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Archive for November, 2009

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Moor or Less

Tuesday, November 10th, 2009

We’ve been chasing the sun and trying to stay enough ahead of a storm system to find a little warm weather.  I think we finally achieved it when we arrive in Portugal.  We spent three days in the capital, Lisbon wandering the streets and taking a side trip to Sintra.  

Sintra has quite a few museums and historical buildings.  We opted to visit the Moorish Castle, which is more like a huge fort on top of a hill which provides it with amazing views of the surrounding areas.  It was built in the 1000s and it‘s very interesting to imagine it through the periods of the crusades and takeovers.    The other site we visited was the Palacio de Pena, a former summer palace of the ex-royal family.  The architecture combines influences from across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia to create a pretty unusual, but beautiful setting – see the photo below.  Sintra was definitely a highlight for this part of the trip.

 

Next stop:  The Algarve.

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Posted in Portugal, Travel | No Comments »

Hola!

Saturday, November 7th, 2009

On our way to Portugal, we took a few days to go through Spain.  We’ll be coming back here later, but thought we should break up the drive with a little sightseeing along the way.  Our first stop was San Sebastian and although the weather didn’t cooperate for much outdoor activity it didn’t keep us from enjoying the tapas bars and sampling some really good food.

From food we moved on to wine.  Our next destination was Haro in the heart of Rioja.  We paid a few visits to the bodegas and tasted (and bought) a few excellent bottles.  The vineyards are absolutely beautiful this time of year.  I never expected that the vine leaves would be turning bright orange, red, and yellow.  The best part was that we pretty much had the place to ourselves – most of the tourists are gone by now.

From there, we continued west to Salamanca and enjoyed a day of wandering through the old city, and an evening meal near the lovely Plaza Major.  One thing we quickly learned about food here is that anything – from tenderloin to ham – with the word Iberico in the description is going to be good.

Here’s the view from the rooftop of the Catedral Nueva.

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Posted in Spain, Travel | No Comments »

Overtime

Monday, November 2nd, 2009

November 1st was the anniversary of when we left to start our trip around the world. It’s hard to believe that it has been a whole year already. I’m very glad that we decided to extend our travels by 3 more months because I’m not quite ready to come home yet. We just arrived in San Sebastian, Spain (or Donostia as it is known in Basque), but we stopped in Mont St. Michel a few days ago on the way – see the photo at the bottom.

We’ve been doing a lot of driving to get down here and have had time in the car to reflect on the last year. We also read many travel books along the way, by current writers like Paul Theroux or Bryson, or those from the past like Mark Twain. I’m in the middle of his “The Innocents Abroad” right now and we got to discussing how little has changed in traveling since 1869. While many of the sights he describes are nearly identical today, his thoughts on guides, souvenirs, cultural quirks, and touts could have been written yesterday. And based on what we saw in Rome, it’s been that way for centuries.

However, there are some things that have changed for the better, and it’s certainly a little more comfortable and a lot more convenient to travel in the 21st century. Here’s our list of things that we are glad to have:

15. Quick-dry fabrics

14. Digital Cameras

13. iPods

12. Wheels on luggage – no way we could afford the porters for the trunks that Twain had

11. English bookstores – new or used, you can almost always find paperbacks in English

10. Airplanes – hate the airlines, love the jets

9. Airline Lounges – well, maybe we don’t hate everything about the airlines

8. Rental Cars – who needs public transportation if you have one of these? Although a nightmare to park, there is no better way to see a country

7. GPS – its fun to get lost in a country at times, but there’s still plenty of opportunities even with a SatNav

6. A good pair of walking/hiking/everything-everywhere shoes – even with #8, you won’t get far without these

5. US Passports – easy entry to almost any country, same as in Twain’s days. Everyone still loves America

4. The Sock Puppet – “Levity is good. It relieves tension and the fear of death.” The Terminator said that and he’s our governor now.

3. The Euro – even though it’s unconscionably high vs. the dollar, we don’t have to keep pockets full of lire, marks, francs, and pesos

2. ATMs – always open, almost always work

1. The Internet (and all that comes with it)

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Posted in Spain, Travel | 2 Comments »

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