TRAVEL

Home & Away with Robert WalsheLiving

Aer Lingus & Air Canada now operate a new interline agreement to make flying be-tween

Ireland and Canada more convenient. The agreement is effective immediately and is a preliminary step toward a full code sharing relation-ship expected to be finalised next year between the Irish & Canadian flag carriers.

The agreement enables customers to use both car-riers’ check-in kiosks and to through-check their bag-gage to final destination. Air Canada flies Dublin-Toronto non-stop daily during the summer (from 8 June until 14 October in 2012) and now customers can connect through London Heathrow, where Air Canada serves up to eight major Canadian cities with 12 daily flights in summer and nine in winter.

Aer Lingus operates a total of 23 flights daily from London Heathrow to Dub-lin, Belfast, Cork and Shan-non. www.aerlingus.com

Meanwhile Shangri-La Hotel, Toronto opened last month on Canada’s grand ceremonial boulevard, Uni-versity Avenue, in the heart of its largest city, Toronto, Ontario. Shangri-La Hotel, Toronto resides within the first 17 floors of a new 66-sto-rey landmark tower. Guests will appreciate its downtown location, where the city’s business and entertainment districts meet.

The 202-room hotel is within a five-block radius of the performance centre for Canada’s opera and ballet companies, the headquar-ters for the country’s five major banks, consulates, leading research hospitals, sports venues, the city’s live theatre district and the TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) headquarters.

Shangri-La Hotel, Toronto is located at 188 University Avenue in Toronto, Ontario. www.shangri - la .com/to-ronto

Holiday Hotspotwww.mijas-villas.com

Spain features many holi-day destinations but Costa del Sol is the preferred loca-tion due to a unique blend of mountainous terrain, beau-tiful rural landscape and lovely sandy beaches.

The region extends for most of Andalucía’s Mediter-ranean coast, between Alm-eria in the east and Tarifa to the west. Its transport and commercial hub is the city of Malaga. eastwards, the main resorts are Nerja and Torrox while westwards, Torremo-linos and Benalmádena are popular spots for Costa del Sol holidaymakers. Further west, Marbella and Estepona are home to boutique Costa del Sol hotels. Inland, white-washed villages like ronda and Mijas dot the land-scape. With over 300 days of sunshine days a year, the Costa del Sol’s beaches are the main attraction here. In such a diverse territory as the province of Malaga different gastronomic tra-ditions intermingle but the most noticeable difference is between the cuisine of the coastal strip and that of the interior towns.

Tapas, sangria and seafood paellas are a Costa del Sol must and the newly opened Italian Le Plaza restaurant at Miraflores is worth a call. One of the most original lei-sure facilities on the Costa del Sol is the (Benalmádena Aerial Cable Car also known as the “telecabina”. Its de-parture point is next to the Tivoli amusement park in Ar-royo de la Miel.

This is without any doubt one of the most attractive leisure offers on the coast. There are markets along the Costa del Sol every day in summer except Sundays and these usually operate from about 9/10am until about 2pm. You will find a wide range of goods on sale such as clothes, shoes, towels

and blankets, ceramic pots and dishes and remember to barter well. If you enjoy sport

then you will love the Costa del Sol. With a year round sunny climate the opportu-nities for outdoor activities are unlimited and the region boasts more than 40 golf clubs, the biggest concen-tration in mainland europe. Mijas Villas based at Mijas Pueblo was established in 2004 by Ian & Jill Fishwick who along with their fam-ily run the finest villa rental business on the Costa del Sol. All their villas are pri-vately owned by discerning individuals - friends and fam-ily - and appointed and main-tained to a high standard, they are very much ‘homes’ and not just ‘holiday lets.

They have a wide range of beautifully furnished and well equipped Spanish villas, fincas, & apartments in rural Andalucía. We stayed at La Huerta Vieja is a fabulous old (late 1800’s/early 1900’s) farmhouse which has been sympathetically converted and extended over the last 20 years.

