May 3, 2013 - @#$%^&**(

The Azores are in the middle of nowhere, on the same latitude as Washington, DC and 800 miles west of Lisbon. There are nine islands altogether; the tops of volcanoes which still exhibit plenty of geothermal activity. In the Days of Exploration, when brave and foolhardy sailors from Portugal, Spain, Holland and England were sailing to the edge of the world, the Azores came in mighty handy as spots to take on fresh food and water before making the final push to wherever it was they thought they were going. In both world wars the islands...

Mar 21, 2013 - Pre-Trip & Goin' Over

Well here we are at DFW waiting to board our flight and head off on another adventure. We fly from DFW to JFK in New York, then on to De Gaulle in Paris, and finally to Lisbon, Portugal. We will get to spend a couple of days in Lisbon before shoving off to Porto, Portugal where we will board our ship and cruise the Douro River. 2013 is the first year that our river cruise line, Viking, has had a cruise on the Douro. Actually, they had planned to do it several years ago. And we happened to be on a Viking cruise in 2010 with a number of...

Mar 20, 2013 - Ainda no avião

Dia 1 O pior em cada situação de mudança nem sequer é o medo do desconhecido, é o que isso leva, é a antecipação. Só tive um mês para antecipar isto, mas acho que foi mais que suficiente. Tudo parecia surreal. Sabe-se que vai acontecer, sabe-se a data, sabe-se a hora, sabe-se até onde vais ficar. Processaste toda a informação mas mesmo assim consegues senti-la tão bem com o teu nascimento (excepto que, nesse caso, foi no passado): sabes que aconteceu, sabes quando, mas nem por isso consegues senti-lo ou mesmo lembrar. Aconteceu contigo, mas...

Mar 18, 2013 - Contagem decrescente...

Dia -1: Acordei com um aperto no peito, com parecenças a um ataque de pânico a pensar que em 24 horas a minha vida tomaria um rumo completamente diferente. Respirei fundo e acalmei-me a mim mesma dizendo que vai tudo ficar bem. Sozinha nunca mais estarei, tenho-vos a vós em mim, tenho todas as lembranças, todas as palavras, todo o carinho, todo o amor a tornar a minha bagagem ainda mais pesada do que ela está, mas que sem isso nunca estaria completa. Obrigada por tudo, daqui e umas horas parto para uma nova aventura, tão louca como qualquer...

Dec 21, 2012 - Merry Christmas, Sunshine and fish & chips

We spent a week camped close to the capital of Portugal – Lisbon. This was an ideal base to visit the capital, other coastal towns and the World Heritage Site of Sintra in the hills. Lisbon was in many ways a little disappointing; maybe we had expected too much or maybe we are a bit “travelled out”. The old quarter, the Alfama, was fascinating with narrow and confusing lanes. Historic tram 28 was a riot as it climbed impossible hills and hurtled around blind corners, and Belem with all the maritime history and the Monastery of Saint Jerome...

Dec 11, 2012 - Knights Templar, dinosaur footprints, Roman ruins and a hangover……..

The last week has been quite amazing and has been the most varied of the trip so far. Portugal is growing on us the more time we spend here. From Porto we continued to head south through the most famous university city in Portugal - Coimbra, an interesting and elegant city. The historic university library has 30,000 books on display all written before 1800. We have visited the extensive Roman ruins of Conimbriga, walked in the steps (literally) of dinosaurs from 200 million years ago, and travelled to our favourite town so far – Tomar, the...

Dec 4, 2012 - Heading south into a new country

In the last week we have waded around the streets of Santiago de Compostela in the November monsoon, given up on northern Spain (for this year) and headed south into Portugal for sun and warmer air. We have hiked in the Serra do Geres National Park and seen some ancient Roman mile posts, spent some time at the beach resort of Estrela and ended the week in the historic city of Porto. We have found this to be one of our favourite spots and is a crusty “in your face” fishing port, despite signs of the economic austerity measures and recession...

Dec 2, 2012 - Funchal

We had one sea day, and then we were at Funchal, Madeira Island (Portugal). We took a bus tour which stopped at the winery, toured the island, and then stopped at the fishing village where Winston Churchill vacationed and painted. (His name is on everything!).

Nov 18, 2012 - Lisbon - Last Day

Today, our last day, was a lovely sunny day for walking around some parks. Close to our hotel is a huge area called Parque Eduardo VII. It is a great area in the middle of the city for locals and tourists to wander around. We took the Metro from there out to the site of Expo 1998. This a nice area on the river with a walkway stretching for miles. Some of the buildings from Expo are still here to look at but it's just a lovely walk by the river and well used by locals as well. There are lots of restaurants and snack bars as well. We had our...

Nov 17, 2012 - Lisbon

Today started with walk to the "Elevador da Gloria" the tram ride that saves a really serious uphill walk to the Barrio Alto district. At the top there is a lovely park with a splendid view of the city and towards the river. We strolled downhill from there looking at wonderful tiled buildings and of course stopping for a coffee and pastry on the way - that has become very addictive! We looked at the elevator at the top end and then from the bottom when we had walked down there. A wonderful idea for the tourists it was built in 1900 or so...

Nov 16, 2012 - Lisbon

As expected the rains came today so it was a good day to visit the Gulbenkian Museum, a couple of stops on the Metro from where we are staying. There is a very good Metro system here. Calouste Gulbenkian who was born in Istanbul to a wealthy Armenian Family went on to make his own fortune in gasoline. He became an avid art collector and when he died his will requested the creation of a foundation to house his huge collection of art. There is a lovely collection of Eastern Islamic Art along with paintings and sculptures of European Masters....

Nov 14, 2012 - Evora

Today was a strike day across Portugal protesting the economic austerity measures taken by the government, the second one since we have been here. We knew the railways were closed down, but were surprised that the local Museum was closed and that many shops had closed in sympathy. So we turned our attention to the Cathedral and the Church of San Francisco and its’ Bone Chapel. The rather macabre chapel was built in the 1600’s and the bones came from local church yards by three monks who wanted the rich inhabitants of Evora to meditate on...