Sorry about the delay in posting this. Partly due to the fantastic blue skies and sunshine in week two at the Villa, partly due to the travel blur that followed villa life. After our weekend away at Aveiro, Figueia da Foz, and overnight in Porto before the Douro River cruise we returned to our ‘normal’ routine at the villa 22 - 27 September. Monday morning the girls went shopping for some supplies and returned with a much needed “Mata Moscas”, translated as “killer of flies”. In other words, a simple fly swatter. Since today was mostly a relaxation and hang around day, our first cloudy gray day since we got here did not really interfere with anything or dampen spirits. The girls also returned from their shopping expedition with meat and produce they had bought at ... read more

Well, all good things come to an end and sadly so does life at the villa. It has been a wonderful week of pure relaxation, short trips of exploration and adventure seeing beautiful sights,, meeting smiling friendly people who laugh with us as we struggle with different languages, and sharing good times and culinary wonders with our travelling companions. Friday morning we left the villa for a last day and overnight in Porto before continuing on our different paths. Today two will leave Porto in the afternoon and fly off to Amsterdam for a brief three day visit before returning to Edmonton. On Saturday Lynn and one other person will be on the to catch a flights to Heathrow in London for an overnight stay before continuing on to Vancouver and Edmonton. From Edmonton Lynn ... read more

20 - 21 September Saturday was the end of our first week at the villa and our first ‘weekend’. Naturally we had to leave paradise for a weekend adventure tour so we were off early to Figueia da Foz on the coast about 60 kilometres South of Porto. One of our group had suggested this destination from the commentary in one of the Portugal travel book. “The Foz” was described as having a beautiful beach and many shops and restaurants. From the villa it was about a two hour drive and we set off in two groups planning to meet for lunch. One thing about Portugal is the obvious investment in infrastructure including an amazing network of new highways and freeways, most of which are tolled, but the tolls are minimal and probably and efficient and ... read more

Passing Through Porto We leave the Maranton House Hotel and take the tube to Victoria Station where we go up a couple levels to catch a train to Gatwick for a short flight to Porto. A couple hours later and we are walking through the Porto Airport which is an impressive new facility. It seems too large for a city the size of Porto but perhaps in Portugal there are some future thinkers and maybe an intention to develop the tourism industry. Leaving the terminal building there is a new metro/subway service practically at the door that wisks us smoothly and quickly downtown. I wish I had been able to take some photos of the airport terminal but its size just made it seem that pictures wouldn’t be able to tell the story. The cameras ... read more

Greetings from one of the worlds great cities, London. Once again, London is only a stepping stone to our adventure and we will only be here for 3 days before journeying on. One of these times we'll have to 'do London' instead of just passing through. But how do you just 'do London'? It's such a great city with history, sights, traditions, arts, museums, monuments, and could one ever 'do London' in just one trip ? Although London is only a stepping stone the adventure of getting here started about August 28 when Zoom Airlines ceased operations. We were another couple of the thousands of persons left stranded in airports or without a flight and Zoom having already spent our money for a flight we had booked on line and already paid for with a credit ... read more