Dunno about other insects but I can vouch for Avon's Skin-so-Soft lotion for keeping Scottish midges at bay

As we found in Corfu last August, the insect repellent that you buy in the UK is generally not effective abroad (haven't a clue why that should be though) but the stuff you buy in your holiday resort generally is, probably because the local shopkeepers know what works and what doesn't.

Like wise in Corfu we found the chemists to be extremely effective in treating minor illness and injury, were certainly much cheaper than consulting a doctor and then being referred to the chemist for the treatments, and would often do a brief consultation for free anyway - three of our party had bad reactions to insect bites and were given antihistamines over the counter in the chemist (which worked), and I mean not just itchy lumps but swollen legs and open sores which were bandaged in the shop and treated there and then for a few euros.

I'd suggest that we do it in this country but the Tories would claim it as their idea.

Lake Garda is spectacular. We went for a long weekend in July a few years back and I could quite happily have stayed for a fortnight. We stayed in a little town called Lazise which was really nice, but we used it as a base to explore other villages and towns around the lake. If you're there for long enough, try and get to Verona for the day.

I think it's the southern European "chemists" are more apothecaries and are usually trained to treat non-urgent cases. I use hyrogen peroxide as an antiseptic and mouthwash but have to drive 15 miles to find an old-school chemist that still stocks it. After the dopey bint in my local Boots offered to sell me Plax or Listerine, she finally told me that they couldn't sell it because I could use it to make a bomb. As opposed to them making a bomb by selling me branded shoite

I think this may be true, some years ago when prescriptions in the Uk cost £5.00 per item, my wife, who suffers from occasional eczema on her hands was prescribed something called "oily cream" which TBH wasn't having much effect. Normally you get Betnovate, but anyway she persevered. We went on holiday to the Costa Del Sol, and she forgot to take this stuff with her. So we went into a chemist, and he gave her a tube of Betnovate - and here's the punch-line it only cost a £1!

Places I'd recommend. I've been to Garda twice and it's lovely - but IMO compared to Spain Italy is expensive.
My favourite resort on the Med is Tossa de Mar on the Costa Brava. It's picturesque, you can eat and drink well fairly cheaply, the people are great and the weather goes without saying. Plus of course if you drive, which we have four times it's one of the nearest places in Spain to the UK. In fact if you time your holiday there correctly you could even watch your team at Catalans - it's only 60 - 90 minutes drive from Perpignan.

Mine too, hoping to go 2014. Doing Aliwal Shoal in South Africa next year. Doing Thistlegorm in August.

I was talking to one of the guys at work who dives, he was on holiday a few weeks ago in the Virgin Isles and he was telling me about how spectacular it was, the thought of deep seemingly unending water just freaks me out.

Tossa's nice but if you're looking at the Costa Brava I'd recommend Cadaqués, Calella de Palafrugell an Begur.

Thanks coddy,
Just about every search I've done says the same, problem is buying the stuff!!!

Ding Dong

The effect of Skin so Soft was first discovered by an angler on holiday in Scotland with his missus. He couldn't understand why he was getting bitten wholesale, while hsi wife was left alone. They were eating to same food, wearing similar clothes etc. It was only by accident that she mentioned her Avon skin lotion, he tried it nd remained bite free for the rest of the trip.

There's plenty of Avon sellers on-line, even on eBay

Thanks, didn't even think of Ebay, now have 3 bottles on t'way from Leeds.

I was on holiday in Benalmadena in the early 80s and went down with what I can only describe as a flu-like illness. My ex-missus went to the pharmacy and attempted to describe my symptoms and came away with a bottle of bright yellow liquid. I knocked back a couple of gobfulls and then spent the next five hours sweating like a pig. I managed to fall alseep at dawn and when I woke at about lunchtime, felt as right as rain and thought I could fight the world.

