TAP-Air Portugal - Larger Capacity Aircraft on Seville - Lisbon route from 1st July, 2014

Spanish website www.aeropuertosevilla.info reports today that TAP-Air Portugal will be upgrading its aircraft on its Lisbon / Lisboa ( LIS ) to Seville / Sevilla ( SVQ ) route from 1st July 2014.

This is excellent new as until now the route has been operated by 19-seater Beechcraft aircraft. TAP-Air- Portugal is to introduced large capacity ATR-42 - 300 aircraft on the route. With a capacity for up to 46 pax, this is very welcome news for a route that is badly underserved and where the only alternative public transport is by 6 hour coach trip.

There will be 14 weekly departures  with monthly capacity doubling from 2.888 seats to 5.152 seats.

More here (in Castellano): http://bit.ly/1hYk6BR

Lisbon to Trancoso, District of Guarda, Portugal

National bus operator rede-exressos.pt currently operates three daily services from Lisbon Sete Rios Coach Station to Trancoso as follows:

Dept: 08:00 Arr: 13:40

Dept: 14:30 Arr: 19:35

Dept: 18:15 Arr: 23:10 (Friday Only or Thursday if Friday is a public holiday)

rodonorte.pt - santosviagensturismo.pt operate a weekday service(except public holidays) between Lisbon Gare Oriente Bus Station and Trancoso as follows;

Dept: 08:30 Arr: 13:50

Dept: 18:00 Arr: 23:05 (Friday Only or Thursday if Friday is a public holiday)

Buses to Minas de Rio Tinto from Sevilla and Huelva

It appears that the week-day buses from Huelva to Rio Tinto continue on to Nerva, a fairly sizeable two-horse pueblo, we once passed through which is only 5kms from Minas de Rio Tinto. (It appears that the bus runs straight through to a pueblo called "Bea" and only starts dropping of and picking up from there en route to Nerva.)

So (a weekday example):

Dept: Huelva 09:30

Dept: Huelva 12:00

Dept: Huelva 18:00

Arr/Dep Minas de Rio Tinto:11:15

Arr/Dep Minas de Rio Tinto:13:45

Arr/Dep Minas de Rio Tinto:19:45

Arr: Nerva 11:30

Arr: Nerva 14:00

Arr: Nerva 20:00

Return:

Dept: Nerva 07:00

Dept: Nerva 09:00

Dept: Nerva 14:00

Dept: Nerva 16:00

Arr/Dep Minas de Rio Tinto:07:15

Arr/Dep Minas de Rio Tinto:09:10

Arr/Dep Minas de Rio Tinto:14:15

Arr/Dep Minas de Rio Tinto:16:15

Arr: Huelva 09:00

Arr: Huelva 10:45

Arr: Huelva 16:00

Arr: Huelva 18:00

Now, the Damas timetable states that there is also a bus service to/from Sevilla to Nerva (No. 501) as follows:

Dept Sevilla: 10:30

Dept Sevilla: 15:30

Dept Sevilla: 17:30

And back from Nerva at:

Dept Nerva: 05:15

Dept Nerva: 09:30

Dept Nerva: 18:30

This seems to be the Damas Sevilla Plaza das Armas to Zalamea La Real 501 Service. HOWEVER, nothing comes up on a search from Sevilla to Nerva with movelia.es. Based on what I have been able to gleen from searching Sevilla Plaza das Armas to Zalamea La Real on movelia.es , it seems to take the bus about 1hr 50 minutes to wander down from Sevilla to Nerva and v.v. It seems that the service does pass Rio Tinto 10 minutes earlier/later.

SEVILLA (Plaza de Armas) 10:00 / 10:00 0 Km

CAMAS 10:05 / 10:05 5 Km

BARRIADA DE SANTA CRUZ 10:10 / 10:10 7 Km

SANTIPONCE 10:15 / 10:15 11 Km

LAS PAJANOSAS 10:35 / 10:35 28 Km

EL GARROBO 10:45 / 10:45 40 Km

VENTA LA PLATA 10:55 / 10:55 50 Km

CASTILLO DE LAS GUARDAS 11:00 / 11:00 58 Km

MINAS CASTILLO DE LAS GUARDAS 11:10 / 11:10 63 Km

LA AULAGA 11:20 / 11:20 67 Km

NERVA 11:40 / 11:40 91 Km Parada inicial

RIOTINTO 11:50 / 11:50 95 Km

EL CAMPILLO 11:55 / 11:55 99 Km

It appears to me that as the buses cross the boundaries between the provinces of Sevilla and Huelva, the through routes are not being showing because of local fare subsidies.

So it looks like one could get the bus from Sevilla Estacion Autobus Plaza das Armas at 10:00, get to Riotinto at +- 11;50 and get the 18:25 (not Fridays before public holidays) back to Seville arriving at 20:10.

