Festa da Castanha
This week (31st October and 1st November) sees the Chestnut Festival in the Nuns Valley, organised by the Curral das Freiras People’s House to promote this important regional agricultural product. The popular event provides an opportunity for the numerous visitors to taste the delicacies and derivatives of this dried fruit: roasted chestnuts, liqueurs and cakes.
The Journal reports on a lecture on the nutritional value of the chestnuts delivered recently by Miguel Andrade, a nutritionist at Câmara de Lobos Health Centre, pointing out that the chestnut is rich in starch (a carbohydrate), and as such, it is an energy supplier. This characteristic has allowed him to recommend the food as substitute of the potato, exemplified by chestnut soup, which is another of the delicacies of the local gastronomy.
The Festa da Castanha is also used to promote a gastronomic contest between local restaurants in this famously scenic parish.
TAP launches London City route
The Portugal News reports that national airline TAP has launched a new route to London City airport. The new route will see the national flag carrier fly twice a day to the central London airport. This brings the number of destinations the airline travels to in the British capital up to three, alongside Gatwick and Heathrow. TAP said in a statement that air traffic between Lisbon and London has shown strong growth in 2017, with passenger numbers up 28 percent.
Estimates are that 700,000 passengers will fly on TAP between the two cities during the course of this year.
The science behind why people who prefer the window seat are more selfish
On another airline subject, traveller.com have an interesting article on the psychology of selecting an airline seat.
“Ask any stranger on the street whether they prefer the aisle or the window seat and you can guarantee a quick-fire response. There is no grey area in this comically divisive debate. Window-devotees consider people who favour the aisle to be barking mad, and aisle-devotees are just as incredulous. Try it. Ask the person next to you which camp they fall into and they’ll not only answer without a second thought, they’ll most likely launch into a much-rehearsed soliloquy as to why”. They quote Mark Vanhoenacker, British Airways pilot and author of How to Land a Plane. Full article here.
Chestnut soup is yummy with chestnut cake as after. Nice that TAP are going to use London City, shame still no direct flights between CR7 and UK.
As for window vs aisle seats. We always try and grab adjacent aisle seats. You can stretch your legs more easily and get to the loo without disturbing others. I’ve taken window seats many times and what do you see? Tops of clouds for 4 hours.
Stopped using TAP when they abandoned direct flights from Madeira to UK. Next year we are using TAP again with their new 5 day ‘stopover’ fare either via Lisbon or Porto. So going back we will spend 5 days in Lisbon at no extra air fare cost and this is a really good deal.
We usually go for aisle seats but I sometimes wonder if it would be better to book a window and aisle seat in same row but with my luck the middle seat would not remain free but be filled by the largest person in the world!!