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Let your next career move come to you.

Off next week but still haven't booked anything
PerfidiousPorpoise 14 Mar 23 09:35
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I did google "what to eat in Porto", one of the possible destinations, last evening and felt my arteries clog up just by looking at the photos.

Didn't feel excited enough about anywhere to bite the bullet.

I should be resigned to a staycation in London, shouldn't I? There's the new series of Ted Lasso and if I get a new Apple TV subscription I can also finally watch Severance.

Play I was looking at somewhere where everyone's favourite orange airlines stops doing flights at the end of March as the ski season slows down so it's then rather more complicated to get there.

Porto is quite likely to be chilly and wet in March too.    Its a funny time of year when weather can be pretty much as shit as here right across Europe.

Jesus, don't stay in and watch telly.

Do a tour of Wren's churches in the City. Go to the Victoria and Albert museum. Go to the Tate Gallery (one of my favourite places on Earth). Or the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, short (but steep walk) to the Greenwich Observatory optional Follow the City Wall around modern London.

Visit the garden at the top of the Walkie Talkie: https://skygarden.london/booking/ Have lunch there. The Garden's free but you need to book. If you book in the restaurant you don't need a separate ticket for the garden.

Design your own tour of London sculptures and statues: did you know there is more public sculpture in London than anywhere else in Europe? Start off with Rodin's Burghers of Calais in Victoria Tower Gardens and finish with Paolozzi's sculpture of Newton at the British Library.

Do a culinary world tour: Korean, Indian, Italian, American, African, Caribbean food all well represented in London. 

Or tour London's oldest pubs, start with the Prospect of Whitby and work east. 

(These are alternatives, don't try to do them all!)

 

Just been to Porto. It was ok, enjoyed a couple of days' exploring, but wouldn't be high on the list of places for a 2nd visit. Like much of Portugal, when it comes to hotels and eating out, it's not as cheap as it should be, TBH, and once you realise that you may as well just go somewhere more impressive, like Vienna or Berlin or Rome or Amsterdam or.....  

I did the last-minute mystery hotel in Barcelona once. 4 star. 

Hotel was LOVELY. My room was AWFUL. It was basically 60% smaller than every other room on the floor (by the fire escape route map). Never doing that again 

Go to Madrid. It's ace. 

Vermeer indeed sold out. Wanted to go with my kids but impossible. Agree with Benj, do not just stay in and watch TV. That is just sad.

Eurostar to Paris or Brussels and all you need is a cheap hotel. Walk around and visit some musea. 

If you stay at home, go to the theatre instead of TV. The Lyric often has great stuff. Or micro theatre at the Rosemary Branch.

If you happen to be a road cyclist / cyclocrosser make a multi-day tour with a toothbrush in your rucksack.   

PP, I would echo some of the above comments.

You have the luxury of uncommitted free time, and the benefit of the cash you haven't yet spent on travel or accommodation.

You can visit museums off the beaten track, or go to restaurants you have always wanted to visit for lunch early in the week when they are less likely to be booked.

Or spend a day buying top end ingredients and creating a wonderful meal just for you, or to share with friends.

The world is your lobster.

Great ideas on what to do in London but if you want to get away does anyone know if you can still pop down to an airport and pick up a plane which has spare seats? If so, just take a punt on going somewhere that does and have an adventure.

You have to be in right headspace to go away on you own and enjoy it.   If you are not sure and are not terribly motivated,   doing stuff at home probably a better bet

I'm used to traveling on my own, but I tend to put too much pressure on myself to be "culturally enriched" (or at least do stuff to make the experience worthwhile), such that it ends up being a bit stressful in its own way, especially when I am also on the lookout for potential work emergencies. So I am getting to the stage where, slightly jaded by city breaks, it has to be a destination that really captures my interest at the time to make me feel sufficiently motivated.

I'm horrible at taking time off, it seems. Hopefully this will change when I retire.

Some time ago we had a couple of nights in the Brufani Hotel in Perugia courtesy of the "mystery hotel" option.

It's quite a surprising place, not least because the spa is set in their Etruscan vaults and the pool has a transparent glass floor so you can see the original foundations.

 The money they discounted on the room rate they took back on car parking, wifi, breakfast and every other comfort that might normally be included in the price of a 5 star hotel.

 

Take the pressure off. Only you create it. I am assuming you have some cash. Book a nice hotel in a city. If you do no more than wander around the immediate streets next to the hotel and eat in a couple of local restaurants it’s no big deal. Someone else will be making your bed and there will be nice fresh towels every day.  Enjoy that. Have a few drinks in the hotel bar. Read your book in a cafe. 

you could that ^ in a nice hotel in a city in the UK that you've not been to before too, and upgrade the hotel and the restaurants and the drinks with the money you've saved going abroad. 

I'd like to go and spend a night in the tiger enclosure at Port Lympne which looks v good value compared to some overseas destinations. 

Go to Spain with clergs and publish your diaries 

Day 1:

Sevilla is hot.  Why are the Spanish so noisy at night?  Why does PerfidiousPorpoise have this fascination with alan?  

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