Seeing the World

Schengen is an intriguing concept. While I quite liked catching a cross border train from Bratislava to Vienna I think I’d have liked having my passport checked on a train even more. Unless it took more than five minutes. Then it would annoy the hell out of me.

I get the pros and cons of freedom of movement too. This isn’t a pro or anti Brexit musing. What I don’t really understand is that final passport check to leave the Schengen area before catching a plane home. After all, I’ve had my boarding card checked on at least two occasions. The airline is going to check my passport. And UK Border Force or whatever they’re called these days are going to check my passport before letting me back into Blighty.

There might be a perfectly good reason for checking my passport to leave the Schengen area. I just have absolutely no idea what it is.

Other than to make sure passengers on flights back to the UK have to walk a bit further to their departure gate and face a seemingly unnecessary delay of European officialdom.

Next Stop: Fish & Chips

I don’t know England’s east coast at all. Whitley Bay as a seven year old is about it. Oh, and piloting a boat on the tidal waters of the Norfolk Broads near Lowestoft as a teen.

But as I decided to see more of the world before my inevitable decline and demise I included more of Britain on the list. London Zoo and Stonehenge already ticked off. An impromptu stop at the National Space Centre in Leicester too.

With Chris away on a university field trip, and not fancying the drive to Southend to watch Oldham, the idea of fish and chips in Whitby will be fulfilled this weekend. Along with two nights in a remote B&B, a bit of Robin Hood’s Bay and a wander on the North Yorkshire Moors if I’m feeling fit enough.

Rather looking forward to it.  So far I’ve been told of three different fish restaurants that serve the best fish and chips ever!

Why “Priority” Boarding is a Bit Rubbish

I’m a fan of using status or small amounts of cash to queue jump. But there has to be a purpose.

Bag drop with the masses isn’t fun. If the priority lane for getting rid of your 20kg of nuisance gets you to the comfort of an airport lounge faster then fair play.

Express security clearance is less convincing. At Manchester Terminal 3 for example the airport expresses feckless late passengers without charge at the expense of those who’ve formed an orderly queue after getting to the airport on time having paid a few quid each in advance to speed through. I did enjoy using it by mistake at Dublin last year though!

The one I really struggle with is priority boarding. If it’s included with other things like leg room or hold luggage I’ve no problem with it. The one major benefit, I suppose, is getting your hand luggage located within thirty yards of your seat.

But the experience usually entails going through the gate first and then standing next to a locked door for twenty minutes staring at your aircraft while somebody hoovers inside. You could still be sat in a more comfortable seat pre-gate.

During that twenty minutes a couple of hundred other passengers pile in to queue behind you, triggering claustrophobic corridor attack! When that locked door eventually opens you find yourself at the front of a free for all and the sudden realisation that if you’re slow stowing your hand luggage the whole flight is going to be delayed and it will be your fault.  A sense of panic sets in!

But you are sat down a few seconds ahead of everybody else. Yes, you paid for the privilege of standing up longer than everybody else and now you’ll be sat in your tiny aircraft seat for lordy knows how long. But it will be a few seconds longer than every other passenger.  Unless you failed to get a window seat – then there’s no point getting yourself comfortable as two other passengers are going to need you to move!

British Airways has a different approach.  Ensure half your passengers have status, thus ensuring two rucks firm for boarding.  The first one being for supposedly priority passengers!

Worth every penny?  Worth being loyal to a single airline?  Not really.

A Tribute

I never met Nicki Stringer.  But I think she’s pretty amazing.  My cousin’s wife.  She had the joy of giving birth to a son and the shock of a terminal cancer diagnosis four years ago.

She was pretty much written off by the medics but fought against the impossible to receive treatment that extended her life well beyond anybody’s expectations.

Alas, not even aged 40, she died last night, leaving her husband and two young children.  For well over 1,000 days she beat this cruel disease and carried on living her life.

By getting the treatment she battled for her children can grow up having some meaningful memories of who Mum was.

Some things are priceless.

Give the Aeroplane a Reverse Gear

The aeroplane is over a century old.

You’d think they’d have installed a reverse gear by now.

Think of the money they could save on men and machines currently employed to push a plane out of the departure gate and onto the runway.

They could reinvest those savings in luxurious things like seats in the departure lounge and at departure gates. Or providing room for your legs in between rows of seats on the plane!

Farewell Beloved Ljubljana – You’re Great

I think it’s fair to say Ljubljana has been great. As a capital city it’s small, beautiful and has views from the castle to kill for.

Budget wise it’s been kind too. £37 return flights from Luton, €70 a night B&B in a lovely hotel (Allegro) and bus transfers from airport to capital just €4.10 each way.

If I was to do it again I might be a little more adventurous and look to spend two days in Ljubljana, get the €7 bus to Lake Bled and spend a night there before heading off on another bus to somewhere like Venice and flying home from a completely different country.

But although I’d run out of activities by my final day, the option of chilling in a bar watching the world go was pretty good. Especially as March temperatures soared to 22C. I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed a city centre so much.