A search for the route of the following site seems to confirm this:http://www.autobusesplazadearmas.es/

Low Cost Mobile Options for travelling in Portugal, Spain and Italy.

(My answer to a recent question...)

I cannot answer about buying a mobile in Italy but I can tell you that if you buy a mobile in Portugal, you will have to pay roaming charges in Spain and Italy. Ditto if you buy a mobile in Spain you have to pay roaming charges in Portugal and Italy. Charging them up with funds in different countries can be a real pain. In Spain, one has to provide a passport to purchase a mobile phone.

Obviously, if you currently own an unblocked mobile, preferably a dual-sim smartphone, you can just buy a sim card in each country and fit it to your own phone.

As regards to cheaper calls to the US, it is very difficult to assess what the costs of calls would be. As I said above, if you used a Portuguese mobile in Spain to call the US, you would have to pay roaming charges as well as the call cost.

Have a look at these guys who offer low-cost services in each of the countries you want are asking about:

http://www.lycamobile.us/en/
http://www.lycamobile.pt/en/
http://www.lycamobile.es/en/
http://www.lycamobile.it/en/

In my experience, the best way to reduce phone costs in Europe, is to have a powerful wifi equipped smartphone with Skype or similar installed. Then, whenever one is near a free wifi access point, one has very cost-effective calling internationally.

I was recently informed about this company: http://www.poivy.com/

You can download an app to your smartphone and, like skype.com, use them to call world-wide at reasonable rates.

Rod's St Patrick's Eve Concert Program - 16 March 2014

Next Sunday evening,baritone Rod Mcgahon, accompanied by Daniel Montero and Ana Carrilero will be performing an evening of traditional and classical pieces at a St Patrick's Eve Concert Program at the
Centro Cultural São Lourenço, Rua da Igreja s/nº, São Lourenço, 8136-901 Almancil, Algarve.

 The performance starts at 19:30. Coma and enjoy a wonderful evening and celebrate St. Patrick's day with Ron.

More here: http://rodmcgahon.eu/sao_lorenzo.html

Algarve - The 1969 earthquake

As a young teenager living in Lisbon, I had first hand experience of the 5.5+ Richter Scale earthquake that shook Portugal at 02:40 on the morning of 28 February 1969. My strongest memory is of our our new young puppy getting the blame for shaking my parents' bed, the building shaking and the next morning seeing the phone and power lines outside the house were down, as well as the afore-mentioned puppy taking to the air on all four paws after peeing on a live 24V downed phone cable!(There was no permanent damage to him! :) ) I wasn't aware of the the effects of the quake on the rest of the country. Today, SUL INFORMAÇÃO, the Algarve online daily, has published an interesting article (in Portuguese) about the impact of the earthquake on the Algarve, together with photos. More here: http://bit.ly/MBXfSz

Economist Article on Portugal's Jeronimo Martins Group - (Pingo Doce/Biedronka)

This weeks's edition of The Economist has an interesting article on the growth of Portugl's Jeronimo Martin's group growth into a leading Retail Chain not only in Portugal, but also in Poland through Biedronka and now in Colombia. See: http://econ.st/1mL5E71

And now for something Completely Different..... Iberian Goat and Sheep Cheese Course!

This has just come through my perusing of the Ovine Times:

The Center for Dairy Research at the University of Wisconsin in the USA is organising a one day hands-on workshop on the Goat and Sheep Milk Cheeses of Spain and Portugal. Portuguese Technical Expert Mariana Marques de Almeida  will be present at the course.

So any of you in the mid-west wanting to learn about Iberian Cheese now is your chance!

http://bit.ly/1hW19EH

and for those of you who can't attend....

Stop Press: Portugal - Airports - Off-site Car Hire firms to be charged from 1st April 2014

It appears that recently privatised Portuguese airport operator has bowed to pressure from the main "Big" car hire operators with counters at their airports and has decided to levy a charge of between 10 and 17 Euros for each car hired at the airport from "non-licensed" car hire firms.

Article here (in Portuguese) in today's Diario Economico on-line edition: http://bit.ly/1cLfoHR

 While I am not against private companies charging for services, this substantial levy will have a very severe effect on the "low-cost" and independent car hire operators PARTICULARLY at Faro Airport which services the Algarve region.

In recent years, the Economic Crisis, the introduction of tolls on the A22 Via de Infante Motorway and the increased cost of flights, has made the Algarve, and particularly, its extremities more and more expensive to visit.

It may well result in several local Algarve car hire firms folding, creating more unemployment, as holidaymakers may well decide the Algarve is becoming to costly a destination.

 I cannot see ana.pt going back on this under commercial pressure but the implications will be profound.

Lisbon - Love it! Great Alternative Video about Lisbon

Great Video here by Ovella Blava Films about Lisbon:

Lisbon - Love it from Ovella Blava Films on Vimeo.