Amsterdam...almost home, we thought

  We got up at 4:45am Monday morning October 22nd.  Left our hotel and walked to the taxi stand, got to the airport in 10 minutes without traffic, only cost 8 1/2 euros, checked in, went through security and it all went so smooth. Too smooth.  Our flight to Amsterdam left 3 hours late due to the fog in Amsterdam so we missed our connecting flight to Mpls and were left stranded like 1,000's of other people.  Long, long lines of people getting re-booked and a long story short, we are now in a hotel for the night hoping to get out tomorrow.  So, we had our last dinner of our trip again and toasted again to our last night and maybe we will be home tomorrow.

We're still smiling but tired

The best room we've had all trip

View of Holland countryside from our room

Lisbon and then home

  We have had a very enjoyable last 2 days in Lisbon.  Saturday's weather was beautiful in the 60's and sunny and we spent 9-10 hours exploring all the neighborhoods by means of funicular, trolleys, elevator (made by Mr. Effiel) and our feet.  The most fun was our trolley 'joy ride' that brought us to parts of the city that we didn't mean to go.  We obviously got on going the wrong way and after about 20 minutes the trolley suddenly stopped and the very crabby driver said 'finished.'  When half the people who were apparently stupid tourists like us didn't get off, she yelled again FINISHED!!  So we all got off, stood there looking dumbfounded and 5 minutes later the driver pulled forward 10 feet and we all got back on and eventually ended up where we wanted to go.  We can see why the drivers get a little crabby as there are constantly dumb tourists, dumb drivers and  dumb cars parked over the trolley tracks blocking the way and after yelling by driver and riders and lots of horn blowing we continue on our way.  Great fun.  There are street performers everywhere and it gives the city a real festive feel.  This place is a real melting pot of tourists and residents from all over the world.

Our thoughts on Portugal are that it's a wonderful place to visit and discover.  Quaint mountain and seaside villages, interesting history, culture and vibrant cities.  Fantastic architecture, art, wine, food and people.  The only downside is that everyone smokes and it felt like a smoke haze over the country.  What a shame.

We feel that we have been gone a very long time.  Thinking back to where we started in Bellagio it feels like 5 months and not 5 weeks and that is because we have seen and experienced so much.  The time spent with Shelley & Jerry and Mike & Cindy was priceless.  Thanks so much to Mom and Dad for this great adventure and the opportunity to share it as a family.

Trolley joy ride

Waterfront in Lisbon

Funicular

Monestary in Belem

Monument to the discoveries

First Starbucks of the trip-so good!

Obidos, Cobo da Roca and on to Lisbon

  Thursday afternoon, October 18th we pulled into the most beautiful, quaint mid-evil village of Obidos.  Our posada was once again in a 16th century manor house, thankfully on the outside of the wall.  Driving into villages like that can be quite stressful as there are no signs for one ways and the roads are only wide enough for one car and we are usually going the wrong way!  We had a wonderful 24 hours to hike and discover this very quiet village with a highlight of hiking the wall that surrounded it and seeing Obidos from a high vantage point.

On our way to Lisbon Friday we took a side trip to Cobo da Roca which is the western most point of Europe.  On the map it didn't look 'far' however, maps don't tell the whole story as we had discovered many times before.  We wound up and over a mountain, through many seaside villages and just as the sun broke out and we were ready to give up...there it was.  What a beautiful spot!  We stayed until the Japanese tour bus showed up which is enough to drive you out of any good peaceful place.

On to Lisbon through rush hour traffic and we were glad to bring the car back in one piece, ourselves included!  We took the subway into the city, got off at the wrong stop and dragged our suitcases 'not too far' to our hotel only to discover we were on the 4th floor without an elevator.  We have been traveling for 5 weeks and have accumulated a few more items from what we started out with so my sherpa, Bob, wasn't too happy.  To bed for a good nights sleep and 2 days left to tour Lisbon then homeward bound.

