Friday , August 7th
Many thanks to my dad for taking us up to the airport at O'dark Thirty. We met Mike and Susie at the park-n-ride in AF and headed north to SLC International.
No drama, caught the flight to Phoenix. Flew on an Airbus A319. Had about 50 minutes before our next flight to Philly. Mike and Susie took off to grab some lunch because they were on a later flight. Mike gave us his card for the US Airway Lounge. We got in with it but the lounge was fairly small, much better than sitting at the gate though. After waiting a bit we went to the gate and loaded up. Flight to Philly was on an A320. When we got to Philly we found the US Airway Envoy Lounge and headed in. Nice place but it was very crowded. By the time we got situated Mike and Susie had landed. They joined us while we waited for our flight to Lisbon. Mike pulled out his new netbook computer and we were able to check email and look at a few random things on line until it was time to board our flight.
The flight to Lisbon was on a Boeing 757. I felt guilty as we loaded up in our first class seats and watched the people going back to coach. I was trying to figure out my seat and had the foot rest extended. I could barely touch the back of the seat in front of me with my foot when I stretched. Our plan was to try and sleep on the transatlantic flight so we could wake up refreshed and ready to play. After they served our meal I popped a Xanax to see if it would help me sleep. I don't know if it helped or not but I did not sleep really well. I am sure that it was better than not sleeping but not by much.
Saturday, August 8th
We touched down in Lisbon around 8:30 am and exchanged a few dollars for Euros and caught a cab to the hotel. We had early check-in arranged and took everything to our rooms. We stayed at the Lisbon Marriott Hotel. Pretty decent place and only 89 euros a night. Not bad considering it was in a capital city in Europe. We got cleaned up and contacted Richard. They were running late coming to Lisbon from Alvor and said that they would meet us somewhere in the city when they got there. We decided to head to an old castle in the Alfama District of the city.
Our taxi driver was Mario. He had an old Benz that he bought new. It was 23 years old and the doorman at the hotel told us that Mario never drove over 60 kph so it was the safest cab in town. The doorman was not kidding. Mario babied his car and shifted so smoothly you would never know it had a manual transmission, even on the steep hills in the old part of town. The paint on the hood of the car was still shiny and in great shape. The car had over a million kilometers on the clock. Mario drove us through town and stopped at a scenic overlook for a minute or two. He then drove us to the Castelo de Sao Jorge (St. George's Castle) castle and dropped us off.
Richard called to tell us that they had made it to the hotel. We decided that they would get checked in and call us when they were ready to play. We finished our tour of the castle and walked through the shops below. There were some African dudes from Senegal that had trinkets they were selling. I tried to avoid eye contact but I glanced at one guy and he had me. He came up and showed me some bracelets. I said I didn't want anything and he grabbed my wrist and put a bracelet on it. He said it was a gift from his family in Senegal to me and my family and it would bring long life. I told him I didn't want it but he insisted that it was a gift from his hungry family to me and the great American country. Go ahead, stamp 'sucka' on my forehead. I asked him how much, he said 5 euros, I only had a 10 so I gave him that and for change he gave me a second bracelet. Sucker with a sucker on top, I kept them.
One of my goals in Portugal was to try Sardinhas Asadas, or grilled sardines. They catch them fresh, roll them in salt and grill them heads, tails, guts and all. If you are a local, you eat pretty much everything but the head and tail. They put signs out in front of the little street cafe's announcing if they have Sardinhas Asadas or not and on our ride to the castle I had seen several signs. We stopped into a little cafe and ordered up some grub. My phone rang. It was Richard and he wanted to meet. I had a hard time telling him where I was because, A: I had no idea, and B: I couldn't ask anyone. I told him we were in Alfama, below the castle. He said he would head our way and call me when he got there. Sweet. It had been 10 years since I had last seen Rich and Bettina and they now have three kids. I was really excited. The bad thing is as soon as I hung up, my phone started beeping complaining of a low battery. It said I had a few minutes worth of power left. I tried to write down Richards phone number and the phone died. I let it sit a few minutes but it would not turn back on. Here I was in the middle of a city, my friend from Germany was dragging his family down to meet at an unknown location in a strange city and my phone with his number on it died. I was pissed/embarrassed/frustrated. I waited a few minutes and tried to turn the phone on. Nothing. I removed the battery and tried it again. Nothing. Wendy's phone, in spite of being identical to mine, would not work in Portugal and it was at the hotel.
