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Waspish Wendy and my final Camino take-aways

8th October 20268th October 2026 funtime65

My wingwoman stayed away but I won’t let her off with it as today it’s all about Waspish Wendy and my final Camino take-aways.

The self-styled ‘Mrs Always Right’ mooted joining up with us, that’s Big Brother Ed and I, on our Camino Portugues.

But in the end she wished us well from a safe distance.

But not before leaving me with a stinger… ‘watch out for the wasps’!

On account of our first stop-off on our Camino Frances in 2015.

And reminded me of it as she followed my Camino Portugues travails this time.

All of which in a kinda wending Way brings me to my takeaways from my two Caminos over 11 years.

Fail to prepare, prepare to fail

Lucky for some: The first 13 — Writing on the wall: My first Camino

Less is more: And even if your provider Camino Ways do most of the heavy lifting for you, taking your luggage from stop to stop.

You will need a rucksack on your walk for waterproofs, and keep them foldaway into pouches to lighten your load.

And a spare pair of socks if yours get damp in the woods.

Water bottles, sweeties, fruit, a map (even in this digital age, and chargers), a wide-rimmed hat and first-aid kit.

And, of course your Camino passport and border document on your person alongside your mobile, wallet… and bandana.

Timing is, erm… everything

Earning my stripes: On the Via Francigena

Connections, connections, connections: And this relates more to the Via Francigena in Italy in my experience.

When I discovered the limitations of my interconnecting train to my starting point in Viterbo, 100km from Rome.

With it stopping halfway and me only finding out from a random English-speaker of a bus that leaves in the early hours.

All of which meant I had a four-hour lay-off in a one-horse town where the horse had left and did not get into Viterbo until 1am.

A Buen Camino goes a long way

Sitting down on the job: On the Camino Portugues

Hola, ola: OK, we might not all be polyglots but there’s little excuse these days not to converse in people’s own language.

If you prefer to keep it real then take your physical translation books.

While, of course, your phone will likely have a translation facility on it.

Now there’s always the capacity to get it wrong as in when The Scary One got her Yamas (cheers) and Hamas mixed up in Rhodes.

But the locals will invariably just be glad that you’ve tried.

And, of course, a Buen Camino is a welcome hug on the road.

Or a polite way of saying you’re coming through.

Tech it in your stride

I’ve grown into the part: A fellow beardie

Screen if you like: But nobody will hear you in the dark.

Only that’s not quite right as I discovered when Big Brother Ed, in the next room, rumbled me.

For effjng and blinding at my blinds that I couldn’t pull down in Padron on our penultimate day.

Eleven years has brought big digital changes.

And while I had sheets of papers with directions in my Camino package back then now it’s all on the portal.

Only you won’t need your Google Maps (famous last words).

As the yellow arrows and scallop shells posts will guide you on your way.

The world has changed too since Covid and you may have to scan menus on your phone now.

While Ryanair requires you check in on their app and use your phone at their machines for tagging your luggage.

All of which means you should leave more time at the airport.

Particularly if you’re one of those pariahs with a British passport.

We all walk the same Way

No man or woman is left behind: Now despite the bright yellow signs I defy you not to take a wrong turn somewhere.

And that’s when those who live and work along the Way come into their own.

Whether that be a driver or a woman hanging her washing out of the window.

While, of course peregrinos, or pilgrims, will always have your back, and backpack when you’re struggling.

Eleven years on and I’m right back where I was on the Camino Frances with Waspish Wendy and Rikke with a simple Buen Camino.

It will be the same now with Aussies Allan and Peter.

Big Brother Ed I have known 60 years.

And judging by what we’ve still got left in our legs a good many years to come and Caminos to walk.

Countries, Europe, Pilgrimage

Old the border for 720 years

28th September 2026 funtime65

And while the rest of the world has been trying to keep each other out here’s where they decided to old the border for 720 years.

We have, of course, the 1297 Treaty of Alcañicas to thank for the Portuguese-Spanish border, weas if we need to tell you that.