Pousada in Obidos

Castle walls

Wall walk

Cobo da Roca

Western edge of Europe

Porto

  We spent 10 hours hiking and exploring the city.  We are not quite sure what we think of this city.  It is very interesting, very old world, very run down, very noisy, but enough to see to keep us walking for 10 hours.  The really big attraction here are the port lodges where port is stored to age and then is shipped around the world.  The number of port producers is amazing and many of them are open for touring and tasting.  We took a wonderful tour at Taylor lodge and learned so much about port and how it's made and enjoyed a tasting of 3 different kinds.  We won't be bringing any of these home since we can buy the same products in the states however at a much higher price.  We walked along the main shopping street and got stopped going into a store because we set off the security alarm.  Our bags were searched and the culprit... Olives that we bought in the grocery store!  We are looking forward to getting out of the noisy busy city for some quiet villages to discover this week as we make our way towards Lisbon and our return home Monday the 22nd.

Lisbon waterfront

Port tasting

Port storage

Nazare, Batalha & Alcobaca

  We hit the road again on Tuesday, October 16 leaving busy Porto behind and only getting lost a few times on our way to Nazare on the coast.  We are getting much better at this driving and navigating stuff.  We are truly amazed at the road system in this country.  Beautiful new roads no matter where you go and hardly anyone on them because of the tolls.  We have been driving mostly national roads along with everyone else, including the truckers to avoid the high cost and also to be able to drive through all the villages that you don't see on the highways.

Nazare is a town on the Atlantic coast with a huge long beach.  It's a summer tourist destination but this time of year there are not very many tourists.  We came into town without a hotel reservation thinking we would just look around and findsomething when we got here.  We were barely out of the car when a woman approached us with a quarto (room) to rent.  We followed her for a few blocks, up 2 flights of stairs and into a quaint apartment with 2 bedrooms, living room, kitchen, bath and a terrace that we can sit on and see the sea!  The price... $40 for 2 nights!  It's basic but really fun.  We bought some vino verde and batatas fritos (potato chips) and sat on the terrace and watched the sunset before going out for a very interesting dinner of shrimp, lobster, clams, and who knows what else all cooked in the shells in a rice base.  Very good but a real mess to eat.

We woke up to a rain storm in the middle of the night and it has rained on and off all day.  We did a day trip to two close towns to see two hugh monasteries.  Quite impressive and really big.  Portugal really has a lot of monasteries and castles and we have enjoyed touring them.  So much art and history.

Currently we are waiting for the rain to stop to go out for dinner and Bob found a rare english program on TV.. 3rd rock from the sun.  It makes us realize how much of the world news we haven't seen and thankfully how many political commercials we've missed.  Yeah!  We only have 4 days left here and I think we are starting to get anxious to get home.  Rainy slower days give you time to think and then we realize we are a little homesick and missing everyone especially the grandkids.

Just got back from dinner of grilled squid and traditional cod.  Very yummy.  We had a very interesting conversation with our waiter/cook about Portugal and its economic crisis.  They are as bad off as Greece and all are feeling the pain.  Life has become very tough with lots of greed and corruption and he said that what is really needed is Jesus in everyones life and we agreed!

Quarto terrace

Sunset view from terrace

Nazare fishing boat

Monastery Batalha

Monestary Alcobaca

Nazare beach before the storm

The looooooong road to Porto

  Sunday, October 14th was a very long day!  We left Coimbra at 9am, in the rain, with intentions of making a little side trip to see Piodao which is a small village that was supposed to be 'neat', according to the tourist info person in Coimbra.  It didn't look very far out of our way to the Douro valley in northern Portugal, HOWEVER...what they don't show on the map is that 'not far' had at least 1,000 curves, turns and switchbacks while we drove through rain and clouds.  We were so high up that we were in the clouds and couldn't see a thing!  AND, did I mention that I can get terribly car sick even in the front seat.  The village was neat to see but so not worth the drive and the really bad news was that we had to drive out of there!  So at least 2,000 curves, turns and switchbacks later we still had a long way to go to get out of the mountains.  We skipped the Douro valley and went straight to Porto not arriving until 6pm and miraculously finding our hotel.  I was car sick for 8 hours!  Bob did a fantastic job driving.  We are both wiped out, however we were surprised and pleased at how unique our hotel/castle room is.  We are staying in the tower room of a old castle built centuries ago in the hills of Porto.  It's pretty neat.  We are glad we are not driving any where for a few days.

