Sintra

We left at 9:30 with our guide and driver Jose'  to head out to Sintra and two royal residences.
The first the Royal Palace at Sintra had a slightly Moorish feel but was much more of a palace.  Many of the rooms and truly amazing paintings on the ceilings including one room that had a high dome covered with portraits of members of the family. The kitchen was as big as my house and had two huge beehive ceilings open to the sky at the top.  From outside they looked like huge factory chimneys, except they were covered with plaster and painted white, inside they composed the two halves of the rooms.
The second castle also a royal residence was on the top of the mountain, the last royal to add to the castle was a relative of Mad Ludwig of Neuschwanstein fame and the family proclivity for over the top mountain top castle construction was definitely in evidence here.  The castle which was described by Rick Steves as part moorish, part romanesque and part disney was all that and more.  The castle it self is painted red and yellow and dark blue gey, parts of the exterior have tiles covering them. Some of the arches are moorish in style others are more gothic with gargoyles at the top or corners of the arches.  The rooms themselves are a bit tamer but definitely ornate with more amazing tile work and plaster work ceilings.  After touring the castle we walked down through some of the gardens to meet up with Jose'.
Next he took us to a typical Portugese resturant--according to him.  The food was excellent.  Lynn and Ron had a cod and potato dish that had a great flavor but because it was based on salt cod was definitely salty.  Nor and I shared a really nice kebob of various meats that came with potatoes and rice.  Lynn Ron and Nor also had an excellent soup.  Dessert was an almond cake topped with fruit and ice cream--the cake was amazing--if I went there again I would get just the almond cake (for dessert).


On the drive back to the city we drove to the western most point of Portugal which is at exactly the same latitude as New York City.  It was lovely but incredibly windy.
We stopped into Trinidade for a beer Lynn and I left the guys to go buy food for dinner--does it sound like this trip is about eating?  They decided to have another beer and through what they claim was a mis-understanding they were served four more beers and of course, to assure that they would not be considered ugly Americans, they HAD to drink all four, they took one for the nation--what patriots!
Of course, since Lynn and I were out on our own we were able to find a great shop with just what we needed to buy for our girls back home (and a little for ourselves--lets be clear this is OUR trip)
A great dinner -- says the chef  --  another good bottle of wine  --- some cards  --- and now off to bed!

Lisbon Day One

We all slept in -- well is was 6:30 when we got up and we all thought that was sleeping in.  An important note is that the three people who did not fast--are not jetlagged and neither is the guy who fasted--so I am thinking that fasting is not the cure all for jetlag.

With the help of Rick Steve's we took three walking tours of Lisbon.  The city is definitely built on hills, it puts Rome to same in the number and steepness of the hills.  So many of the buidings are covered with their beautiful tiles in geometric patterns.  The camera mavens (Lynn and Becky) were taking snaps of buildings everywhere.

We had lunch at a charming cafe serving Portugese tapas--similar to Spanish tapas but served in Portugal.  It was really windy and then started to sprinkle so we moved inside for a much more pleasant experience.  One of the tapas plates, our waiter told us, was an award winner, it was prociutto wrapped around a very light soft cheese with a bit of jam --  I know you think your kid could make that -- but I assure you, just like art, your kid really couldn't and it was really really good.

We then walked on and ended up at the castle, it is on a very steep and high hill, so we decided that cab ride was a good idea.  The castle grounds were facinating and the views of the city were beautiful.  I would disagree with Rick Steve's--this is not to be missed--not because they are necessarily unusual ruins but because they are lovely.

A walk down the hill, during which Ron pointed out, that going down only meant we were going to have to go back up, led us back to the water side.  The walk down was mostly on streets so steep we were on stairs.  Think Colin Firth in Love Actually as he was going to propose to his girl and you will know the type of stairs we were on!

Our next task was to find a grocery--our trailblazer and guide (Norris) failed us until we got back to the room and he googled it and found two within about 400 meters.  Ron was on wine duty and the Lynn, Nor and I went to Brio to buy supplies for dinner and breakfast.