But we reckoned that milestone needed marking.

Which is why you see me stood here on the Valença International Bridge or Friendship Bridge.

Taking my first steps from Portuguese Valença over to Spanish Tui on my Portugués Camino.

Which conveniently for us, that’ll be me and Big Brother Ed, is 116kms to Santiago de Compostella.

Long enough to qualify for another Camino passport to go with my Frances Way one from 11 years ago.

A day in Portugal’s fortress town

Now, seeing we’ll only be in Portugal overnight we’d best have a look around.

Where we find a horde of Spaniards from just over the Minho trawling along Rua de Mousinho de Albuquerque for cheaper linen.

For all that the two countries have been at peace for 620 years.

There is a visible reminder that the Portuguese protect themselves ably.

And visitors will want to scale the Valença Fortress for the best views to Galicia.

While we’re advised that O Faz Figuras is best for traditional Minho dishes like bacalhau cod.

CaminoWays do the heavy lifting

We’re staying at the A Torre Do Xudes hotel in Tui.

Our first billet on our CaminoWays odyssey to Santiago de Compostella.

Where the bones of St James the Greater are venerated in the Cathedral.

Which is why pilgrims, or peregrinos, have been walking there for hundreds of years from all over Europe.

To earn grace and penitence and get time off Purgatory, the holding bay for Heaven.

Now back then in the Middle Ages, Michael O’Leary was just a twinkle in a great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather’s eye.

So you would have to leave from your own doorstep and walk across land and sea to get here.

While I saved myself the guts of a few weeks extra walking by taking a two-hour 50 minutes Ryanair flight from Edinburgh to Porto.

And while many peregrinos still carry their full backpacks and stay in hostels, or albergued, along the way.

CaminoWays do the heavy lifting for you, taxiing you to your first stop in TUI from Porto or Santiago.

Putting you up in your hotel and transporting your luggage to your next stay, all in your package.

The Way of James

Now the Way of St James will always mean something unique to everyone who travels it.

And for this James it is following in the footsteps of James the Elder.

James Gerard Murty, who would have been 100 but is gone 18 years now.

And although he will have found his way to Heaven, with only limited time in the Purgatory holding bay.

He continues to guide my path, and no doubt will lead me back on track when I undoubtedly go off course this week.

So come this Way with us and…

MEET YOU ON THE ROAD

Countries, Europe, Sport

Power to the padel and the new Wimbledon

9th August 20269th August 2026 funtime65

We always like to be there at the birth of a new phenomenon so we say power to the padel and the new Wimbledon.

It was lights out, all out, this past week as London took its place on the Formula 1-style Premier Padel calendar.

Padel, described to us in Portugal as the child that tennis and squash would have begotten, has taken Britain by storm this summer.

And 20,000 padel fans, new and old, have filed through Olympia to see padel’s finest put through their paces.

And with the type of flair and salesmanship you would expect from the Saudis who are championing the event.

Padel Pedro

Bat’s the way to do it: Champion padel players

Sela chief growth officer Luke Lloyd-Davies predicted: ‘My hope would be it could become a Wimbledon of padel.

‘It is all up for being shaped and discussed with Premier Padel and with the Lawn Tennis Association.’

Padel’s popularity has long been enjoyed in the Iberian peninsula.

Where it is even more popular than tennis and the second highest participation sport after football.

Padel’s beauty is, of course, in its simplicity.

Keeeeep dancin’: With Judy Murray in Portugal

With its underarm serve, smaller enclosed court and glass walls keep rallies alive longer.

The underarm serve, smaller enclosed court, and glass walls keeping rallies alive longer.

And making it simple for beginners including this tyro in Quinto do Lago in Portugal.

Armed then with the tennis skills passed on to me by Judy Murray (only the best).

Padel prices

Its accessibility too makes it a clear winner with Spain and Portuguese courts costing between €6 and €20.

Meaning at its optimum only €5 for the four of you.

Ideal for couples and families on holiday.

