Portugal

In October, we returned to Lisbon, Portugal as a stop-over before going on a cruise up the Douro River. This was our second time in this lovely country. This is the National Archaeological Museum north of Lisbon. We wanted to go in, but the line to get tickets was down the street. Plan ahead!

Instead of a museum, we went over for a beach walk. It is fun taking pictures of tourists taking pictures!

This is the Tower of Belem. Last time we were in Lisbon, we visited the tower and bought a 3-D wooden puzzle of the Tower. We gave it to Jim's aunt (she likes to work puzzles) and she gave it back. Too hard! We put it together and gave it back to her. She displayed it for several months in the lobby of her retirement home and gave it back. It is now on display in our living room.

We found this little tapas and wine cafe near our hotel in Lisbon. The food, atmosphere and service were really quite exceptional.

This is the boat! We boarded the "Douro Elegance" in Porto. Think "port wine". The town of Porto is where the Douro River meets the Atlantic Ocean.

Alonda's two sisters, Roberta and Linny, joined us on this trip. They also went with us several years ago when we were in the Netherlands.

This looks like a historical photo of Porto, but this is what it looked like out of the window from our cabin!

This looks like the interior of a concert hall, but it is the boat entering one of five locks as we went up the river.

Once the boat has been lifted, we just cruise on out of the lock.

Here is the upper deck of our boat. NO ONE EVER put so much as their big toe in the splash pool! It was too cold! However, the average age of the passengers was easily in the 70's.

We were two of the youngest people on board. The scenery was beautiful today because the sun came out.

Here is "Little John." He was the pastry chef and the pasta chef on the boat. He gave a cooking class on making the national pastry: Pastel de Nata.

These little pastries are everywhere. Jim took this picture in a Starbucks!

This is half of a HUGE Parmesan cheese. We think the chef on the boat only uses one of these every year.

This was the "Captain's Dinner." Everyone dresses up a bit and meets and greets the Captain, the ship's officers and the crew.

As you can see, this is a beautiful country. We saw a lot of lovely countryside.

They grow a lot of grapes in this part of the world. They pick the grapes by hand and then trim the grape vines by machine. That is why the rows are so even.

We visited Castelo Rodrigo, a beautiful medieval hilltop village. The town is famous for its 12th Century Lady of Rocamador church. Portugal is famous for its Port wines, almonds, olives and cork. The shops in Castelo Rodrigo sold a lot of all of these products! 

This is the view from the village. You can see why they built a castle here.

Here are some the olives. The green ones and black ones grow on the same bush / tree, but they are picked at different times.

This is our boat at the Cais de Pocinho. This is the highest you can navigate up the Duoro River. This is also the border with Spain. We left the boat here for a day trip into Salamanca, Spain. At this point in our trip, we had changed time zones four times (Seattle-Frankfurt-Portugal-Spain-Portugal).

Approaching Salamanca.

Inside the main square in Salamanca. They were having a huge used book fair at the time. All of the government offices used to be in this building, but they have all been converted to apartments. The University of Salamanca is huge and a lot of students live here.

Our guide told us to find three things during our free time walking around Salamanca: a shell, an ice cream cone and an astronaut. Here we are with the shell (actually, we were with the shell, but not what you think you see!)

This is the "shell" symbol that we were supposed to find. It is used to mark the Pilgrimage of Saint James. We were actually standing almost on top of it and didn't notice it.

This is the more visible version of the markings for the Pilgrims.

These shells are all over the House of Shells. They are famous because, if you are there at the right moment, almost all of them are in alignment with the sun!

We found this ice cream cone. Wrong one!

We should have been looking at the amazing carvings on the buildings.

Here is the ice cream cone (a double scoop!)

Here is the astronaut! What is an astronaut and an ice cream cone doing on a medieval building??!! There was a massive earthquake and one of the artisans simply decided to put these two items into the façade he was working on!

In Salamanca, we saw a Flamenco performance.

We saw some fall colors. The grape vines changed.

There are a lot of historical villas in the vineyards. Some of the families still have their historic wine-making businesses.

This is the Mateus Palace. You may have seen "Mateus" on wine bottles!

This is part of the extensive Mateus Palace gardens.

This is the Sanctuary of Nossa Senhora dos Remedios (Church of our Lady of Health). As you can see, it is on top of a hill and has a lot of tile work.

If you turn your back on the church, you can see down to the town of Lamego and walk down the steps to get there.

When you reach the bottom, you turn back and realize there really were 686 steps coming down!

This is Porto at the end of our trip. It is not as modern as Lisbon.

We had a very nice tour and tasting at the largest port wine production cellar. This was our last wine tasting in Portugal.

We all had a wonderful cruise in Portugal with family!

This is about the best sunset we got on the trip! This is the sun setting over the Atlantic Ocean from Porto.

Last of Japan

Here are a few miscellaneous photos and comments that did not fit in any of our categories.This is the aftermath of a volcanic eruption. This was in the Lakes District. The bus just went by this area several times over three days and it was always steaming like this. No warning markers or anything! 

Our first stop in the Lakes District was for lunch. We went to "Woody's Café". We found Woody behind the bar. The food and service were very good, but they only had seats for about a dozen people.

We don't know what this is for, but it was too cute to leave out.

In Himeji, we stopped for ice cream. They brag about their macha flavored ice cream. Macha is a strong, green tea. If you look close, Jim's ice cream cone is a swirl of macha and regular green tea ice cream. His hat and shirt match the ice cream pretty well.

We went here for supper (pizza and beer) in Tokyo. It was a very interesting place. Restaurants generally have a cover charge. They then give you an appetizer you didn't order to make up for it. Also, there is no tipping in Japan! We read (but didn't try it) that if you leave a tip on the table, they will chase you down to return it. 

Japanese toilets were interesting. This is a lady's toilet and has a place to put your baby. Very handy!

The toilet seats are heated and have a control panel to wash off your bum.

Our friend Erna wanted to bring back some delicate souvenirs and needed some bubble wrap. We asked at the hotel desk and they didn't know what we were talking about. Jim looked it up on the internet translator and found "puchi puchi." The desk clerk immediately told us where to find it. We found it at the 100 yen store (Dollar Store) inside a large department store. We also found out that the name "puchi puchi" is taken from the sound it makes when you pop it!

In the hotel, they had instant coffee. This is the picture of it. It is like the Melitta Filter system in Europe. You pour hot water through the grounds to make one, fresh cup of hot coffee!

While in Tokyo, Jim met a fellow Esperantist and we spent an afternoon with him. This picture is of a game he introduced to us. It was very simple to explain and not so simple to actually win!

We hope you have enjoyed our pictures and commentary about our trip to Japan!