Built on a 3,400m2 com-pletely private and terraced south facing plot with ex-tensive south views to the coast & North Africa, La Huerta Vieja has extensive mature gardens laid out on 4 terraced levels & a large

heart shaped swimming pool (heating optional) with its own palm tree topped island! In addition to the swimming pool, there is a Jacuzzi on the front lawn that has stun-ning views and a games area with an American pool table & a table tennis table ... this is located on the terrace just below the main living room patio / terrace. La Huerta Vieja is perfect for large fam-ily gatherings & multi-family holidays. www.mijas-villas.com/huerta-vieja-villa-mijas-costa-del-sol

The enchanting village of Mijas is situated in the low-lands of the Sierra de Mijas mountain range surrounded by pine forest. The village nestles in the mountainside at 428 meters above sea level and has a population of 7,500.

The nearest main town is the Spanish sea-side resort Fuengirola (8km), Malaga airport is 25 mins by car. Mijas has managed to retain

much of its “white village” charm, with cobbled, nar-row winding streets, daz-zling whitewashed walls and breathtaking views and the location continues to be hugely popular with the Irish and British. If you get a couple of dull or wet days this winter I suggest a visit to the Fuengirola Miramar Shopping Centre off the N340 situated close to the Castle on the west side of town near ‘Dunne’s’ store. Open Monday - Saturday from 10am. The Miramar has many shops including, fashion stores, home and garden, sports, jewellery etc. There is also a large supermarket on the ground floor. The Miramar centre has a food court and a Cin-ema complex, which shows a film in English everyday. The Costa del Sol is also wonderful during the Christ-mas & New Year festivities.

The “Three Kings, “Fiesta de Los Reyes” celebration is the moment when the three kings of Orient bring their Christmas presents to the children, on the evening of the 6th of January.

Three men dress up as the kings and ride about the town in a procession, scat-tering sweets to the crowds of excited children. The 6th of January is a public holi-day throughout Spain. Aer Lingus fly to Malaga daily from Dublin and the sum-mer schedule from Belfast City airport begins from the end of March 2013 with daily flights to Malaga. www.aer-lingus.com

Robert Walshe is a free-lance contributor / broad-caster and Travel Editor for River Media newspa-per titles across the island of Ireland. www.robertw-alshe.com

Pet’s Corner... with Kathleen Murray

Weekly Best BuyClub Med are offering “Christmas” in

Egypt staying at the *New Premium Luxury Resort. Departures on 20 December for 7 nights all inclusive including direct flights from Dublin. Adult from €2099, Teenagers from €1799 & Children from €1179.Your Pre-mium All inclusive holiday includes: Direct flights from Dublin, all inclusive accommo-

dation for 7 nights and all taxes. Private ex-clusive space comprising a delicate lounge and pool, Luxury accommodation compris-ing Family Suites and a vast solarium privi-leged services: room service for breakfast, champagne in the evening, concierge serv-ice with unlimited access to activities and services. www.clubmedsunway.ie

n Huertavieja poolhouse.n Huertavieja lounge.

Feeding birds over winterEVERYONE is familiar with feed-

ing the birds over the winter. Bird tables are stocked with seeds etc so that when the cold weather, or snow, comes and food is hard to find, the little birds still have something to keep them going. People should keep a watch out for unusual birds.

Sometimes a pet bird escapes from the house and would surely come to a very cold sad end in this weather. Time is a major factor if a house bird (parrot, budgie, baraband etc) es-capes.

They cannot take the cold at all so need to be found very quickly. Keep a close eye on your bird at all times. Doors and windows should always be closed when your bird is out of the cage. What else should you watch out

for in the cold weather? You could watch out for hibernating animals. Hedgehogs are often in danger be-cause people don’t know that there is one in their garden and may light a fire without noticing the sleeping hedgehog under leaves or bits of wood. One thing that brings great joy to people at this time of year is the ar-rival of the swans and the wild geese.

They are beautiful to look at. They arrive in October and leave again in April so enjoy them while they are with us. Watch out for their welfare as swans mate for life and when one re-turns alone it is a very sad and lonely sight.

They can get caught in wire or net-ting, or may walk on broken glass by accident, as they cross a road etc. If

you are an animal lover then you could leave a little box or crate of some kind in a quiet corner of the garden in case an animal wants to rest up for a little bit, out of the wind and rain.

Animals often get lost or have ac-cidents on the road and run away in shock. They are often disorientated and lost. Sometimes they just need somewhere to put their head down for a sleep until they are well enough to move on again. If you wake up to a pile of cats from the neighbour that didn’t bother to neuter, then that’s a whole different story. Lift the box and all that’s in it and set it down in the neighbours garden again. Get yourself a new box and continue with your good work. The animals will ap-preciate it.