My sardines came but I was too flustered to eat much. I picked the flesh off from one and ate it but I was too worried about meeting up with Rich to really enjoy the fish. Wendy and I dashed out of the restaurant early and made plans to meet back up with Mike and Susie after we found a pay phone. Our plan was to call my parents in Utah to get the phone number from them and then call Rich and complete our rendezvous. We walked up the hill to find a phone but had no luck. We asked at a store we had been in earlier and they said there was a phone at the bottom of the hill. We walked down the hill and found the phone but it would not take my card. We went into the shop across the street but they did not know of another pay phone. They also did not have long distance service on their phone. Trust me, I asked... Anyway, we were stuck. We saw a sign for an internet cafe and figured we could access our email to get the phone number, but we still didn't have a phone.
We ended up behind a church that had an overlook onto the city. We decided to ask someone if we could borrow their cell phone and pay them cash. We found a younger man sitting on a wall and he was looking at something on his cell phone. I asked him if he spoke English. He said he did. I explained the predicament and asked if I could pay money to use his phone. He said sure and dialed my parents number. Luckily they were home and found the paper we had left with emergency contact info. We had Richard's number. I called him and we decided to meet at Se' Catedral because it was the biggest landmark on the map and he knew where it was.
The big problem was that I did not know where it was and in spite of having a map, we could not tell where we were in relation to the cathedral. We found Mike and Susie and made our way back to one of the main streets. Wendy did not seem happy that I did not know where our meeting point was. I tried to ask the locals but no one knew or at least they couldn't understand my English. We decided to jump in a taxi. The driver was a little grumpy (do not enter a taxi from the driver's side in Portugal). He did not understand our request at first and started driving. When we showed him on the map, he said something under his breath and flipped a u-turn and went back about 5 blocks and dropped us off in front of the Se'. As we got out of the taxi, Bettina had spotted us and was waving. Rich and his little blond-haired blue-eyed kids were there as well. It was so good to see Rich and meet his kids after so many years. We had our hugs and hellos and then started looking at the Cathedral. Mike and Susie had to leave to go to pick up the rental car so we decided to meet back at the hotel for dinner.
We continued to walk through the city and decided to go to the Praça do Comércio (commerce square) and the plazas at the center of town. Richard's kids seemed to be excited with all the little shops and would run into each one that they liked and have a look around. We got a few pictures of the big arch near the Square. The Square itself was under construction so we could not see it but the streets were blocked off and we decided to just walk through the streets and have a look. Most of the streets in this area are blocked off to cars so you can walk up and down and look at the shops. There are lots of little cafe's and street performers. There were people selling lots of trinkets. One of these trinkets was a little goofy electronic dog that had glowing green eyes and would bark and walk around. The kids, especially Anton, would get right down on the ground and play with the dogs. He had lots of fun chasing the little dogs as well as the pigeons. The pigeons were real (not trinkets) and would stay about a step and a half ahead of Anton.
We made our way to the Elevador de Santa Justa. This elevator was designed by an apprentice of Gustave Eiffel and connects the lower part of Lisbon with a square up on a hill. There is also the remains of a large church here but we never got the whole story on the church. We believe it was destroyed in the earthquake of 1755. Next to the church was the headquarters for the state police.
We rode the elevator back down to the lower level of town and made our way to a large square. By this time we were all tired and decided to head back to the hotel. We had so many people that we had to take two taxi's. There happened to be two taxi's waiting there so we jumped in. Richard, Bettina, Alexander and Anton in one and Wendy, Johanna and I in the other. We waited and waited but we did not start moving. The driver of the other taxi came back and said something to our driver. It was all in Portuguese so we did not understand. A minute later Richard came back and asked if I could help push start the other taxi. It was just like old times with our crappy cars in high school. We jumped out and tried to push start the car but a bus got in the way. We waited for traffic to clear and then tried a second time. The car fired right up and we were on our way. I wonder if Richard got a discount on that fare?
Back at the hotel Richard took the kids for a swim while Wendy and I got cleaned up and talked with Mike and Susie. Through a Portuguese customer of mine we had heard of a cool restaurant that served lots of local Portuguese dishes in a Rodizio style. They bring the food to you and if you like, you can try it. We decided to meet at the restaurant with everybody later on. While Richard and the family were doing their thing we decided to go to the Torre de Belém (Tower of Belem) and have a look around the water front.
After we looked at the tower and nearby attractions, we made our way to the restaurant. It is in an old warehouse near the docks. It was in the basement of this building and as you walked down into the basement it was decorated to look like an old wine cellar. They brought out a bunch of salads, main courses, and then desserts. I really liked the desserts. I tried blood sausage and am not a fan. It is a pretty common dish in Portugal along with the Chorizo sausage. The taste was really strong and stayed on your tongue for a while. It reminded me of liver or something else that was really bad. They had several cod dishes. Cod is a major staple in Portugal and there are supposedly 365 different ways to prepare it, one for each day of the year. Another favorite was a roast pork dish. After dinner we made our way back to the hotel and crashed. Other than the sleep on the plane we had been up for a long time and we were all feeling it.
