It’s been a while, (37 years at least), since I’ve been to Avignon. All I really remembered was that I liked it, and that there were signs on the ramparts that pointed to where the different types of wine are produced. We decided we needed a layover day to catch up on emails, posts, bookings, planning, […]
We saw Jack and Janie in Montreal when Blakey and Julia were graduating from McGill some 8 years ago. Before that, I hadn’t seen Jack since we traveled after I worked at L’Hotel de la Plage in the summer of 1979. We didn’t really know what to expect, but looked forward to seeing each other. […]
It seemed strange as we were looking for lodging how booked up everything in Porto was. We now understand. This was the weekend of the Porto leg of the Rally de Portugal, an auto race that takes place on public roads and streets (blocked to the public during the races of course). The 1.85 km […]
Formerly the capital of Portugal, its most important university was established here over 500 years ago. It would seem that back in the day, when a university was to be built, they spared no expense. It is a long walk up a hill, or steps, to the campus. Across the river are several convents, probably […]
Tomar will go down as one of our top ten places to visit. Perhaps it was the contrast of the hustle and bustle of Lisbon. Or maybe it’s because we missed the train by so little that we were on the platform as it was taking off. At any rate, it was like a little […]
If you are wondering about the choice of “Amazeballs” for use in this title, I was, until recently, just like you. Our travel buddy Lisa, whom you met in Evora, used the term occasionally. In Lisbon, we went out with Lisa and several of her colleagues from Cambridge, and she used the term. I asked, […]
So everyone said that you just had to go to Sintra if you visit Lisbon. Sintra is a day trip away, there are many buses, trains, and tours. We decided to go. It had been fairly warm in Lisbon, and the weather promised to continue in this manner. Even though we’d been told that Sintra […]
Évora is the capital of Portugal’s Alentejo region. I’d never heard of this region before, but having sampled a few Alentejo red wines, one can be sure that I will be seeing its name again. Unfortunately, Ellen was pretty knocked down with a cold when we arrived at this university town of about 56,000 residents. […]
We took the overnight from Madrid to Lisbon. It is the only train between the two cities, and runs on old, bumpy, slow, and uncomfortable track. One would think that Spain is not the largest trading partner of Portugal. As we arrived at 7:20 in the morning, we decided to head straight down to the […]
According to Wikipedia, “Spanish rain does not actually stay mainly in the plain. It falls mainly in the northern mountains. In Spanish, the phrase was translated as La lluvia en Sevilla es una maravilla (The rain in Seville is marvellous). The lyric about Hertford, Hereford, and Hampshire implies (but does not entail) that hurricanes ever occur […]
I can’t believe the energy you both are still maintaining (...)
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Fun to read your posts. Thanks. Love the
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