Perhaps a sign of an over resourced library is when it dumps out hundreds of books in generally excellent condition to be flogged off cheaply. Why on earth are these, and boxes and boxes more, being removed from stock from Norwich library?
I managed to resist the urge to buy hundreds of them, just buying one book about beer.
This is the Arrábida Bridge over the Douro River, an arch bridge made of reinforced concrete which was completed in 1963.
I’m not sure why I thought this was a good idea, since I don’t like climbing and I’m scared of heights.
Underneath the bridge. There were elevators on the bridge, but these were closed down in the 1990s as the parts to repair them were too expensive.
The climbing bit. Incidentally, I was entirely confused by the whole harness thing, which seemed a complete conundrum to put on. The guides were really helpful and friendly, although there was a visitor who was a Russian bridge engineer standing next to me who kindly explained how to deal with the very complex harness situation.
The view on the way up.
The river.
Me being very brave.
I was at one stage the only person on this trip, but there were a few walk-ups which meant that there were around eight of us in the end. There was a family where the mother didn’t want to go up, so she sat at the bottom eating cake whilst the rest of her family traipsed to the top.
There was a nice surprise of a chocolate and drink of port at the top of the climb, which was much appreciated. The climb wasn’t particularly expensive (about €14 I think), but it was an interesting attraction and the adventure lasted for around an hour. The views over the river were of course no better than just walking along the top of other nearby bridges, but it was still an experience and the guide gave lots of background information about the construction of the project. Apparently it’s the only bridge arch climb in Europe, which is slightly surprising.
One of the things that was pointed out was some graffiti which had been painted onto the side of the bridge a couple of decades ago. The guide said that no-one was sure how anyone could have gotten there to paint it, it must have been a feat of some ingenuity. The underside of the bridge had for a period been unprotected, so people used to make their own way up. This situation wasn’t though seen as ideal, and it was all blocked up.
Today, this is now one of the most popular attractions in the city centre, and it’s definitely worth having a little go. The climbing was actually relatively minimal and there weren’t really any potential safety issues as we remained some way from the side, something which entirely suited me.
I visited Porto in October 2016 and I took these photos when walking from the city centre to my hotel, which was as usual on a hill nowhere near the centre. Unfortunately the Google Photos compression has rather taken the edge off them, but they seemed quite atmospheric when I took them.
I saw this in the British Airways High Life magazine, I thought it was rather a nice message.
I’ve realised that despite visiting the B Gates Lounge at Heathrow T5 that I’ve never managed to take any photos of the interior of it. With the exception of the food, which I appear to have taken multiple photos of on numerous occasions. Strange that.
Anyway, this is my favourite BA lounge at Terminal 5 out of the three which I can access. There’s also the First Class lounge for those with gold cards and the Concorde Room for those flying first class, names which don’t quite make sense but are logical for reasons I’ll go into on another occasion.
B Gates Lounge is the quietest of the BA lounges as it’s generally used only by passengers flying from B or C Gates and they usually are only there for a short period of time. There’s a legacy reason for this, as a few years ago there was no way to get back from B or C Gates (or no easy way) and so it would be ridiculous to go there before the gate numbers were announced. However, there are now public tunnels to B Gates, so passengers can walk there at any time, and more importantly, they can walk back.
So, that’s what I do, I usually stay at the main galleries lounge at A Gates (which is the main terminal) for a short while and then wander over to B Gates. Sometimes I get fortunate if my flight subsequently departs from B Gates, but usually it doesn’t so I have to walk back.
This is the breakfast selection, which is bacon rolls, beans, hash browns and pastries.
The salad selection.
Some kind of fruit stuff.
From lunch-time onwards the sandwiches are also brought out. The coronation chicken is in my view the best sandwich offered.
These photos are from two different visits and they show the main food selection which is available from lunch-time into the afternoon period. I like these selections, usually there’s a curry, chilli or casserole option and there’s rice or pasta to go with those. The food has a decent flavour to it and the meat, which is usually chicken, is tender and flavoursome.