Sunday, August 9th
Woke up and ate some Zone bars and headed out to the Mosteiro Dos Jerónimos (Monastery of St. Jerome). Rich and family were recovering from the late night and trip and we figured that we could catch up later in the day.
One of the cool things we found, well we actually experienced it the night before when we were parking at the Kais restaurant, was that homeless people act as parking attendants. You just have to have a crazy-eyed look and bad hygiene and you can stand at busy tourist spots and point out obvious parking spots. In return the tourists should give you loose change. This actually seems much better to me than just hanging around begging for money on the street corner. At least they are providing a service. After we parked the Ford Kuga a guy came running up to us and pointed out our parking spot. He was a little late and I had no change so I didn't give him any. I felt kind of bad. Anyway, back to the Monastery... This was an absolutely amazing building. We were unable to go into the chapel that was part of the building because Mass was in session. I thought it was pretty rude to close off the cathedral just because it was Sunday and people wanted to go to church. We came all the way from America after all. The carvings and stone work in the monastery was really amazing. Hard to think of cutting all that stone without power tools but they did. There was a really cool display in one of the upper rooms that was a time line of the world since about 900 AD. It highlighted all of the big events in world history and especially those pertaining to Portuguese history.
From the Monastery we headed to the Oceanarium. Richard and family were not up for that as they had been there before so we decided to head to the other side of the city with a stop in Alfama for some lunch. Wendy had seen some cool outdoor Cafe's when we were there the day before so we decided to go there. We parked the car (many thanks to the homeless guy that pointed out the parking spot!) and walked toward the old plazas. We ducked into a little shop and grabbed some much needed cold water. We found the section with the cafes and sat down at the one with the best looking food/price ratio. Wendy ordered a meal with breaded and fried meat, Mike had a ham sandwich, Susie had a fish stick plate and for the life of me I can not remember what I had.
The important thing is that we did not speak Portuguese and our waiter spoke just a little English. We were about done eating and we decided to get some of the famous little custard pies that they sell in a to-go box and ask for our check. Wendy was not quite done with her lunch and I wanted to try some. Here is how things went down: Susie called the waiter over to get the check, as he walked over I was reaching over to Wendy's plate with my fork and trying to cut a piece of the breaded meat with the edge of my fork. I must have been 'sawing' away pretty intently because the waiter asked me to please stop. I kept cutting and he said, “No, no, stop” and pulled the plate out of the way. He walked off. Susie was still asking for a check and some custard to go. We did not realize what had just happened until he came back with a menu and asked Wendy to pick out something else. A light went on. Susie had called him over and I was working on getting a chunk of meat from Wendy's plate. The waiter thought that I was showing him how tough the meat was and took it as a sign that we were not happy. He came back and showed us that he had taken Wendy's lunch off the bill. I told him that he did not have to, but he insisted. With the communication barrier there was just no way to make it right without making a bigger deal than it was. The sad part? I didn't get to try the lunch. We walked back to the car and headed to the Oceanarium.
The Oceanarium is the second largest aquarium in Europe. It was a bit of a drive to the other side of Lisbon to get there but it was worth it. The aquarium was filled with amazing sharks, rays and other wacky fish. There were a lot of smaller tanks with goofy fish from all over the world as well as otters and penguins. After we had our fill of fish we went outside and rode the sky ride along the river front.
It had been a long day so we headed back to the hotel to meet up with Rich and Bettina. When we got back we were getting cleaned up for dinner and found out that Mike and Susie had some bad news from home via email. Their little dog, Blacky, had gone missing. They were trying to get an update and were not in the mood for dinner. Wendy and I decided to go to dinner with Rich, Bettina and kids. Rich had talked to the concierge and found a cool restaurant that had Fados singers. Fados is a style of traditional folk music sung in Portugal. The restaurant was absolutely amazing. The food was great, the performers were great. I laughed, I cried, it changed my life forever. Better than Cats. We got back to the hotel pretty late and crashed for the night.
Monday, August 10th
Woke up at a decent time so that we could go to Sintra. Richard, Bettina and kids were really tired from staying up late the night before and traveling so we left for Sintra and they were going to catch up with us. We loaded up in our trusty Ford Kuga rental car. It was a sweet ride. We took the A19 West toward Sintra. There are some famous Castles built on the hills in this town. We went to the biggest and most famous, Palácio Nacional da Pena (Pena National Palace). We drove up a tiny winding road to this place and luckily found a place to park by the lower gate. The guy that built the palace had lots of very amazing trees imported and planted in the forest. As we worked our way up to the castle we found that every tree in the forest was marked with a tag. I don't know who keeps track of every tree in the forest or why they would do such a thing, but they did.
