Veronika Wild

 Perched on a hilltop, Obidos's castle is an imposing sight as I struggle up from the bus stop. You expect a dragon to appear at any moment The third place in my heart in Portugal goes to Óbidos, a quaint village still surrounded by a mediaeval city wall. Óbidos bills itself as “a land that chooses books and literature as its flag and is itself a best seller” and I would raise a (tiny) cup of cherry liqueur to that. In 2015 Óbidos (pop. 11,617) was chosen by UNESCO as its 51 st International Book City and was now right in the middle of its Folio Festival which runs for 11 days in October. During this time national and international authors, illustrators, musicians, poets and painters come to give presentations and workshops and mix and mingle with the masses. There are also concerts, exhibitions and cultural activities involving schools and community groups. The fact that it’s officially only an hour or so from Lisbon by car, as well as being a very attractive place in its own ...

A beautiful Tassie beach at the start of Summer. Our waters stay very cold until the first blast of summer heat. Now it probably looks like the beach below or even some of the ones in urban Sydney on Christmas Eve  - Thanks to Gordon S. for this photo Before I continue with the saga of Veronika’s Adventures and Misadventures in Europe, I just want to remind people quickly to take extra care this summer, especially when visiting Australia or Tasmania. Aussies have always loved their beaches during the long hot summer - This image is of Glenelg Beach near Adelaide, South Australia in 1911. St.Kilda Beach in Melbourne was like this in the 70's. Would hate to see either of them now. And yes, you can get into trouble, even in the midst of a crowd -Image with thanks to Kaye on Flickr  Since December 1, 43 people have drowned though not all of them at beaches. At least three bushwalkers have died in separate incidents in Tasmania’s highlands and in NSW, Water Police have had t...

  Aveiro's beautiful old station suggests that it is more affluent than some of its rural counterparts which I've seen along the way. Although there's a newer station next door, it doesn't quite have the same character Here is a closeup of some of the tile work showing ordinary people engaged in traditional work such as fishing and salt harvesting The second place I fell in love with was Aveiro (pop. 78,000) which is about 3 to 4 hours North of Lisbon depending on which train you take and an hour South of Porto by train. This train leaves from Apollonia Station, which is a nightmare to get to because of roadwork in the area, though you can also get the train from Oriente, one of the larger stations in the suburbs.  Things didn’t look too promising on the way up – lots of desolate country with scraggly trees, quite a few of them Eucalypts. Eucalypts? Yes, I suppose the terrain is rather like much of inland Australia. I don't know how much they are contributing ...