Christmas is 4 weeks away so what are we all doing?

Jax is in Cuba, I will be at home with Terry being terribly anti social as it is just good to have some time to ourselves. No kids, my family is spread wide and far and he has issues with his (enough said!).

I know it sounds sad but after working all hours of the day, involved with sport on Saturdays and being on committees taking up time it is nice to do nothing but eat, drink, go for walks and complain that the television programmes are rubbish!

Mark - what happens in Portugal?

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Alison

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It's Better to Burn Out than just to Fade Away!

With two young children in a foreign country we will be staying at home most of the time. As Portugal has a very devout but gentle form of Christianity, it is a very special time here anyway. The region is historically poor where many of the skilled workers made it across the river to travel and find work in France (via Spain) during the bad times. Near our house is an old crossing point; unfortunately many people lost their lives trying to get across in days gone by. Anyway, to this day many of the people from here spend most of the year working in France so French, not English is the second / third language here (I say second / third as there is Spanish, but it is very similar to Portuguese). During high summer and then again Christmas / New Year, the "Immigrants" as they are called come home, so it is busy here; during the year their houses here are shuttered up. Being on the old pilgrim route to Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, Spain, there are many religious ceremonies at Xmas (incidentally also the area has many Roman viaducts and buildings because of the importance of the route going back many years). There will likely be snow on the two mountain ranges we have views of from our house and the mornings / sun rises are at their most spectacular because of the river mists and mountain clouds, so tearing ourselves away from all this is hard anyway, especially as Christmas is silly season for hotel prices of course. The town centres will be lit up and will have a range of festivals and fireworks. As we live on the border and because Portugal is one hour behind Spain, we can celebrate New Year twice! I do not know if you have ever listened to the church bells of Portugal and Spain, they are very different to English speaking countries. In Portugal they sound like old special grandfather clocks, in Spain they are simple but very evocative repeating chimes. On the Spanish side of the river nearly opposite our house there is a small Franciscan Catholic Monastery and school With so many churches around us and the local festivals in town, it is a very musical time

I think we will be having a traditional (Portuguese) Christmas dinner with friends here.

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There are two categories of travellers, those that experience a country and those that take their home with them wherever they go.

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i am going to Cuba on new years eve. Christmas day will be at home this year with our youngest Son Morgan who is 28 and Dave's Mother !!!!!!!!!!!!!! As we have been away for the last few years I said that it was only fair that she came to us this year.
I am dreading it. Dave with do his normal shut off and not hear her all day. This will be whittering from one subject to the next. Morgan does not drink and will be making excuses so that he can leave early and go home and have a joint ( i was not born yesterday).
We will at some stage go to my younger sisters house.
Our eldest Son Craig is in a psyciatric hospital about 150 miles away, so for that reason alone I hate Christmas. We will see him near to Christmas and that will really upset me and set the tone for the rest of the "festive" season.
Sorry I can't get in to it....humbug.
That is why I like to go away and usually Thailand as it is as far removed from Christmas as I can get.
I can't raise any enthusiasm for this Cuba holoday at all and resent what money it has cost us to go as that could have been spent on tickets to Thailand.
Do i sound bitter and twisted....yes your right I am!

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Kiss
God laughs at people who make plans.

Well, it sounds like rather a mixed bag so far..... Portugal (and Spain),
dagging around at home (is that UK or Australia??) and Christmas dinner in UK followed by a trip to Cuba.
Hmmm. All of those sound pretty good to me.
We willl be in S.E.Asia - arriving in Bangkok late on 21st and head to Cambodia a couple of days later.
We'll be in SiemReap for Christmas - hope we can find a place that serves a traditional Christmas lunch (haven't had one of those for the past few years ! Asian food just doesn't do it for me on Christmas Day).

We're pretty excited about our first trip to Cambodia and this is what's kept me going (really exhausted lately) and have been reading Cathy and Gary's travel pages for some inspiration. After 4 days in Siem Reap, we fly to Phnom Penh for 3 more days.

We'll be back in Bangkok on 30th. Dec. and fly out on Jan. 1st. - a bit of a whistlestop tour

Three weeks to go and counting.

I'm dragging around at home in the UK!

I would go away at Christmas every year if it wasn't for the fact that you get ripped off price wise. Flights and hotel rooms costs the same whatever the time of year (apart from when the fuel surchrages go on of course) and then there's the costs of the "compulsory gala dinner" if you are in a hotel anythime between Christmas and New Year.

The only people who benefit from this are the operators so as a point of principal I stay at home. Yep - bah humbug and all that!!!

Anyway, have a wonderful time and tell us what you think of Cambodia - it's on my list of places to go that includes Vietnam as well. Green with envy really!

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Alison

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It's Better to Burn Out than just to Fade Away!