The palace is really huge and had some cool period furniture and lots of paintings, artwork etc. Richard and Bettina called again to say that they were on the way. This was difficult because I did not know anything about the town we were in and the names of the buildings/parks/locations were very ahem... foreign to me. Richard told me that he was going to go to a palace/park and we could meet him there. On our way down the mountain we found a park and a place to eat but it was not the same park that Rich was at. Each phone call cost $2.00 a minute so it was frustrating to keep making calls and I had no idea where we were. We finally decided to meet at the Palácio Nacional de Sintra (Sintra National Palace). Richard was waiting with his family for some food and so we decided to meet in about an hour. Well the hour passed and Richard called. He wanted to meet somewhere towards Lisbon because his kids were hungry. It seems that the food staff where he was were doing things on their terms. They waited 35 minutes after ordering food and had nothing. He asked the staff when and if the food was coming. They said it was coming but he would have to wait for it to be done and they did not know when it was going to be done. If he did not want to wait, he could leave. They left. It seems that things move slowly in Portugal. We were on vacation so it did not matter but if I lived there it might get old.
We decided that we would just head south to Richard's parents' house and meet them there. I was feeling bad that we had not met up with Rich and I didn't want them to feel like they were left out. They said it would be fine. We had to wait a while for Mike and Susie to pick up some items from a shop. They found a great pair of antique knockers for the front doors on their house. And like I always say, nothing like a nice pair of knockers!
So we headed back toward Lisbon and found our way south of town across the Ponte 25 de Abril (April 25th bridge). This bridge looks a lot like the Golden Gate bridge in San Fransisco. We were working our way south toward Alvor on the south coast where Hans and Gerty live. As we worked our way out of the busy city we saw a McDonald's up ahead and decided to pull over and see if we could get a decent sized Diet Coke. We pulled up to the drive through but they had no speaker so we pulled to the first window. No one was there. We pulled to the second window but the guy there said we had to order somewhere else. Silly Americans that can't use a drive through at a McDonald's. We decided to pull back around because someone was already behind us. The problem was that we were on a one way street and there was no way to go back to the beginning. We pulled over and went in. As we walked in there was someone standing in line that I recognized. It did not compute at first because we were in a strange McDonald's in a strange place but then it clicked... It was Richard! Since the kids did not get to eat at the crazy tourist place in Sintra they had stopped at good old Mickey D's to get some grub. We said hi and chatted with the kids for a bit. We then headed out with our Large (20 oz maybe) Diet Cokes, fries and a McFlurry for good measure. We told Richard that we were going to take the scenic route to Alvor so we may get there a bit later. We were going to go to the town of Evora but decided it was too far out of the way, instead we would just stay close to the main freeway but kind of zig zag on the B roads so we could see some of the landscape. We made it to the A2 south but decided to turn off and head toward the town of Sines. This is a port town where lots of coal and oil are dropped off. There is also a major power plant there. We found a nice beach on the north side of town and stopped to take a few pictures.
One thing we noticed on the way down was these fair sized trees that were painted a funny red-brown color on their trunks. Why would anyone paint trees? As we traveled and looked more closely we realized that the paint was not paint at all, but rather all the bark had been stripped from the trunks of the trees? Why would you strip the bark? To kill the trees? Then it dawned on us, they were Cork Oaks. The bark from the trees is stripped every 9 years and used to make corks for wine bottles as well as all the other stuff cork is made into: flooring, pin boards, coasters, purses, etc...
As we continued south we saw lots of small little villages. We stopped at a tiny grocery store and bought some bread and drinks. We slowly worked our way south. The road we were on was very small and very twisty. As we pulled into one town the road was about 1.3 lanes wide with buildings on each side. A big semi came barreling at us from the opposite direction. Mike was able to get the car in reverse and back to a safe spot before the dude ran us over. We continued south. Richard called and wondered where we were. Unfortunately we were still a long way away, it was getting dark and the road was getting twistier and making more elevation changes. The girls were sitting in the back and getting a little car sick. The Kuga was doing a remarkable job eating up the kilometers, but our stomaches were having a hard time keeping up. We made it to Alvor about 9:30 and called Rich for directions to his house. My cell phone kept dropping the call. We retried about 5 times and finally got some directions. He talked us right to the driveway. We parked down by the guest house and made our way to the patio where Richard's parents, Hans and Gerty, were waiting with some great food. Richard's mom is an awesome cook and is well known for serving up giant portions. We ate the food and took a tour of the amazing house and then got ready for bed. It was so great to see Hans and Gerty and have a great place to stay.
