Bertie's Travelogue Part 3 - Lisbon to Algiers

I think you left me last time sampling the delights of downtown Lisbon before a short hop to the southern Portuguese city of Faro. I have to say that my journeys through Europe have never taken me there before (Portugal, that is) and I've yet to meet anybody who doesn't say what a wonderful place it is.

Faro itself has both Arab and Roman ruins although the Moors were the predominant rulers until it became part of Portugal as we know it. In 1596, the Earl of Essex (complete with chain mail white stilettos and Von Dutch logo'd shield) popped in on his way to the Crusades and basically nicked the entire library of the Bishop of Faro. These books are still in the Bodleian at Oxford. Apart from the obvious holiday potential of the Algarve, Faro has one of the biggest annual motorcycle festivals in Europe so break out the AC/DC music, leap on the Honda 50 and ride!

In a bid to make this whole travelogue/blog more interesting I have decided I can combine another of my loves and post both a modern and an older example of each country's paper currency (for those of you who know my feelings on the Euro (see here), the modern versions will be pre-Euro in the relevant countries).

Here then are Portugal's representatives for your viewing pleasure. As always, kudos and thanks to Ron Wise for his wonderful banknote database. I will try and show similar notes to ones I also have in my own collection but, to save hassle, I will link to Ron's examples.

OK, now for the one I'd been looking forwad to - Gibraltar. As I said the other day, it's an interesting landing here as, due to the ongoing issue of sovereignty, the Spanish refuse to allow aircraft arriving at Gibraltar to overfly the Spanish Coast on final approach which makes for difficult aviation procedures. Basically, this means a very tight turn before lining up to a very short final approach on runway 09 ........oh. and try not to hit the big rocky lump!

It was actually quite a simple descent and landing in a single engine aircraft although I think I'll wait a while before I try it in a "heavy". The one thing I remember above all else when I was there in my late teens/early twenties was walking off a palm-lined street full of burnous-clad Arabs into a Spar grocers which might just as well have been in dear old Blighty. Having just come over from Morocco, it was the strangest experience but also very comforting to see Marmite, Rich Tea and Corn Flakes!

Of course, Gibraltar uses Pounds sterling and here are both old and new.

Pausing only to stock up on Caramacs and Tizer, I set off for Algiers which is basically a flight routed to Malaga, then over to the north coast of Africa and then follow the camel tracks along the beach.


I thought the beach seemed a tad large as I flew along and then realised I was actually gazing down some 9000' and seeing the northern edge of the Sahara! At last, I was out of Europe and into exotic and I wondered anxiously just how many carpets I would be persuaded to buy once I reached Algiers.

Memories of Morocco and Tunisia flooded back. I spent the princely sum of £108 for a fortnight's holiday at a place called Camp Africa in Asilah as a young man and had the dubious pleasure of living in a mud hut with no electricity, no furniture and merely a mattress on the floor. Having said that, it was a great time and I have many strange memories of that holiday. I can't actually remember doing a drunken dance with a couple of cobras in a Tangier night club but have the photos to prove it, I can remember one guy going a bit doolally and the only way to calm him (the local medical authorities not being interested) was to go and fill his mud hut with calming herbal smoke; needless to day, there was no shortage of volunteers. I can also remember that there was only water available in the camp between 8pm and 10pm. With the incidence of Arab tummy being quite high, I'll leave you to imagine the state of the communal bogs at about 7pm!!

Anyway, I digress. Founded by the Phoenicians, Algiers has historically been one of the main ports of the Mediterranean as well as the main centre for piracy. In 1511 the Spanish occupied an island in the city's harbor, but they were driven out when Barbarossa captured Algiers for the Turks. Algiers then became a base for the Muslim fleet that preyed upon Christian commerce in the Mediterranean. The French came along in 1830 and stayed around until 1962 when the armed struggle for independence, led by the OAS, resulted in a free Algeria.

The airport at Algiers isn't the most well-kept but it's flat and there was a fuelling depot so, leaving some links of 1924 and 1996 currency as a souvenir of Biggles Bassett, I once more took to the air for a shortish hop back up to the island of Palma de Mallorca.

This is me on the way there (kill the music first)!