Most of the tour went back to the fancy Amoreiras shopping center that was 5 minutes walking to our hotel.http://www.amoreiras.com/ Paddy and I lost Cindy and June so I went on the mike to page Cindy. In my best british accent, I page Cindy Findlay to the information booth. Not once, but twice. Apparantly everyone but Cindy heard my page.

Paddy and I stopped in at the Ritz Carleton-Four Seasons hotel for a cocktail before going home. BEAUTIFUL hotel and drinks were only 14 Euros each, at least they provided us with some olives and peanuts for that price. We would have stayed for dinner but Paddy didn't a dinner jacket.

Last night of the trip and people scattered to enjoy their final evening of the tour. It was another grand trip and the question on everyone's lips was: Where are we going next year?

Day 10 - May 13, 2009 remains copyright of the author alitabrown, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Enroute to Sevilla, we convince Manuela to make our stop at the Cork museum located in the Moorish capital of Silves. The cork museum is located within an old fabrication building "the Fabrico do Ingles" and houses all these archaic pieces of cork making machines. The building had a very large outdoor interior courtyard with many orange trees. There were signs everywhere "don't eat the oranges"...not sure why. THe interesting part of cork history is that it's primary purpose was not just for wine bottles, but for all other kinds of products as a stopper. We were able to take a piece of cork bark with the the extruded holes (corks).

After the cork museum, most of the tour walked up the stairs to the outlook at the cathedral for a great view of the town before the sky opened up. I did not and saved myself from getting soaked.

We get into Sevilla in time to change and get ready to go to dinner and another show - this time Flamenco! http://http://www.elpatiosevillano.com/ Next to bull fighting, this is as spanish as you can get. The show took about 2 hours and there were various shapes and sizes of dancers and the energy level was INTENSE. Both men and women were dancing separately and together in traditional costumes. (The next day it became very apparant how many flamenco stores were in this city)

Day 8 - May 11, 2009 remains copyright of the author alitabrown, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We travel south to Puerto de Santa Maria to visit the bodega Osborne. Through our contacts at PMA I was able to set up a tasting that was WAAAAYYYY better than what the regular plebes would get. Before the tasting began we had a tour through the bodega that ran for what seemed 3 city blocks...there were rows of barrels and the air had a fairly stable relative humidity as we looked closer at the black walls we were reminded that the black was in fact MOULD. Although terribly gross to realize that, it was highly effective. As we moved from location to location in this large cellar, the temperature was extremely even as was the humidity level.

Osborne even had an open ended butt (barrel) to demonstrate what fino (dry) sherry looked like as it was developing. Sherry comes in two main styles, fino and cream (sweet) and what makes the fino so unique was a layer of yeast (flor) that remains along the surface of the sherry. This surface acts as a barrier and the subsequent sherry remains lighter in color and drier in mouth feel. This sherry also retains a characteristic tangy taste.

At our tasting we were offered 5 sherries in total, regular guests offered 2. Osborne provided us with thin strips of serrano ham, course crackers and green olives to act as a vehicle while sampling. We in turn left copies of the Canada book and the apron to say thank you. Not to be outdone, Osborne provided us with a 375ml bottles of fino sherry. Well we had the last laugh, the tour must have spent a fortune in their gift shop.

We return to Sevilla in the afternoon. We get a short tour out to the cathedral before being left to tour the city on our own. The tapas was not quite the same as in northern Spain but delicious none the less. Our hotel was probably a brisk 1/2 hour from the city center, but the shopping along the way made the stroll very pleasant. There certainly appears to be a severe shoe affectation in that part of the world, as every other store is for women's shoes. It almost became a bit creepy.

Day 9 - May 12, 2009 remains copyright of the author alitabrown, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The students, always full of energy, played volleyball, went to the beach, shopped. I sat on a chaise by the pool with June and Cindy and read and kibbutzed. CJ joined us for a bit, she was way more active than me. Paddy was visiting friends.

Dinner was at a fish restaurant and we were going to have a buffet. A served buffet. A 7 course fish buffet. Heads & tails & bones buffet. Needless to say by the last course, thanks to Alex "alice" Peluso, we became pretty adept at deboning our fish. We ate some Portuguese fish that could find no translation, Sea Bream, Sardines, Sea Bass, Baccalhao, Salmon and Squid.

Tomorrow we are off to the Cork museum and Espana!

Day 7 - May 10, 2009 remains copyright of the author alitabrown, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Today we continue south to the Algarve but enroute we will stop in the region known as Alentejo. This region has many cork and olive trees, of which we will have seen thousands. I didnot photograph any this time around. The signage in this part of the country is very very small, as a matter of fact we zipped past the tiny sign indicating the winery before realizing we had to double back about 15 minutes to find the place which was in fact on the other side of the road, under a bridge and down a goat/shee path.

Finally finding the winery or "adega" called Malhadinha, we stop for a tour and tasting. WOW! Paolo and his wife and his brother run this little winery with accompanying little hotel and spa and restaurant. This fellow is all about quality, right down to the spieglau tasting glasses, sans stems, in the tasting room. Robert Parker has already bestowed this winery "promising high end winemaker". Malhadinha is a small winery that will only focus on top quality wines with very little production. The children have created the wine labels which are cute and folksy.http://www.malhadinhanova.pt/ing/index2.html

I was in my personal heaven because it was like meeting Jack Cakebread before his Napa winery became very popular...this Paolo will go places with his wine.