Compared to the £100 it could cost you around London.

Just a nod there to the padel people who are trying to hit me up here for a donation for a court around East Lothian.

Although they might want to sign me up as a professional.

Africa, Countries, Europe, Sport

Bring on the 2030 World Cup and Spain, Portugal and Morocco

19th July 202619th July 2026 funtime65

And by the time you read this it will be all over so bring on the 2030 World Cup and Spain, Portugal and Morocco.

Which we would suggest, Mexico excepting, is ‘football coming home’ to the Old World.

And closer, and less expensive, for those of us who live in the tip of an island in the North of Europe.

A Nou experience

Barca legends: Messi is still everywhere

Now Spain, Portugal and Morocco are loco about their football as we have discovered first hand.

When we helicoptered over Barcelona (is there any other way?) and gasped at the sight of the Nou Camp.

Only to be told by the pilot that that was the reserve side’s ground.

While Jose, our Special One guide, in Portugal explained.

That under the dictator Salazar he ran the country by the Three Fs… Football, Fado and Fatima.

Portugal’s secular God

All of which became clearer in that Marian site when meeting the niece of one of the Little Shepherds (as you do) in the porch of her house.

And seeing that among the stands of holy relics and statues of Our Lady what stood out was…

A beach towel of Portugal’s secular God, one Cristiano Ronaldo.

Now we’ve flagged up already this year how the AFCON tournament held in Morocco was pitched.

At the kind of prices that would buy you a hot dog and a beer at the WC.

Although once Gianni Infantino gets his claws into that we expect tagines and mint teas to surge in price.

Shirt hits fan in Morocco

While you’ll have to have your wits about you when it comes to bartering.

Again which we found out to our cost when buying the oblig national football team’s shirt in Jemaa el-Fnaa in Marrakech.

Now if you’re reading this in South America, you’ve got the consolation of having single games in Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay.

A nod to the centenary of the first competition held in Fray Bentos land back in 1930.

All that’s left now is to pull down the 48 flag bunting from the garden fence.

Who knows who’ll be on it in four years’ time but we do know should Scotland get there then they’ll do it the hard way.

Countries, Deals, Europe

All you need is Algarve

11th October 2025 funtime65

All you need is Algarve, it’s the story of Paul and Portugal, let it Penina Albufeira and the Beatles.

Of course. it was a different time, the explosion of package holidays, which even drew in one of the biggest pop stars of his day.

It is hard to imagine the Paul McCartney of today wandering into reception in a Portuguese hotel.

And asking to have five pounds exchanged into escudos (ask your parents).

But party animal and general good guy Paul was persuaded into joining house band Jota Herre on stage in the Sixties.

And improvising a song at the piano which became Penina, before entertaining the patrons until 4am.

Fado Goodbye

And there the story may have stayed other than Portuguese prattle.

Had it not been for Paul playing a version of the song with John Lennon and Ringo Starr during the Get Back sessions.

And Jota Herre recording and releasing the song in March of that year, 1969, followed by Portuguese singer Carlos Mendes.

All of which pop legend is still played out at the Penina.

And Albufeira nights at the Radisson Blu nights in Edinburgh’s Royal Mile.

Macca’s pitch

Come on Aileen: With Senorita Albufeira Aileen

Of course when you have such a prized piece of estate as the Paul McCartney piano he played on that night, well you’d keep it.

It is not unfortunately recorded in the annals of history whether Macca played a round of golf.

At the Panina, the country’s first golf course, designed by major winner Henry Cotton.

But the Penina is still dining out on its Paul McCartney connections.

Deal us in

Just 45 minutes from Faro Airport and served by Ryanair and Jet2 Penina has of course many other features to appeal.

Such as the biggest pool in the Algarve, an Olympic-style swim.

And the first and oldest course in Portugal, dating from 1966.

And standing at their version of St Andrews’ iconic Swilcan Bridge.

We found a random week in November with our go-to providers loveholidays from £778 for two, down from £843.