If you like your cities big, brash and busy then Ljubljana isn’t for you. While there are one or two designer shops this place is no Trafford Centre.

But the town is chilled. It’s marginally cheaper for food and drink than the UK and the riverside bars work brilliantly.

One that the ardent traveller should shunt up their list. And if you just fancy an easy going city break then get it booked.

Free European Car Hire!

I first started using Avis as my favoured car hire people when driving around the USA became a thing for me.  They’re not often the cheapest.  The queues at the collection points are usually madness.  Their man in Washington DC looked at me like I was some sort of imbecile when I asked for instructions on how to drive an automatic.

Then I discovered the Avis Preferred loyalty scheme.  It requires online registration and you’re in.

The key perk for me was to be able to queue jump.  Most Avis airport car hire locations have two queues.  Pleb and Preferred.  The pleb queue tends to involve everybody who just exited the last three flights being served by one stressed operative.  The Preferred queue seems to involve me being seen instantly and getting the newest car in stock.  Indeed, in the USA it seems to involve getting a far better car than I’d booked.

And to be fair, queue jumping and better car make me happy.  So you can imaging the extreme level of excitement as I tuck into my afternoon outdoor Slovenian pizza to read an email from Avis saying that as I’ve used them three times since October I now qualify for a free weekend European rental.

Quite when I’ll take a Thursday afternoon to Monday morning break in Europe I’m not sure.  But the odds are that its going to happen at some point this year so this is certainly an unexpected bonus.  And one I’d completely forgotten about when I signed up.  I need to play this card carefully if possible.  Three days in Malta in March is £15 in value saved.  Three days in Iceland in March is over £150 in value.  There is a big gain to be made if I play it right.

After two further bookings I hit Avis Preferred Plus status.  I’m into the exciting realms of guaranteed cars, guaranteed upgrades and another free weekend European rental.

I never knew car hire could be this much fun!  And I get Avios for it!

A Beautiful Day to Test Out the Drug Side Effects

Afatinib is basically keeping me alive.  I continue to suffer the side effects of rash, acne and occasional mad dash to the porcelain.

One of the other side effects as yet untested is sunburn.  As temperatures in Ljubljana soar into the seventies (that’s 21C+ these days) I’ve decided to walk around like an aimless tourist soaking up the sun.  With no sun cream.  Well it’s hand baggage only innit!

Three hours of strolling down a couple of streets I’ve not seen, assessing things I don’t want to buy in the market, successfully haggling over a Slovenian football scarf for Chris and knocking €4 off the price.  Sitting down and enjoying a coffee as the sun beats down on my bald dome.

It’s been blissfully relaxing.  The chilled out nature of the place reminds me of Kraków, but it’s far more intimate than that.  The locals love their bicycles, but whereas in London the cyclists want is to push pedestrians out of their way, here they weave successfully between the tourists.  And then there’s the coffee.  Everybody drinks a coffee.  Every bar sells coffee.  Nothing happens without coffee.

Most importantly, there’s no sign of sunburn.  While I expect to wear sun cream in traditionally warmer climates than this, it’s good to know that this particular side effect doesn’t appear to be having a dramatic effect on me.  Which can only be good.

Did I mention I really love Ljubljana and Slovenia?  It’s ace!

Kranj – The Forgotten Twin

I’ve spent most of my adult life living in Oldham.  A town which proclaims a twinning arrangement with its Slovenian mate Kranj.  Given the bus trip to Lake Bled included a stop in Kranj I showed a vague interest from the comfort of my seat as we approached and halted in the place.

Nothing on the road signs to suggest any involvement with the UK, let alone Oldham.  A moment of irritation at my historic council tax payments being spent on slightly bigger road signs throughout the borough not being reciprocated here.  Sitting in the bus station also reminded me of the ridiculous number of different bus stations built in Oldham over the years!

The town of Kranj itself is nestled in a beautiful setting.  Forests and Alps overlook it in much the same way Pennines overlook Oldham – the hills being more beautiful than the town itself.  While a handful of big industrial complexes were evident close to Kranj, including Goodyear Tyres, most of the architecture I witnessed was pleasing on the eye interspersed with the occasional high rise block of flats.

I pondered twinning arrangements.  I don’t recall anything in Oldham through the schools, despite sending three kids to educational establishments in Oldham.  As a naive thirteen year old child myself I remember being kicked out of my bedroom to accommodate a tall, blonde, assertive fifteen year old girl from Heilbronn in Germany.  Stockport’s twin town.  I remained naive after that visit but suddenly more aware of what tall and blonde entailed!

So it raises the question.  Are twinning arrangements in 2017 dead in the water?  Do councillors no longer get the opportunity to claim expenses for flights to foreign lands?  Are our kids denied cultural exchanges that were available a generation or so ago?  And if I’d bothered to get off the bus in Kranj would anybody have even heard of the town’s supposed friendship with Oldham?

Lake Bled – Bloody Marvellous