Tuesday, August 11th
We started the day with a traditional German breakfast. This meant great bread, cold cuts, tomatoes, onions, cucumbers and most importantly, Nutella! (Nutella and onions were not combined.) I was first introduced to Nutella by Rich when he was going to high school here. You could only find it in specialty shops back then. Now you can get it everywhere but we rarely do. The stuff is awesome, especially on good European breakfast rolls. We needed to load up on some supplies and so did Rich so we headed to the local shopping mall. This contained random stores and a store called Continente that was VERY similar to a Target. There also seemed to be a lot of places that sold Hookah pipes. Not sure why but it must be popular with the kids. Mike needed a cell phone charger and Rich needed a new pair of swim goggles. Here is a little social commentary. Why do they make everything related to driving so small in Europe? I understand that some roads where built centuries ago and its not practical to tear down all those old buildings but what about the new stuff? The parking spots are tiny and even worse, the parking garage ramps from one level to another were almost impossible to navigate without losing a mirror or fender or worse. Just some random thinking.
After we got back from the mall we loaded up and went to the beach in Portimao. This is a famous beach and pretty typical of those from the Algarve coast. It has large sandstone cliffs and spires surrounding the beach. The water was fairly cold and the sand was hot. It was really nice. I guess that Portugal is largely Catholic in population and therefore topless swimming was prohibited at the beaches for a long time. About 10 years ago things started to change and so some women do go topless. I would say about 2-3%, but who was counting? I wasn't counting. Really. The kids favorite thing to do at the beach is catch the tiny
After we got cleaned up from the beach it was getting a little late so we decided to go to a little restaurant that Rich knew. The nice thing about locals is that they know all the good stuff. Rich took us to several restaurants that seemed to be in the middle of nowhere, but where really good. This one served a lot of Brits and the waitress had a perfect English accent. I don't remember what everyone ate but I got a giant kabob and Mike and Susie got a traditional fish dish served in a copper cooking pot. It was all really yummy and we ordered some great desserts. It was late by the time we got home. (None of the restaurants were fast. It seemed they all took a couple hours to complete a meal.) The kids went to bed and the Americans checked email and called home. Gerty was very adamant about us using the phone to call and check on the kids. She is so kind. Mike had a bit of work at the office to check on and after that we all went to bed. Mike and Susie stayed in the guest house and we stayed in a room in the main house.
Wednesday, August 12th
We tried to get up and going a little early. We were going to the market in Portimao. This is at the municipal market and I guess similar to a permanent farmers market. The difference was that this market had fresh fish, butchers, bakers and produce. It was really fascinating to me because all of the produce vendors were lined up next to each other in their booths and were selling identical products. It was amazing to me to have your competition 3 feet away selling the same things. I guess that ensures the best price, quality and customer service. We bought some “Wolf of the Sea” fish. As near as I can tell this is Mediterranean Sea Bass. We also bought some fresh fruit, bread, marzipan treats and Rich visited his favorite butcher counter and bought the biggest steaks I have ever seen. We also got a couple of kinds of potatoes. After our adventurous shopping trip we made our way back to the house. The kids had a swim.
One of Alexander's (Rich's 4 year old son) favorite activities in the pool was doing “cannonballs” off from the edge. The German term for cannonball is Arschbombe. This quite literally translates to ass bomb. The kids would chant it over and over in their cute little voices. “Arschbombe, arschbombe, arshbombe!” Mike got in the the game and would do amazing cannonballs with the resultant splash and so the kids started to refer to Mike as “Der Arschbombe”. Quite a title if you ask me. It was about time to head to meet Richard's parents for lunch. They wanted to take us to another local eatery. This place was located along the highway to Lagos and was only open for the lunch hour. I guess in Portugal that would be lunch hours. Anyway, we jumped in the cars and headed out to meet them. Hans and Gerty had an early morning golf game at the club and they were going to meet us there. We got to the restaurant and it was a really nice place with a huge crowd and giant grills with amazing fish and meats being cooked. When we finally got seated I ordered some Sardinhas Assadas. Finally a chance to eat some of this local salty, oily goodness without interruption. The food was really good and served with tomato salad, lettuce salad and fries. Wendy and I also found a really yummy fruit beverage called Sumol. We had the orange flavor. It tastes a little like Fresca but it has orange pulp in it.
After lunch the kids were getting tired from being up so late every night, so they went home and we decided to drive to Lagos and see the new race track built to lure Formula One racing to this part of Portugal. Lagos was a cool little harbor town with lots of waterfront and shops. We decided not to stop but headed to the track. The track was pretty empty but it was an absolutely amazing facility. The rumor was that it cost 200 million Euros. I thought Larry Miller's track was nice, but this thing was much, much bigger, at least judging by the grand stands. Lots of elevation changes on the track as well. Very nice. We headed back to the house. Richard and I took a walk around the neighborhood with Anton. It was great to have some time to just talk about life. Rich is super busy with his practice and his political career. He is in the Hamburg parliament. As near as we can figure it is very similar to being a state representative. (You can even google Richard and find him on Wikipedia. What a handsome man!)