Countries, Europe

Albufairer for everybody

5th July 2025 funtime65

And because all British tourists don’t see the Med as a trash can they should welcome a new code of conduct as Albufairer for everybody.

I’m indebted here, as I always was in our years working together in Ireland, to Irish Algarve expat Caroline Smith, for the steer.

That the Albufeirians have introduced a new set of rules to keep their resort and town clean.

With the new code in place now for a fortnight there have already been several arrests made.

Not that I or my school buddies were schoolboys.

And we probably should have been lifted by the gendarmes for holding up the traffic on the French Riviera.

The naked truth

Calm down: Post-school parties in Albufeira

Boys will be boys and girls girls but we can all have a rerr terr in the Algarve without spoiling it for everyone else.

Caroline fills us in that the code of conduct had been in the pipeline for years.

But that some of the behaviours from last year were seen as excessive.

And the authorities pushed through the changes early.

With casual antisocial patterns like strolling around the streets in swimsuits/bikinis while drinking and drunk.

The last straw though was when a group of young Britons got their kit off and partied stark naked in a bar.

We didn’t find out what happened to said ravers and it may well be still going through the courts.

Another fine mess

But a warning here for anyone who might think that that’s a good ruse then be aware of these new penalties.

👉Wearing bikinis or swimwear outside beach or pool zones: fines from €300 to €1,500.

👉Drinking alcohol in the street, urinating, or defecating in public: also €300 to €1,500.

👉Nude or sexual acts in public: fines between €500 and €1,800.

👉Wild camping, sleeping rough, or spitting in public: €150 to €750.

The ba’ is burst

Good clean fun: With Cliff Richard in Faro

Again I’m guided by Caroline that such high, but merited, penalties are not already in place across the whole of the Algarve.

A word here too to the acquaintances from my past who broke the skylight.

With a football, resulting in their parents having to fork out for the damage to the owners.

Not sure what the fine these days for that type of misbehaviour would be.

But we say Parabens Algarve because your new code is Albufairer for everybody.

We found return flights from Edinburgh to Faro for August with Ryanair for a sample £186.83pp.

And you’d be surprised who you might bump into in the airport!

Countries

30 years with the Travel and Strife

17th September 202417th September 2024 funtime65

You Pearler… 30 years with the Travel and Strife and time to look back and forward.

Our journey, in truth, started four years earlier in Herself’s Homestead, the Royal County of Berkshire.

With our first pitstop a city which for that reason, and its own, will always be magical to us, Amsterdam.

Off the beaten track

Can I be trusted on a bike? In Amsterdam

Twenty-five years spanned our visits to the pride of the Netherlands and we ditched the ubiquitous bikes along the way.

We had taken the road less travelled on our first trip, going to Edam on its half day.

And then taking the wrong fork on the road back to Amsterdam.

We took a different tack when we were invited out to the Dylan.

And so it was canal boats and the luxury of the hotel George and Amal frequent in theirs, and now our, visits to Holland.

Wear slip-on shoes

We all form attachments to those countries and cities we first go to as children and couples.

And Portugal holds a special place too in our hearts despite another cycling mishap in the Algarve.

But one we got to put right in Portugal Centro years later under the guidance of our own Special One Jose Madomis.

Malta would follow when in an unguarded moment I bent down at dinner to tie up my shoelace and she screamed ‘Yes’.

The Scot in me, I went back years later on my own to see if I could redeem on the bottle of Champagne we didn’t finish…

And so Corfu followed for our honeymoon when the handsome Greek waiter was most attentive to our table.

And my bride was blushing when it transpired he was eyeing me up.

On our Travails

We made the most of those intimate moments then, knowing holidays would never be the same when Him and Her came along.

And waited until we could take off again together, to the Soll slopes in Austria.

That road trip around Portugal Centro.

To George and Amal’s gaffe in Amsterdam.

And up the fjords of Norway and around the Rieperbahn of Hamburg.

Still stumbling along the way and trying to get back on track.

And all the time still following Her lead.

