Portugal

This morning we leave CJ and Kristin Brown in Sevilla as we head back to Lisboa. We originally thought this was going to be a 7 hour drive. It turned out to be much shorter only about 4 1/2 hours so that enabled us to have from 5pm onwards to continue shopping in Lisboa. Our bus driver Jorge was amazing, getting that huge bus to turn on a dime and through the tiniest of streets.

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?

Ah good day for a break after all that travelling. It really is hard to believe that it can be so taxing, but it is. Getting up early, packing, being attentive, tasting wines, listening to foreign languages and being on your best behavior really expends a lot of energy so when the teachers announced that today would be a rest day...we had a resounding HOORAH.

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!

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.

http://hotel-amazonia-lisboa.h-rsv.com/

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

After an amazing day in the Porto we start back south towards Lisboa. Our first stop of the day is to a lovely winery called Casa da Insua. The winery is behind a manor house that is being turned into a hotel with gorgeous gardens. our tasting took place out in the gardens, which was rather clever. We sampled 3 wines with Miguel the wine maker: a rose made from touriga nacional; a red, made from touriga nacional and cab sauv; a white, made from Moscatel. The white was very refreshing and so was the rose. They served us some of the creamy cheese associated with this region. Casa da Insua is also in the process of building some banquet space and a sales center to fully touristify this endevour. http://www.casadainsua.pt

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/