When we got back Richard prepared the fish we bought that morning for grilling. They have a really neat outdoor grill and patio. Richard expertly grilled the fish and we had dinner on the front patio. Mike commented that it was the best fish he had ever had. I have to agree. I also have to admit that after the Sardinhas for lunch and the fish for dinner I was a little fished out for the rest of the trip. Mostly due to the Sardinhas. I love the salty flavor but they are a little too oily. I will try some next time I go back but, I am not craving them anymore at this time.
Mike and Susie planned on leaving the next morning so Hans and Richard got out the maps and helped them plan a trip to get them to the south of France. Piles of maps and some great notes and they had a great game plan on where they were going. We all said good night and went to bed.
Thursday, August 13th
Wendy and I slept a little later than we wanted. We were really tired from jet lag and constantly going. When we woke up Mike and Susie had already left. Rich asked what we wanted to do that day and we both answered that we just wanted to be lazy and hang out around the house. The kids were a little disappointed about not going to the beach but it ended up that we had a fun time around the house doing a whole lot of nothing. We spent some time in the pool, Wendy started reading her book by Thoreau. I tried some Arschbombe action but could never do it as well as Mike. Pretty lazy day. The weather is a lot like Utah in the summer, pretty hot in the day and then when the sun goes down the temp drops to a really comfortable level. Richard grilled the steaks. We had homemade french fries that we cut from red potatoes and Bettina made a really great tzatziki. We loved it. Went to bed after dinner.
Friday, August 14th
We woke up and had our usual breakfast. Hung out with the kids and then loaded up in the car to head to Monchique. This a pretty little village on the side of a “mountain” 15 miles or so away from Alvor. We had driven through Monchique on our way down from Lisbon but it was dark and we were trying to hurry. Richard loaded up in their E class turbo diesel. Wendy and I got to drive the SL. We continued through Monchique and up the mountain to a spring in the side of the hill. Richard had brought 20 or so big jugs that we filled with water for use at the house. The water was cool and refreshing and the kids enjoyed the work of filling the bottles and carrying them back to the car. Once the bottles were full and we had our fill of water we continued up the mountain. At the top was a little tourist trap building with souvenirs and a big rocky hill that we were able to climb to the top of. There was a great view of the valley below all the way out to the ocean. We could see Portimao, Alvor and Lagos. We went into the tourist place and got some ice cream for the kids and then next door to the souvenir shop. We spent a while in the nice air conditioning and browsed all the goofy stuff they had. I really wanted to buy a vintage cow bell that they had there, because the only thing our vacation needed was … wait for it ... MORE COW BELL!
We headed back down the mountain to the house. Unloaded all the water and played in the pool for a while. It was getting about dinner time so we headed to the beach in Alvor. This beach was big and flat without the cliffs of Portimao. We walked up to a restaurant that was on the beach. The owner recognized Rich and they chatted for a bit. It seems that everywhere we went people knew Rich and remembered him from years past. Nice to have a local showing us around. We had some yummy grub and the beauty of this place was that the kids could play in the sand while we were waiting for our food. I ordered Chicken Piri Piri. This is a great local dish that is made with a pepper called Piri Piri. It was half a roasted chicken with a great crispy outside and a nice moist inside all topped off with the spicy salty flavor of the Piri Piri sauce. Yummy. So yummy in fact that I made up a song/jingle to help market this amazing dish. I am in talks with some big record labels. Until it goes public, Wendy has said that I should stop singing it. I think it is because she does not want anyone to steal my great song. She thinks it is because the song is really bad. “Chicken Piri Piri, I was feeling weary...”
After dinner we hung out on the beach and played with the kids in the water/sand and watched the sun go down. It was a great sunset and I used the opportunity to lay a big kiss on my sweety. She didn't protest...too much. We decided to jump in the cars and head downtown. Rich had told us of a place that sold really nice leather handbags and Wendy needed something to remember the trip by. Perfect match. We parked and made our way through the tiny winding streets to the shop. We went in and the place smelled amazing. Nothing like a shop full of leather to make me smile. It also made Wendy smile. She enjoyed the challenge of sorting through all the bags to find the perfect one. Bettina had the suggestion that if she couldn't find the perfect one, Wendy should try two. The owner of the shop walked in a minute or so after we got there and recognized Rich and Bettina. I guess Rich wasn't lying about Bettina's handbag habit. Wendy found the perfect handbag and we made a deal and headed out into the night.