Even when that meant us getting on the bus to Berlin instead of Keil.

The Mother of all Dragons

Or turning up in Monaghan a weekend early and turning that Irish Midlands town upside down.

There have been travails aplenty and pleasures like poppy seeds in Rome and Venice and travels to come.

With an anniversary Loveholidays trip to Dubrovnik to come next month with my very own Mother of Dragons.

Just another marker in 30 years with the Travel and Strife.

Bring on the next 30.

MEET YOU ON THE ROAD

Countries, Deals, Europe, Sport

Tennis is a smash in the Algarve

9th March 202414th March 2024 funtime65

Ya dancer… Portugal is courting us again and proving once more that tennis is a smash in the Algarve.

We first crossed racquets with the tennis set in Quinta do Lago when Judy Murray put me through my paces.

Of course despite her peerless coaching qualities it was clear that my tennis was as good as my dancing.

Which as many have found out around the world gives Dancing Dads a bad name.

Thing is though that tennis players, as Judy showed, are naturals on the dancefloor… all that moving from foot to foot.

Croft original

Another hotfooting it out to the Algarve is the charming Annabel Croft who also wowed us on Strictly Come Dancing.

Annabel, of course, has her own Tennis Academy at the Pine Cliffs Resort, a luxury collection resort in the Algarve.

And it hosted the 13th edition of their annual tennis competition the Winners’ Cup with Annabel dropping in to see the action.

Annabel, who came fourth on Strictly and will be dancing again with her former Strictly partner Johannes Radebe during his live tour played a few rallies.

The first day of the cup was full of free activities for competition participants and their guests, where Annabel led the Tennis Clinic.

Go for a padel

Meanwhile, Diogo Schaefer, Portuguese national padel player and professional coach, headed the Padel Clinic…

Padel was explained to me as the child that squash and tennis would bear.

The Winners’ Cup 2024 golf grand final took place on the second day with an 18-hole tournament, while the tennis semi-final and grand final took place shortly after.

Posting on her Instagram, Annabel wrote: “A wonderful weekend at my Tennis Academy at @pinecliffs Resort 🎾. It felt so amazing to be back wearing my tennis shoes and in Portugal, one of my favourite places in the world 😎.

Congratulations to all the players who competed in the Winners’ Cup – I so loved watching you all 👏🏼🥳 xxx”.

Every day is an education

The Annabel Croft Tennis Academy at Pine Cliffs has been running since 2013, and offers a huge variety of coaching activities as well as tennis camps over five days with 10 hours of coaching focusing.

There are camps for all ages, including a Junior Tennis Camp (4-13 years) and Teenage Tennis Camp (13-17 years), which start from €280/£254 per person. Meanwhile, an Adult Tennis Holiday starts from €340/£314 per person.

Private lessons can also be booked from €70/£64 per hour or shared lessons from €33/£38 per hour per person.

The resort won ‘The Best Family Resort’ in Europe by the World Luxury Hotel Awards.

And it boasts the Porto Pirata children’s club with life size pirate ships, MIMO Algarve – a cooking school with family classes.

For adults there is also a 9-hole golf course and Serenity Spa – The Art of Wellbeing with a myriad of treatments and its indoor Thermal Oasis with a herbal sauna, hydrotherapy pool, jacuzzi, steam room and a salt sauna.

The resort offers hotel accommodation as well as luxury suites, apartments, and private villas, for self-catering.

There are eight swimming pools at the resort, as well as 11 restaurants and bars, which offer a wide variety of cuisines and dishes to cater to every taste.

And all major airlines fly out to Faro.

America, Countries, Europe, UK

Our books bedroom in Portugal

7th March 2024 funtime65

The Tidy One despairs at the contestants in Stacey Solomon’s Sort Your Life Out, preferring to leave her own pageturners neatly on the cabinet… so I was surprised she went for the clutter in our Books Bedroom in Obidos in Portugal.

The Literary Man comes to mind today especially when we all channel our inner reader on World Book Day.

