Letters to the Travel Editor
The best thing
Don’t let your heads get so big they won’t go through the door, but what descriptive joy your magazine brings to an old fart who hasn’t been abroad for 30 years due to medical reasons.
As an extremely pedantic ex-journo, it is wordperfect, which counts a lot, given today’s literary standards. It takes me places. In [last] week’s issue, Travel Bugs and the phone-charging drama; Andrew Stone’s bedazzlement at Iran’s mosques; Anthony Peregrine’s gourmet heaven in Burgundy; and Lindy Laird’s permanently erect orangutan penis (que?) — and that’s just to the mid-issue staple.
In 1979, as editor of the now-defunct NZ News UK, I was treated to half of a 25-day European experience with a busload of Aussies. Another day, another city, another country. But my best memory was the first day, when, after visiting the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and all that Rembrandt et al, an Aussie sheila said: “That’s enuf kullcha for one day, I just want to get peessed.”
And, to Stephanie Holmes, your Deputy Editor, for her editorial about a passenger in front nabbing spare blankets and pillows from her row, well, it’s the quick and the dead.
So, thank you for my weekly overseas travel. Steve Jones
The Travel Editor replies: Thanks very much, mate! Those certainly were lovely pieces.
The dumbing down thing
I look forward to the Herald Travel magazine every week for informative news and interesting destination recommendations.
The “Travel lines” comment by Karl Pilkington [August 14] regarding the Amazon was truly trite and smacked of primary schoolboy talk. I was in Iquitos last year and looked forward to something of interest about the Amazon rather than penis talk. Please stop the dumbing down and give us something to look forward to. Dianne Atkinson
The worst thing
We have just returned from my niece’s wedding in San Francisco, which was beautiful, as was the weather — every day, perfect.
But the worst thing that happened was when we landed at San Fran airport and sat on the tarmac for 30 minutes waiting for a “gate” to become available. This also happened when we headed north to Seattle.
Very hot and uncomfortable on the plane, not sure what connecting passengers were able to do.
But worse was to come. We departed the plane and walked some distance to border control, American citizens went left and the rest of us went right. We stop/start walked for three-anda-half hours back and forth along the marked passenger lines. Stopped and talked to more irate passengers, families, grandparents, all having to cope with the hot, crowded conditions. Later they guided us to the automatic machines where we entered our family details, took our picture, etc. My sister was picking us up from the airport, so we had to make several calls to tell her not to come yet. My last call was: “I’m looking for a ticket back to New Zealand.”
After entering our details in the machine, we still had to be interviewed by the limited staff they had on at the booths. It was 4.15pm when we left the border security.
Not a happy experience for anybody. Leanne Jenner
All of Cornwall’s a stage
I read the piece “Flying below the radar” [Travel Wires, August 21] which said “some of Cornwall’s most idyllic beauty spots are no longer being promoted”. Porthcurno is mentioned as one of them and any overcrowding here is more likely due to it being the site of the Minack Theatre. This amazing place, with the stage and a series of terraces carved into the cliffside with breathtaking views over the English Channel (and accompanied by the sounds of the waves), puts on brilliant live theatre covering everything from Shakespeare to light comedy and drama. To sit on one of the terraces as the spring or summer evening darkens, with a picnic supper, watching the production with a glass of wine is quite a special experience.
Actually, Porthcurno Beach itself is fairly runof-the-mill and not many of Cornwall’s beaches match many in other parts of the country (even Watching a production at the Minack Theatre in Porthcurno, Cornwall is a special experience. Got something to say? Send your letters to the Travel Editor though Newquay is the main surfing centre in the UK).
However, it is more the ruggedness of the countryside with its many lovely little villages which still makes Cornwall one of our must-visit counties on any trips we make to Britain.
Curiously, not mentioned as one of these mostcrowded villages is Port Isaac. It has a quintessential “smugglers” feel to it that on previous stays was delightful. However, for some time now it has been the village used for the TV series Doc Martin and is almost impossible to get into when filming is under way, as we found out when we chanced upon one of these days — seeing Martin Clunes and Stephanie Cole not really making up for the inconvenience of the crowds gawping at them!
An interesting aside on tourism in Cornwall is that it is unlikely to be due to Devonians. Generalising, many Devon (the neighbouring county) residents seem to have a notion that Cornwall is a “waste of space” (as I’ve heard some of them describe it) and if the River Tamar, the county’s border, could be allowed to carry on to the northern coast, Cornwall could then just drift away! Said somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but close friends living there are baffled why we insist on having a couple of days in Kernow. Regards, Graeme Leary
The Travel Editor replies: The Minack Theatre is one of those remarkable places that comfortably surpasses expectations. Top tip: Take a hip flask and a blanket.