Travel | Postcards From Here and There

5 Reasons to Visit The Algarve in March

I have just returned from a fantastic week in The Algarve on Portugal’s southern coast. There is much to admire about this region, even in early March, and it makes an excellent location for a late winter break. Faro, in the central region, is the main gateway for air travellers and is well served by low cost airlines. Flight time from the UK is around 2-3 hours depending on the exact point of departure. Here are five reasons why I think you might want to consider a visit at this time of year.

It’s relatively quiet. The population of The Algarve can triple in the summer months of July and August when thousands head down to enjoy the beaches and hot sun. By comparison the winter months are much quieter with March being the last month that you can take this for granted. From April and Easter it starts to get much busier.

The weather is pleasant. The Algarve has 300 sunshine days a year with an average summer temperature on the coast of 25 celsius, it can get much hotter inland. In March the average is a very pleasant 15 degrees. There is a greater chance of cloud and rain but you would be very unlucky if it affected everyday of your stay. During our stay we had two cloudy days, one with a little light rain, and the rest were sunny and warm reaching a high of 19 degrees. It sure beats sitting at home in the cold and wet.

Flights and accommodation are relatively cheap. Not only is it cheap to get here with plenty of options using low cost airlines but there are also some good deals to be had in hotels and rental accommodation. This makes short break in The Algarve a very attractive prospect.

Restaurants and cafés are not so busy. At this time of year year you can have your choice of restaurant without having to make a reservation days in advance. Having said that the popular ones do tend to get busy by 7.30/8pm. For me one of the main reasons for visiting Portugal is eating out in the excellent fish restaurants that you can find here and in early March you haver the pick of the best.

It’s beautiful. Make no mistake The Algarve is beautiful at any time of year, white sandy beaches, clear blue ocean and a landscape inland that is undulating and covered with a vast array of different trees and shrubs. What is different here to March at home in the UK is the colour. Not only is the landscape greener because of the evergreens but is is also splashed with colour. Oranges are still ripening on trees, almond blossom covers trees with a touch of white and there are many wild flowers in bloom.

Liverpool and The Titanic

The first and fateful last voyage of The Titanic is well known. Having departed Southampton en route to New York she hit an iceberg south of Newfoundland in the early morning of 15th April 1912 and sank within a few hours. Over 1500 died in the disaster.

There was a plan for The Titanic to visit Liverpool on her delivery from the shipyards of Harland and Wolff in Belfast but was prevented by bad weather in the Irish Sea. Despite never visiting the city The Titanic had many links to Liverpool. The owners of Titanic were The White Star Line and her port of registry was Liverpool.

As a result she had this painted on the stern along with her name. The offices of The White Star line were in Albion House which stands on the corner of James Street and The Strand. Now a grade II listed building it was built in the late 1890s but needed some restoration following the bombings of Liverpool in the Second World War. This building became the source of news about the disaster and updates and casualty lists were read from the lower balcony to the masses gathered outside. The building today is a hotel.

The White Star public house on Rainford Gardens close to Mathew Street is named after the White Star Line and is an interesting place to visit as not only does it have this association with The Titanic but also with The Beatles. There is some interesting memorabilia to see on the walls.

Many of the crew of The Titanic were from Liverpool and its neighbouring towns including the captain, Edward John Smith, who lived for forty years in Waterloo, north of the city. His time here is commemorated by a blue plaque on Marine Crescent in the town. There is also a memorial to him in Liverpools’s Anglican Cathedral in the form of a stained glass window.

The Philharmonic Hall on Hope Street is home to a memorial plaque dedicated to the members of the ships band, including viola player John Frederick Preston Clarke, who carried on playing as the ship sank. Interestingly the plaque gives the date as 14th April 1912 even though the ship sank in the early hours of the 15th. The plaque can be viewed in the entrance hall.

Across the road from Albion House on St Nicholas Place at the Pier Head is the memorial to the 244 engine room heroes that died on The Titanic that night. Designed by Sir William Goscombe John it stands 48 feet tall and was unveiled in 1916.

Following loses at sea during the First World War it has been dedicated to all the marine engine room heroes.

It is a remarkable monument and is sadly often overlooked by visitors to the city as it is at the far end of the Pier Head.

The Maritime Museum at The Royal Albert Dock houses a small but fascinating exhibition about The Titanic and its links to Liverpool. Located on the second floor of the museum entry is free and it is a very informative and at times touching exhibition. It’s compact and can easily be visited if you have a spare hour or so or indeed as part of a more comprehensive visit to the museum.

The story of that fateful voyage of The Titanic continues to fascinate both young and old. A visit to the maritime museum along with some of the other Titanic related locations in the city is time well spent on a trip to Liverpool.

Northern Lights in Iceland

A viewing of the Northern Lights is high on the list of many travellers and our hopes were high on our recent four day trip to Iceland. Sadly just being at high northern latitudes does not guarantee a sighting, much depends on the weather, cloud cover, solar activity and the absence of background light. There are however things that you can do to ensure that you maximise the chance. While you can not control weather, clouds and solar activity you can arrange a trip to an area of darkness away from the influence of city lights. Before you book check on the likelihood of a display. The Icelandic Met Office issues a three day aurora forecast.

The forecast will show the presence of cloud at various heights in the sky. Most tourist go straight to the number shown as the aurora forecast in the top right hand corner. This gives you an indication of the chance of seeing a display and how active the display will be. You don’t necessarily need a high score, indeed in Iceland the score of 3 is the most common and scores above 5 are rare. Remember the number is only a guide. We saw a short display with an aurora forecast of 3. Be prepared to give it time even if all the indicators are good, a display can build slowly and timings can never be guaranteed.

Don’t expect the aurora display you observe to be as vibrant or colourful as it appears in many photographs. Some people can be underwhelmed by what they see and there is a perfectly sound biological reason why. The retina at the back of the eye is made up of two types of cells called rods and cones. Rods are responsible for our vision when light intensity is low however they are not capable of colour vision. This is why it is not very easy to tell the colour of an object if there isn’t much light. Cones on the other hand are capable of colour vision but can only function at higher light intensities. So if you are trying to observe the Northern Lights in an area of darkness only the rods in the eye are functioning therefore you dont see colour very well. To see the colours clearly you need a camera.

You need to set the camera to MANUAL mode. This enables you to control the cameras settings. Set the shutter speed to between 10 and 20 seconds, a little trial and error here to find the optimum. The aperture should be set to around 3.5 and the ISO to 16oo. It is also a good idea to set the timer to a two second delay. To use such long exposures you really need a tripod to hold the camera steady. Having said that I forget mine and had to spend the evening trying to hold my camera as steady as possible in the freezing cold. I managed to take some pictures but they were out of focus due to the camera shake. You live and learn, the next time a tripod will be at the top of the list!

Many smart phone cameras do not let you alter the exposure but there are apps available to help you photograph the Northern Lights. A search in the App Store should show you the possibilities. Having not tried any I can not make any sort of recommendation.