Piadio

The town is built of slate

Castle Catinera- our room is at the top of the tower

Coimbra

  We left Evora on Friday morning and spent most of the day driving and making stops at interesting looking towns along the way to Coimbra.  We ended up driving through mountainous terrain which was surprising and challenging especially as we both try to read signs and maps and watch traffic and dodge people when we don't know where we are or how to get there.  It's fun when we actually arrive at the hotel!

We had the most enjoyable and delicious meal of our time in Portugal on Friday night.  The restaurant was owned and family run from the Papa who delivered our food (he reminded me of my Dad), our waitress(grand daughter),  cook (son) and about 15 other members of the family.  We were there for 2 hours watching the chaotic portuguese eating frenzy complicated by initiation week students celebrating the week's end.  The university here is Portugal's most prestigious and dates back to 1290.  As we got up to leave we got a hug from Papa and grand daughter and the son wouldn't let us leave without having a drink of ginjinha(cherry liquor) with him.  Best 2 hours we've spent in a long time.  We are going back again tonight.  

Saturday we spent hiking all over Coimbra touring the college and exploring the old town.  We watched a part of  three weddings (which last over two hours) and felt priviledged to see a part of Portugese life.  Bob had a hamburger for lunch which is served without a bun, fried egg on top of a sausage patty instead of hamburger.  He enjoyed it...I had one taste and that was enough.

  We ended the day going to a Fado concert with was fantastic.  Fado is only known and performed in Portugal and is performed with 2 guitars and a male singer who sings love songs to his lover.  It's very beautiful.  Tomorrow we hit the road again.

Estremoz castle

Papa - restaurant owner

Coimbra college

The most lavish library in the world

Fado concert

Our hike in Coimbra - 5.74 miles, almost 11 hours and no speed!

Evora

Quite the day!  We started out at the car rental place in Sintra and after an hour of waiting we took off in our Fiat for Evora in the Alentejo region of Portugal which is known for cork production.  We decided to take the national roads, not the freeway (which isn't free) because we would see more small towns and it wouldn't cost us a fortune in tolls.  The tolls here are about $10 per hour of driving!  We got lost almost immediately and wasted  lots of time looking for the national road which has no number on the country map.  We see now that driving this country is going to be a challenge.  The real challenge came when we got to Evora and our pousada was in the old walled city with lots of one way roads and confusing signs.  It only took us 1 1/2 hours to find it circling the town numerous times.  It reminded us of Orvieto in Italy only this ttime we didn't have a major meltdown.  We are doing good.  Our pousada is a 16th century nobleman's mansion.  It's very, very basic with the bath down the hall but our windows open to the cathedral tower and the bells ringing.  It's beautiful.

We had a fun day on Thursday touring the city, taking our time to relax and enjoy and dodging rain storms which came many times during the day.  We still haven't decided where to go next.  I guess we'll see where we end up on Friday night.

This wine cost 3.50!  It gave each of us 2 full glasses

Bob's happy - he got his French fries

Top of the cathedral

Can't believe how many products are made out of cork

We are known everywhere

Storms rolling in

On our own in Portugal

After getting up at 5:30am to walk to the station to catch the train, to go to the airport to board the plane, to catch the bus in Lisbon airport to board the train in centro Lisbon, we finally arrived in Sintra at 2:00pm.  What a wonderful town this is with castles and palaces and wonderful winding streets with so many tiles and ceramics to buy!  After walking and hiking to the top of the hill/mountain to see the castle, and dragging ourselves back to our B & B, we went out and had the most wonderful meal in a local restaurant.  No one spoke English and what fun that is to try and pick out something to eat.  We ended up with a delicious soup and rice/fish stew and a hi-5 and a kiss with the woman who owned the place.  I think we are going to love Portugal!