We were surrounded by restaurants and shops. Rich and Bettina found some water wings for Anton to wear in the pool. His old ones were worn out. We continued to walk around the quaint little streets. Rich and the kids stopped by to get some candy and a crepe. There was a street performer in front of the shop. She had a long golden dress with a hood and some long gloves with bells on the end. If someone would put some change in her little box she would come to life and shake their hand in a whimsical fashion. Little Anton was amazed by this but was a little too cautious to give her any change. She broke character a few times to give him a wink and entice him in. He finally decided it was safe after watching his brother and sister make contact without harm. She had a great smile and did a good job of attracting attention from passersby. Wendy and I wondered how and why she did what she did for a living. I think Wendy was secretly thinking it was something I was qualified for. I think I would need some dental work. If you see a fat guy in a gold dress near the Gateway anytime soon, please stop and say hi and throw some change in my... er... his box. As we wondered down by the waterfront we noticed that there were a bunch of cafe's that had big grills full of fish. It was almost midnight and people were just sitting down for dinner. I dunno how the Europeans stay so skinny. We saw lots of karaoke bars and some shops full of cheap gifts that caught the eyes of the children. It was getting late and we were all tired so we headed home for some shut eye.
Saturday, August 15th
We went on a trip in to the southwest point of Portugal. The little town there is Sagres. We drove beyond Sagres to a lighthouse and fort called Cabo de São Vicente (Cape St. Vincent). The weather there was almost cold and there were really low clouds that were covering the ground and flowed off the cliffs to the sea. There were several vendors here trying to sell their wares and we founds some cool hand knit wool hats for the kids to wear in winter. We also found the official last hot dog stand before America. The sign was in German and it was actually the last bratwurst stand before America but I digress.... We all ordered some wieners and got certificates of authenticity, that they were in fact, the last Bratwursts before America. The place was great and had plenty of customers. You could watch the people drive buy and read the sign and point and laugh and they would come and buy a dog. Great marketing. They had pictures from various talk shows posted in their little trailer.
The other amazing thing was people fishing off from the cliffs. There was a path that went down a fairly steep hill near the fort that went to the edge of a cliff. There were two guys fishing there but it had to have been 100' down to the water. I wondered what would happen if they caught a big fish and they weren't paying attention. We finished up looking around this area and went back toward the town of Sagres. There was another large fort here, Fortaleza de Sagres (Fort of Sagres). There was a well known navigation school here that taught the early sailors how to navigate their way across the ocean. There were several plaques from different nations (including the U.S.) stating how important this school was to helping find and explore the “New World”. While we were walking the kids got tired so I put Alex on my shoulders and carried him while Rich and Bettina carried Anton and Johanna. I would start walking toward the edge of the cliff and Alex did not like it. We headed back to the house with a short stop by a store that sold pirate shirts and flags.
At the house we did a little swimming and then arranged to put the kids in bed and have Hans and Gerty listen for them while Rich, Bettina, Wendy and I went to dinner. We went to another great little restaurant out in the middle of nowhere. I am not sure how these places stay in business because they are so hard to find but they do. This place was owned by a German man. Rich warned us that he liked to talk a lot. There was a table full of very good looking people when we walked in. They were all in their 20's and had perfect hair, teeth, skin, bodies and great clothes. Oh to be young and pretty again. Or in my case for a first time. We found out that they were from Austria. Luckily the talkative German owner spent his time fawning over them. We had some exciting food there. Richard ordered escargot so we could try it. Wendy and I were both game and we generally are open to trying new things. I have to be honest, at that point in the trip I was not in the mood for anything fishy and my stomach was not feeling well. Not terrible but just not quite right. So Rich pulled one of those little dudes out of his former home and held it in my general direction. I took it from him and popped it in my mouth. I started to chew. It tasted a little fishy and that was enough for me to not like it. I kept thinking about what it was that I was eating. A dadgum snail. I just couldn't get into it. For me, thumbs down on the escargot. Wendy tried it as well and Bettina was talking about how and why she did not like it. Wendy felt the same as me. No Bueno.
Inspite of the snails it was a lovely dinner. Richard showed me the collection of Port wine at the restaurant. One bottle was from 1912 and cost 700 Euros (approximately $1,050 U.S.). We went home feeling kind of sad because we knew we had to pack and head to Lisbon in the morning. We even took bets on what time Mike and Susie would show up. Rich bet 11:00, I bet on 1:30. Wendy and I went to our room and did some pre-packing before bed then crashed.
Sunday, August 16th
We woke up and had one final German breakfast. We packed all of our stuff up. Hans and Gerty gave us some nice gifts. Mike and Susie showed up at 11:00 am (Rich won). We loaded our stuff up and said our goodbyes. It was really sad. It had been 10 years since I had seen Rich last and we hope to get together sooner but you never know what life will bring. Hans and Gerty were wonderful hosts and made us feel totally welcome and treated us like royalty. It was so fun to get to know the kids. They are just so cute and full of life. They spent the time singing and laughing and had some great songs.