After the tasting we continued on to Albufeira which is the tourist spot in the Algarve. It was described as being the Portuguese Mexico and I totally get it. I won't spoil it for anyone reading this, but let's just say Albufeira really doesn't represent Portual in its best light. We were on our own for dinner, so the old farts rented a car and went to Valle de Lobo to eat at the "chicken shack". Actually it was a great restaurant, loosely modeled after Swiss Chalet, that served rotisseried barbque chicken cooked al fresco. The restaurant can seat at least 150 and it has a secondary venue across the street that can hold another 150. Crossing the street to your car can be hazardous to your health, so I would recommend moderate consumption of alcohol.

We decide to leave the next day as a free day before we go out as a group for dinner.

Day 6 - May 9, 2009 remains copyright of the author alitabrown, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Our hotel is very very central and is the bases point for our tour of the city. We head down into the old town section of Alfama and get off the bus for our walking tour. The streets are narrow and winding. We went into through Barrio Alto, which is a high point in the city passing by an ancient aquaduct, enroute to the west side of town in the Belem district. We hop off the bus to enter the famous Pasteis de Belem for their hot and tasty custard tarts. yum. We also pay homage to the Jeronimos monastery with its clicking noises to keep the pigeons from sitting on the ledges and then finally to the Torre de Belem where another group photo was taken.

It was here that the "seek" hat was taken out and graced upon Laurens head.

After we head south and cross the river Tagus. We go to a handicraft center which makes hand made glazed tiles. As lovely as they are, they weigh a ton and aren't going to make it into my suitcase. We have lunch at Sesumba with snapper as the main entree. We find on this tour, we will eat our weight in fish.

Tonight we head into Barrio Alto for dinner and a show. In this case, Fado. The bluesy folksy music of Portugal. This restaurant is geared for tourists and locals alike and is considered one of the better Fado houses...but who am I to decide what is better. We have reservations for the early show and dinner and entertainment starts like clockwork, as there are 2 shows. Our group really enjoys the music and we show our appreciation with great applause. Apparantly, according to Manuela the tour guide, our applause must not gone unappreciated as the fado show went on a bit longer

Day 5 - May 8, 2009 remains copyright of the author alitabrown, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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After this we stop in Fatima: religious site of where the blessed virgin mary was sited 6 times by 3 children in 1917. The site is acknowledged by the Catholic Church and is indeed a very spirtual place. The tour stopped for about 1.5 hours for those to walk in the massive square, light candles, go into the cathedral and, of course, purchase trinkets.

Quiet loomed over the bus as we headed towards Lisboa after this most auspicious visit. Thankfully everyone perked up as we passed the massive wind turbines just outside of Lisboa. The city demonstrated its many red clay tiled roofs as we head into the center of the city. We passed the Estadio da Luz football stadium, a mosque and the famous Marques de Pombal statue. Our hotel is conveniently located within 20 minutes of the harbour and a McDonalds that sells beer. Don't askhttp://http://hotel-amazonia-lisboa.h-rsv.com/

day 4 - may 7, 2009 remains copyright of the author alitabrown, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The 100 club sponsored today event and we upgraded our tasting to include a bin 27, white port, 20 year tawny and a vintage port- but not a classic vintage (their words, not mine) We also had lunch out at Fonseca and it was lovely. Thank you 100 club...pictures will be forthcoming.

After noon was spent at Casa Mateus. Location has a palace on site for promotional purposes only and lovely grounds. The pollen here was very thick, like snow, good thing I took my antihistimines or it would have been VERY unpleasant. Even though the name includes the word Mateus, they actually do not sell the rose product in the round bottom bottle. We sampled wines in one of the buildings that house the lagares (large open shallow tanks that are used to manually stomp the grapes) and demonstrates gravity fed filtration.

Students all said they ahd a good time today and actually remembered a thing or two from BEVM 210. LOL

day 3 - May 6, 2009 remains copyright of the author alitabrown, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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As we toured this site, we came across a group of university graduates wearing their black robes and a group of undergrads singing ABBA songs. Must be a ritual of some sort. ha ha The weather is toasty hot and as we ate lunch at the river side cafe's we actually needed to have some shade.

Went this afternoon to the Gaia side of the river where all the port houses are located. Paddy and I went into Croft for a tasting. Croft is now owned by Fonseca, who also owns Taylor fladgate. Bought a bottle of rose port, not yet available in AB. Delicious and perfect for the warm weather.

Hotel has been renovated but is typical european, 5 x 5 feet. barely enough room to change your mind. |LOL. see link below for details. Using computer link in room for a princely sum of 5 euros, they obviously see this as a revenue opportunity.
Accommodation in the hotel in Oporto. [url=http://grandehotelporto.com

Day 2 - May 5, 2009 remains copyright of the author alitabrown, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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first time blogging, so will try to include stuff from the itinerary and compare it to stuff we ACTUALLY do, LOL...even try to upload pictures as well...stay tuned

leading up to the departure date remains copyright of the author alitabrown, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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