When we got back home I gave the bottle to a mate who was an analytical chemist. He phoned me a couple of days later enquiring just where I'd bought it and whether I'd brought it back through customs. Apparently the main ingredient was laudanum and I could've been nicked for drug smuggling. Unfortunately he destroyed what was left.

Branwell Bronte must have been as fit as a fiddle then - if you've ever been to Haworth you can almost see him walking the fifty yards down the lane from their house, past the pub where he drank himself to death and across the road to the apothacary where he bought his laudanum by the barrowload, what a life...

Not entirely clear why anyone would want to go abroad in these austere times.

I'm going to Portugal for a few days on Wednesday, I'll let you know.

Beware.

Of what ?

I'm tagging along with a developer friend who is looking at some land on The Algarve for his next project, I'm not allowed to ask who their client is but lets just say that he only designs one villa a year for the sort of people who don't have to ask "How much", should be interesting with a bum like me in tow.

Taxi drivers.

Earthquakes.

Civil unrest.

Being asked for a bailout.....

Being kidnapped.

Nah,

This is The Algarve, I'll be lucky to speak to anyone who doesn't use English as their first language.


On a slightly related issue my eldest is currently in Rhodes and boy how that end fo the Med has changed - when I went to rhodes in the late 70s you would be imprisoned and probably executed as a spy if you took a boat across the short stretch of water to Turkey, if you even mentioned Turkey you'd be imprisoned and if you had a Turkish immigration stamp on your passport you'd be put back on the first plane to England, you wouldn't even set foot in Greece.

Last Friday she took an organised tour ferry to Turkey from Rhodes harbour, bought a load of knock-off "designer" handbags and Ugg boots - that was the only reason they'd booked the holiday

She may get stopped at Customs. When we have come back from Turkey in the past they've stopped people with loads of 'designer' T-shirts, etc. Depends whether they've cottoned (pun intended) on to the Rhodes trick!

Northumberland.
Yorkshire Coast.
Portugal.

All in the space of few posts on this thread.
Wonderful, all of 'em.

To the Northumberland bit, I'd add that Berwick on Tweed, although it's what you might call "quiet" and maybe even slightly depressed in the economic sense and not blessed with ultra-fine dining, is nonetheless a good-looking place and a great base for exploring.
(Tip : People-watching in the bar at the Maltings Theatre is worth the price of a pint any time)
More castles and big beaches within reach than you can shake a stick at.
And Berwick itself is great if you like history and "picturesque" ... if you take a camera, it would be churlish not to follow the Lowry trail and take photos of the views and scenes in his pictures for comparison, they even have a Lowry Trail to help you do it. It made me look at Lowry in a different light (I wasn't keen before but now I see that he was getting it pretty much right).
Craster for smoked fish and a fab pub opposite.
Dunstanburgh for ruined castle atmosphere.
Seahouses for crab sandwiches at the Ship.
Farne islands for puffins and seals (looking at them, not eating them).
Alnwick for the best second-hand bookshop I have ever, ever, been in (it used to be the entire railway station and has armchairs and open fires, plus a fab cafe serving very decent food in the old waiting rooms !).
Great easy-walking country.

Drawbacks?
None ... well, none except for not being able to get bloody [iFog on the Tyne[/i out of your brain every time you see the signs for Lindisfarne.

Covered all of that in the blog last week

I'll be back down to South Devon for early September again. Staying in the same cottage (cos they allow dogs and give us new-laid eggs), catching and eating some fine fish & prawns, digging queen cockles and razor clams and buying crabs and scallops straight off the boat. I reckon the only meat I eat down there is the bacon for my breakfast.

As a kid i used to holiday in Anglesey, it was great, we'd go down to Red Wharf Bay when the tide was out and try and catch Sand Eels for bait, loved it, sometimes find a nice big crab and put it in a bucket. Then we'd go to Penmon point near the Puffin Island and go fishing all day, boil up the crab on a camp fire to keep us going, even though i am the age i am i'll miss the old fella for that.