Oct 10, 2010 - Espinho - Day 2

Off to the restaurant for the all-inclusive breakfast. Surprise – a feast like one might have on a cruise ship with an international host of travelers. The waiters are neat and pressed with bow-ties – very elegant. Mark loves trains so we decide to find the station and go into Porto for the day. It turns out the train is right in front of the hotel, underground, in a very weird looking building! We figure out how to take the train with the assistance of the ticket clerk who speaks pretty good English. When we do run into trouble we ask...

Oct 9, 2010 - Espinho

This morning we do a meeting, over coffee and croissant about what we will do next – the itinerary spreadsheet is being over-ruled. We leave Pontevedra and follow the Bay of Biscay to the Pyrenees to Portugal. We see more and more vineyards, even a little church surrounded by vineyards on all sides – it seems as if the property lines are grape vines rather than fences or hedges. The housing styles change – we are in Portugal as there is no border control or passport check…..however, the words on the signs are different – neither of us know...

Oct 2, 2010 - Oporto - Portugal

Porto, Oporto. Arrival is again complicated due to our GPS (Carmen to us) and the Citroen GPS (Edith) not wanting to accept the address we had.....and us not having enough information initially to reprogram it on the fly. Lost in downtown cobble-stoned Oporto for a few minutes, and then found our way to the Palacio Frexio Pousada - a special old building. We have a few hours, and decide to go to a key tourist site, the Casa da Musica - a very recent and very exciting musical concept building. We take a tour, and Helen and Geoff decide to...

Sep 19, 2010 - Porto

We awoke in Axis Viana in Viana do Castelo - after another night of very little sleep :-( Renee is still fighting a cold and sleeping is not easy. We grabbed a bite and headed out to Porto, Portugal's second largest city. Porto sits on the slopes of the gorge carved out by the Rio Douro, and it's really beautiful - lots of riverfront activity, lots of hustle and bustle, and lots of winding, hilly streets to meander. Driving in Porto is a challenge due to these winding streets, most of them one way. So priority #1 was to ditch the car at the...

Aug 20, 2010 - PORTO

When we first arrived in Porto we were not very impressed – it seemed dirty and a bit seedy. However we have been proven wrong and this town is a lovely place. A lot of the buildings are covered with the most wonderful painted tiles (a bit like Delft pottery). In fact sometimes almost the whole building is covered as you can see by the photos. We have also discovered wonderful places to eat and have done the inevitable ‘tasting’ of the magnificent Port Wines. Clive and I are feeling very Spanish (or is that Portuguese?). We get up at 8am or...

Aug 17, 2010 - Porto

Porto surprised me a bit. I didn't have much interest in seeing it, but I liked it. It's a big port city, a bit grungy, and the historic core is filled with half-empty, abandoned buildings, but there are some interesting sights and the people are very friendly here. The city is most famous for port wine, and the main reason people come here. Across the river are where all the big port wine lodges store and mature their wine. Traditionally the wine was brought down the river from the Douro Vallley in long, flat-bottomed boats called Rabelo...

Aug 10, 2010 - Bom Jesus

Our R&R day on Sunday was a fun day. Our first stop was in Guimares which the Portuguese refer to as "The Birthplace of Portugal". It was here that 18 year old Alfonso defeated his mothers army (she was married to a Spaniard) and declared independence from Spain. Some rebellious teenager!! We toured through a castle that he had built for himself. It is really more of a ruin as only the outer walls are still standing. I have included a photo. You will note there are no railings anywhere. After that we toured the Sao Miguel palace next door...

Jun 5, 2010 - Home again, Home again

We got up this morning at 3 am, to catch our 6 am flight from Porto to Stansted (Close to London). We were able to get a taxi easily and it took us about 25 minutes to get to the airport. The airport was dark, there were several folks there that looked like they spend the night. About 5:15 am the RyanAir counter opened up and we were third in line and made it with no problems to the plane. We arrived in Stansted on time and tried to figure out how to get to Heathrow. Seems most folks take the bus, so for about $80 we found the bus and...

Jun 3, 2010 - 4th Day in Porto (Thursday)

Yesterday we booked a tour to the northeast of Porto for today. Our driver, George, picked us up at 9 am sharp, we were even ready! He spoke very good english and when he was not giving us a Portugal history lesson, he was talking about politics. Today was also a religious holiday in Portugal. Our first stop was Amarante, which is about 80 km from Porto. We visited an old church, which was very beautiful inside and walked across a very old bridge. The town was having a fair, so there were a lot of merchants selling things in the street. We...

Jun 2, 2010 - 2nd Day in Porto (Tuesday)

Sorry for no updates, going all the time and without a computer it is really hard. Had a minor set back. British Airways canceled our flight from Lisbon to London. Luckily we were able to book a flight with Ryan Air to London from Porto. Hopefully British Airlines will not cancel our flight from London to Denver on Saturday! All is good! Porto is a very beautiful city. The people that we have met have been very helpful. Love to all....Jeff and Cindy

Jun 2, 2010 - 3rd Day in Porto (Wednesday)

This morning we got up and finished riding the red tourist bus around the city. We then took the bus to the beach, this part of the beach was very rocky. There were a lot of older gentlemen on the beach, playing cards and sunbathing. Kind of strange!! There were definitely a lot more men on the beach than women. After we got back to town from the beach, which for some reason took forever, that stupid little red tourist bus took almost 50 minutes to come back around and pick us up! We hiked up to town centre and it was uphill all the way, we...

May 26, 2010 - 3rd Day in Paris (Wednesday)

Philippe picked us up this morning at our hotel. We drove to Auvers-sur-Oise, this is the town that Vincent van Gogh died in. We spend the day walking around the town and learning some about his life. Later that afternoon we stopped by a cafe and enjoyed fermented apple cider.