and take a credit card imprint in case you don’t show up. A couple of days after your stay, you get an email asking if you’d like to review the hotel.
They sound like they provide a good service to the hoteliers, which is important when you’re booking small hotels. The owner of the hotel in Hania commented that guests from Bookings always show up, and that the people she dealt with were very helpful.
This is one I’ll be using again.