Back at the flat (see how European I am?) Lynn and I prepared sauted vegetables over pasta and sweet potatoes with olive oil and goat cheese--in my unbiased and humble opinion it was REALLY Good!  The wines were amazing--which may have helped a bit--insert cockeyed grin here--

We all tumbled into bed fairly early -- Sintra tomorrow!

We are in Portugal

Arrived in Lisbon last night.  It was a long but uneventful trip.  Nor did his jet lag fast and is still in bed.  I think he is just showing off!

Our apartment is great I am looking out the living room window at some beautiful tiles on the house across the way.  I can see that these may be hard to resist.  My poor Sherpa--having to carry a sack full of tiles!

We had dinner at a converted monastery that makes the oldest made traditional beer in Portugal.  They use the monks recipe I guess.  Anyway it was really good and the seafood we had was amazing.

Off to discover the city with Lynn, Ron and my loving fella Norris.

Pula

We are continuing our sail up the coast of Croatia, toward Venice. Our port today is Hvar, an island and city in Croatia.

I got up and went into the dining room with my I-pad. I arrived before the rest of the friends so after I got my food I sat down and started to read. There was no one else in the dining room and the bus boys were not busy. One young man asked if this was the I-pad and when I said yes, we started to play with it a bit, soon I had all four of them around watching and asking questions. We were having a great time and were omly interrupted when other passengers started arriving.

The time to disembark today was 8:00 and all but two of the friends decided that it was just too much too ask of us, so we slept in a bit and went into town later. In order to make up for the lack of a tour guide I provided the friends with my understanding of what we had missed--totally made up of course but delivered in serious guide style. They seemed satisfied with my work.

The city is quite small. It is open to the bay and the main square is right on the bay. They have a beautifully restored church of St. stehens at the end of the square. The business area is about two blocks long and there is not a lot there. They do make lace from agave fibers which I gather is quite difficult and makes the lace very expensive. They also have a number of lavender fields in the area and sell a lot of lavender oil and sachets.

We came back to the boat fairly early and most of us napped or sat on deck for the afternoon.

I met Mrs. Leckie this evening and if Nor is really nice to me I will let him touch the hand that shook the hand.

This has been a great trip but I am glad there is only one day left.

Dubrovnik

This is definitly the second city that we a coming back to in February 2012. (Nor take note) we were old that some dais during the summervthere can be aa many as 10 cruise ships in the bay. That would make for wall to wall people, not to mention the heat. So February is still looking good to me.

We took the tenders into the old port. That is definitely the way to enter the City, especially om a day a gorgeous as this one. There is hardly a cloud in the sky and the air is crisp and glorious!

The old walled city is one of the best preserved walled cities in the world we were told and it is a UNESCO world heritage site. One of the things that must be done is to walk the ramparts! It is gist over one mile but it takes lots of time since you HAVE to stop and take photos about every three steps. The stairs up to the ramparts and the stairs throughout can be quite steep but you never feel very at risk. There were a few places where friend five and I felt our stomaches sink and our thighs twitch but mostly it was just amazing.

Our guide was a charming woman named Anna Maria she gave us a great deal of information about the city and about the recent war. About 70% of the old town was bombed. There are still a few areas where you can see the rubble but most of the city was restored by UNESCO. Dubrovnik has been a world heritage site since 1979. When you are on the ramparts you can see the brighter orange roofs, all of those ar restored buildings.

We visited the Rectors palace which is like the Doges palace but not as big. The rector served for omly one month at a time and then there was another election.

We also visited the synagogue which has been an active synagogue since the 1600s, or perhaps ear lie. The Jewish population was never large in Dubrovnik but now there are only 41 on the city.

There are 45 churches in the city, we visited the Dominican monastery. The Franciscans are at the other end of the city. The couryard is lovely and in the museum we saw the forearm of St. Thomas! There are very few monks left but we did see some of them in the street. The patron sati of the city is St Blaise the saint who takes care of throats, not sure why that is important in deciding who your patron saint is but there you are.