Tuesday, October 9th - hard to believe its October!  The leaves have not even started turning here yet.  I wonder when that happens?  Anyways, Sintra is just northwest of Lisbon if anyone is wondering.  It's where the kings and queens had summer palaces and that's what we toured today.  Pena palace, built on the top of the hill/mountain and it was quite the place.  We have never seen anything like it.  It almost looked like it was designed by Disney for a theme park.  The weather today was very foggy with a fine mist and made the castle seem magical.  This is the first day in 3 weeks that we've had clouds and rain.  We can't complain!

Moorish castle

Pena Palace

Castle walk

Aerial view

Shopping for ginja-cherry liquor 

Itea & end of cruise

Our last port of call was Itea on the mainland of Greece close to the archeological site of delfi.  We chose to bypass the ship tour of Delfi (we never did a ship tour - not our style) and instead the 6 of us rented a small van and explored on our own.  We found a couple of neat villages in the mountains above the port and made a few purchases in a ski town ... Who knew there was skiing in Greece..  Went from the ski town to our last swim in the sea and passed through the largest olive grove we've ever seen with over 2 million trees.  Bob and I had a fun night dancing til midnight with some very BIG seas which made the ship really rock and roll and dancing became quite interesting, especially when Bob started to get his 'groove' on. 

We spent the day at sea on Saturday, October 6th under sunny skies, high 70's and a glass sea which was amazing since the night before was so rough.  Having a sea day gave us a chance to relax, pack, eat and then eat some more.  The food was really good and we did enjoy ourselves without guilt.

We left the ship Sunday morning and said goodbye to Shelley and Jerry who flew to Paris for a few days.  Bob and I and Cindy and Mike took the train into Rome for 1 day.  We fly to Lisbon, Portugal tomorrow and Cindy and Mike fly home.

It's hard to believe that we have been gone 3 weeks already and that the cruise is over but we are looking forward to the next chapter - Portugal.

Shopping

Dinner on formal night

Dancing with our waiter Roel

The guys

Sea day - more food!

A coin into Trevi fountain to make sure we return

Santorini

We arrived at Santorini at 7am Wednesday morning October 3rd and Bob and I were up early to watch the sunrise up over the island.  What a magical sight.  Santorini is breathtakingly beautiful with the villages perched at the top of the cliffs just hanging over the sea.  We caught the first tender to shore because we wanted to do the 6 mile hike along the cliff to the next village before it got too hot, but as our luck has it, the island was covered with fog and we had to come up with plan B.

We caught a bus and arrived in Oia before the village really woke up.  There were no other tourists at that time so we got some fantastic pictures and explored all over before anyone else arrived.  We then rented a car and drove all over the island including driving up to ancient Thira which was at the top of the mountain on the scariest switchback roads we have ever been on!  I was sick with fear.  I stopped talking about a third of the way up, almost bit my lip off 2/3 of the way up and was scared to death when Bob said near the top "I really don't like this!". He never says that!  The last thing we wanted to do was drive back down but cool, calm and collected Bob did a great job and I was proud of myself for not screaming!  We ended the day on Santorini riding the mules down over the cliff to the port which is a Santorini must do.  The rest of the "FAM"  spent the day riding 4 wheelers and/ or exploring the town.  A good day was had by all.  The evening ended with a dance on deck under the moonlight with the most wonderful warm breeze and songs by Abba from Momma Mia.  Very fun.

Early morning in Fiera with our ship below

Oia at sunrise

Hike along the caldron 

Donkey ride down to port

Santorini wow!