There’s a full drinks selection available at the lounge, including wine, champagne, soft drinks and there’s also a coffee machine. Take care if using the coffee machine as I managed to smash one of the plates which were meant to be unbreakable. It was stuck to the base of the milk jug when I picked it up, although the bloody thing managed to unstick itself as soon as it got into the air.
There’s a story about that actually. I went to reception and mentioned in a casual manner that there was now a plate smashed across most of the floor. The staff member told me that I shouldn’t worry (although being honest I wasn’t particularly worried) and that he’d come and have a look. He did do exactly that, he went to have a look and then returned back to his desk as he couldn’t find anyone to clean it up. He wasn’t being lazy, he was the only staff member at the reception desk, and they do need someone there.
The situation for the next fifteen minutes was that I was sitting there with my rather lovely coffee, surveying how far this plate had smashed across the floor. Customers carefully walked by the random shards and I pretended not to know anything about it. Then, eventually, a member of the cleaning staff comes along and does a double take at why there is a smashed plate across a tennis court size space of floor. Out come numerous warning signs, some tutting from the member of cleaning staff and then lots of furtive action at cleaning it up.
I don’t know why I got distracted there recounting that story. I did incidentally mention I could clean it up, but the staff member at reception seemed adamant that neither I, nor indeed he, would need to do that. For anyone interested, my coffee was lovely.
Anyway, I got distracted there. The lounge is spacious and there are plenty of different types of table and seating depending on what the passenger wants. I like the high chairs and tables as I can use my laptop. By high chairs, I don’t means the ones that toddlers use, just that the chairs are high. Unfortunately these are mostly near the kids area of the lounge, but it’s rare that there are any bloody screaming children, so that’s fine. By bloody I’m just randomly swearing, the children don’t have blood on them.
The newspaper selection is reasonable and BA also have the system where you can download magazines and newspapers for free in the lounge. Most of the television screens are on silent, but there are instructions on how you can download an app which lets you listen to them via headphones. I like this, the less noise in an airport lounge the better, and televisions blaring out aren’t conducive to quiet and calm.
There’s also a spa area of the lounge, although I’ve never engaged with that. There are also showers available at this lounge and the queue for these is usually minimal, so there isn’t the wait that there might be in other lounges.
So, that was my quick explanation of why I like the B-Gates lounge. Spacious, quiet, clean and comfortable. Fortunately not many people will actually read this random splurge of text, otherwise they’d all go to B-Gates lounge and then I wouldn’t like it as much.
For those who love Polish pottery, some photos from one of the shops in Wroclaw which was selling it. The mention of Bolesławiec pottery in the top photo is the reason I post about this, as this traditional blue and white design comes from the town with this name. The town, which is a relatively short distance from Wroclaw, is now seen as the home of this type of pottery, which often also has some green and yellow elements added.
I always like a nice book sculpture, although I hope they didn’t damage the books with this one. It was advertising some sort of book fair, part of a wider literary festival which was taking place when I was in Wroclaw.
This fountain was installed in Wroclaw’s market square in 1996 and was designed to show the modernity of granite and glass against the city’s historic buildings. It’s quite an impactful structure and I had thought it was rather more modern than it actually was. All very lovely.
This was one of the easiest journeys to the top of a church or cathedral tower in Poland, primarily because there were no steps and instead there was a handily located lift. I think this is mostly because the cathedral was badly damaged during the Second World War, so when the building was reconstructed it was relatively easy to install a lift.
So, some photos from the top….
The city’s market hall building is a spectacular piece of engineering, constructed between 1906 and 1908. The building was designed by Richard Plüddemann and Heinrich Küster, at a time when Wroclaw was part of the German Empire and was known as Breslau.
Through some piece of good fortune, this was one of the buildings which wasn’t damaged during the Second World War, so it re-opened again soon after the end of the conflict. Other than for some repairs and improvements made between 1980 and 1983, it remains broadly as it would have been 100 years ago.
When I visited the hall it was relatively busy, with most people appearing to be locals buying their produce. In some cities I get the impression that the majority of people there are tourists who are more interested in taking photos than making any purchases from the stalls. I must admit that this was what I was doing, although I did buy something from one of the hot food stands at least on this occasion.