I offered to drive the Kuga north to Lisbon since Mike and Susie had spent so much time driving over the last few days. I killed the car pulling out of the steep driveway. Bettina laughed at me. I laughed at me to. We pulled out and found our way to the A22 East and then to the A2 North to Lisbon. Let me take a moment to comment on driving in Portugal. The A2 is a very nice interstate sized road. It is a toll road and the trip to Lisbon cost 19 Euros. Pretty spendy. The speed limit on the A2 is 120 Kilometers an hour or about 75 mph. Some people drive this fast, but they are the exception and not the rule. I drove at about 160kph or 100mph. I was passing several people but you had to keep constant watch for what was going on behind you. Big Mercedes and BMW cars would come cruising up at a speed much greater than 100mph and you had to make sure that you were not in the fast lane or there would be problems. I saw one BMW M5 coming up behind me at a high rate of speed so I moved over to the slow lane and looked back in time to see a tiny little Fiat pull out in front of him. The BMW slammed on the brakes and narrowly avoided disaster. We saw another pair of cars cruising in and out of traffic racing. The one was in the fast lane, the other slightly behind in the slow lane. The slow lane guy moved over behind the fast guy at the same time the fast guy hit the brakes. We watched the slower guy fishtail all over the road and luckily he caught the car before it spun out of control. A little crazy.
We stopped at a convenience store and got some junk food and then soldiered on into Lisbon. The plan was to stop before we got into the city so Mike could drive. We ended up too close and I was on the bridge into town before I knew it so I just finished the drive to the hotel. We dropped off our stuff at the hotel and then took the rental back to the car place. When we were at the rental car place two Italian couples had just dropped off two cars. Both cars were diesel and they had filled them with regular gas. It was not going to be a good day when they got the bill for that. The rental car lady looked at the mileage on the rental and asked if it was possible that they had put 900 kilometers on the car in one week. It was actually more like 2,900 kilometers with Mike and Susie's mega trip but we did not want to correct her math.
We headed out into the street and decided to walk down to the Alfama district or at least try and get close. We were able to walk past the Marquês de Pombal and finally get a good pic. We had always tried to catch a pic hanging out of the car window and that never worked. We walked down the Avenue da Liberdade. We saw a couple of cool shops but most were closed because it was Sunday. We saw one shop that was a football store. These guys are crazy about soccer. They had every item you could imagine with the club logos on them. We walked back to the plaza where we had to push start the taxi earlier.
We were getting hungry and then we saw “it” in front of a women's clothing store. He was laying in front of the doorway doing a one handed push up or something. He had on hot pink shorts, a baseball cap, tall orange striped socks and white shoes. He had to be 60 years old and was tan from head to toe. He got up and started dancing. A crowd gathered. A pretty lady from the shop came out and talked to him. She was very nice and he seemed to enjoy it. Someone from the crowd yelled something and the guy unzipped his pink shorts to show he had on black spandex under clothing. He pulled it way up over his belly button and then zipped back up and started dancing. The girls where laughing. Mike and I were a little disturbed. We caught a taxi back to the hotel. This driver was young and the total opposite of our first driver, Mario. His cab was newer than Mario's but had a lot of wear and tear. When he shifted he slammed the gear and dumped the clutch. He was young and seemed to have an attitude. I don't think he will last long as a driver. He dropped us off at the hotel.
We cleaned up and looked for a restaurant. We wanted to go back to Kais but found out it was closed. The concierge was pushing a place called Oceans 5 or something. We found an Italian place and decided to go there. It was down on the waterfront right under the big bridge. We had some yummy salad, pizza and pasta. We walked around the docks for a while until it got late enough to head back to the hotel.
Monday, August 17th
Wendy and my 15th wedding anniversary. We woke up early and headed to the airport by 8:00 am. We got there and made our way to the check-in counter. While we were in line a man came by and handed us a paper saying that we had to get through security before 9:00 and that several people had missed their flights in the last week. It would cost $250 to reschedule our flight...thanks for the warning. We got checked in and then they checked our passports. No problem. We walked on through the airport to security. The line was really long but it was moving fast. We made it through security and headed up the stairs. It was 8:45ish so we felt good. We got up the stairs and rounded the corner and saw a line forming. We looked around the corner and saw a huge line to another checkpoint. They had to check passports again. Uhg. We waited and waited in the slow line. It was getting close to 9:00 and the clock was ticking. Our flight boarded at 9:15. The line kept crawling. Only 6 out of the 8 booths had people in them. Then there was an announcement on the speakers overhead and there was screaming and a huge crowd jumped out of line and ran through/over the lines. Not sure what the announcement was but it cleared out the line. 2 more people showed up for work and the line moved much faster. We got through the line and made it to our gate at 9:15. They were not loading yet so we took a seat and waited 15 minutes.
The rest of the trip was non eventful. We got Wendy a Dr. Pepper as soon as we touched down in Philly. We made it home about 11:30pm Utah time. About 24 hours after we had woken up for the day. It was good to be home. Wonderful trip and great memories.
No comments:
Post a Comment