After a break for coffee and pastry and after we walked the ramparts we did a bit of shopping. Our guide told us that tourism is their biggest industry and we were certainly doing our best to make sure that the industry stay strong.

We went down one side street and went into a shop where a young woman was selling handwork that she and her family had done. We couldn't leave without making purchases and I took a photo of herewith the work she had done. She told me that there are 14 women in her family and that they all do the work for the shop. She said her mother can do the work without even looking.

We returned to the ship for a sine and cheese tasting and had on our beds an invitation to join the captain for a cocktail--ain't we cool!

The wine and cheese was very good nothing particularly great but good. Right after the former minister of tourism spoke. She talked about her experiences and life. It was most interesting but she kept it pretty high level, we really never got much of a sense of her.

At 6:45 we all met in the reception area in the reception area and were escorted to the bridge. The captain met us and we had champagne and hors droveres with him. He is a very personable individual and talked to us about the ship and how veery much he enjoy sailing to Antarctica. They even have Zodiaks that they take out on the water so the guests can get closer to the whales. They take naturalists with them to tell the passengers about what they are seeing..hm wonder if we could add that to Venice--probably not.

At dinner the chef was introduced to all of us which added to the fun of the evening.

After dinner we went into the lounge. We realized that it was friend sevens daughters birthdays so we toasted to her. While wecsat there we met an American couple who now live in Venice. He is an artist and his father wrote the book upon which the miniseries Pacific was based.

All in all one of our best days on this trip.

Kotor Montenegro

We started early this morning because we were sailing into Kotor, through an amazing serise of bays and straits. Kotor and the straits ar surrounded by high craggy mountains. As we approached the strait to takevus into the fiord of Kotor, a bank of fog moved in giving us an amazing show of the move,net of the cloud but which hid what was supposed to be beautiful monastery. I guess we will see them as we depart this afternoon. Once were in port the fog burned off and we were treated to the most glorious day we have had so far on this trip.

Kotor is an old walled city with fortifications going up the side of the mountains. Some of the friends hiked up aways others chose coffee in the square.

Montenegro's history like Crostia's is one of invasion and war. They are Russian Orthodox and a smaller part Roman Catholic. Like the other cities we have visited, Kotor is trying to create a tourist trade as the other industries are dying.

After lunch wwe returned to the city andcwondered the streets a bit longer. The chuechescweventered were quite simple, even the one that was supposed to be Baroque had moments of calm. The roof was flat, wooden cross members but did have five paintings hanging on it.

Later in the afternoon the Kotor Acapella choir sang in the theater. It is a group of eight women in tradational costume singing folk songs of the region. They were every good, I understand that they have been awarded World Heritage status.

Dinner and to bed for me. Others did go on for another round but I was really tired.

Kocula

This morning we were sailing and so we all were able to sleep in. I slept until seven which felt like heaven since I didn't have to set the alarm. I went into the lounge again this morning and had the place to myself. I sat and read and drank coffee anfd thouroghly enjoyed myself.

We went into the island village of Korcula around 1:30. We had an absolutely charming guide and thevtown is lovely. It too is all sandstone and hilly but it just feels good. It is a place we need to return to. The sail in was also lovely. The cliffs in the fjord are gree
To about three fourths up and then are shear cliffs of whitevrock. They remind me of the mountains around Les Baux in the South of France (don't I sound terribly world weary?)

Back on the ship was the evening of the Captain's Gala so we all dressed up and had wine and hors d'overes on deck. Then we went in for dinner which was very good, the meat dish was a very tender veal with an excellent gravy.

The boat set sail about ten and we will sail most of the night. There is just one small problem. Our toilet is backed up and I can't seem to get the attention of anyone to fix it. This could be most unpleasant for everyone in the next few hours. I am planning to go ballistic in about 15 minutes if it doesn't either spontaneously repair itself or the plumber doesn't arrive.