When we got to lie back on the mattresses on the floor surrounded by books and think of whatever imaginary world grabbed our fancy then.

Of course, this being Portugal we had dined and wined on the best fish and Vinho Verde.

Now there is something tiimeless about book festivals and the towns which live off them.

The Folio

For Obidos, it’s Folio (Festival Literario Internacional De Obidos and see what they’ve done there) an 11-day literary event from October 10.

Divided into five chapters (we like it) – Authors, Folia, Educa, Ilustra and Bohemia – the festival provides many hours of programming.

Including a diversity of activities such as writers’ tables, concerts and exhibitions, involving a large number of direct participants, including authors, thinkers, artists and creatives.

Book your festival

Now for every Obidos there’s an Edinburgh International Book Festival, a Hay Festival in Hay-on-Wye in Wales.

The Jaipur Literature Festival in India (the biggest in the world) and the Brooklyn in New York to name just a few.

Of course we don’t need a book festival to stimulate our interest in reading… book shops, stalls and libraries abound around the world.

And reading is still, despite our obsession with our phones, one of life’s great pleasures.

And for many one of the joys of being on holiday as we relax away from our normal routine and enjoy a latest blockbuster or book we’ve been waiting to read.

Books too are a wonderful sharing experience.

Now admit it, and I’m the first to put my hand up tot taking a book away from me from hotels around the world.

Reading is sharing

The most recent on a skiing expedition in Val D’Isere after a night of the apres-ski.

Mind you I have left my fair share of books, and thinking here of leaving Leon Uris’s Trinity in Malta and Boy George’s autobiography in the Maldives.

If you picked them up then you’re welcome.

Wherever you’re reading today, enjoy.

Me, I’m letting my mind wander to our books bedroom in Portugal.

While the Tidy One cusses at the contestants on the BBC show Stacey Solomon’s Sort Your Life Out.

Countries, Deals, Europe

Brush up on the birdies in Portugal

24th January 202424th January 2024 funtime65

Now if like me you don’t know your oyster-catcher from your curlew then you’d better brush up on the birdies in Portugal.

Our feathered friends are everywhere on the Algarve.

Not surprising in a country, Portugull, which has a bird in its name.

And, of course, the birdies would flock to the Algarve where fish is on every dish.

So much so that certain birds have even adapted their physiology to suit.

Spoon fed

As we discovered when we came across the unique spoon-billed ibis on our cycle ride through the Ria Formosa National Park.

Of course, whizzing through the woods is fun but isn’t the best way to appreciate the mouthy ibis.

That would be getting out on the water on a private or group catamaran cruise.

Mazeballs

The Ria Formosa is a 60km maze of canals, islands, marshes and barrier islands.

Known in these parts as Portugal’s Seventh Natural Wonder you can also find yourself beautiful hidden beaches for that picnic.

And unwrap your fishie dishie though watch out for swooping ibises.

Because these ones are easy to spot.

And this from someone who despite living more than half his life by various coasts doesn’t know his curlew from his oystercatcher.

Which inevitably brought scoffs from my own little ornithologist back here.

Speed your way

The speed boat tour lasts 1 to 2 hours and houses seven twitchers.

Optional private hire is available too. Prices start from €25/£22pp.

Our Algarve amigos advise us that the boutique Casa Modesta is the place to stay.

They bill it as a sustainable boutique eco-retreat overlooking the lagoon.

And blending stylish minimalistic luxury and traditional design.

Casa Modesta is just four miles from Olhão city centre and encourages their guests to practise sustainable travel.

Prices: €160/£135 per night based on two adults staying in a room with sea-view.

With all major airlines flying into Faro.

Watch this space

All perfect to brush up on your birdies in Portugal.

And we’re indebted here to trekking site for a spoonbilled heads up on 20 notable resident birds in these parts.

Including the Greater Flamingo, the Western Swamphen, the Redbilled Chough, Little Bustards (steady) and the Stone-Curlew.

Oh, that’s what they look like!