ENROUTE TO PONTA DELGADA, THE AZORES I’m sitting in the Piazza, the central core of the CROWN PRINCESS. They have just come round and passed out chocolate cookies and milk to everyone sitting here. Yum. My traveling buddy, Dick Burns is seeing what is on offer at the Trident Grill. So far, its been a very smooth crossing….but then when the ship is 950 feet long and 133,000 tons it takes a pretty rough sea to move this thing around. The food and the service has been excellent but the ship just seems too big to me. And too many people. [View Full Entry]

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Lisboa to Ponta de Sagres 5/8 Today was a long drive from Lisboa to Ponta de Sagres and after several hours on the highway, we made the mistake of taking the scenic route. The road followed along farmlands but eventually turned into a goat path. By American standards this RV is small, however, by European standards it is quite large. We finally made our way to Sagres; please note its location on the map, we are about as far southwest in Portugal as one can go... before falling into the Atlantic. Well after a light meal we set out walking [View Full Entry]

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A walking tour was our first adventure this morning, www.lisbonwalker.com No need to book, just turn up at the meeting point. What a great way to get familiar with a new city. Jose was our guide and he gave us an in-depth view of--- the old Roman and Arabic city of Alfama . Alfama area was the site of a messy history with the Visigoths, the Romans, the Moors, the Jews, the Christians, the Portuguese Royalty, and of course the slaves. The persecution of the Jewish in this community was a terrible atrocity. Alfama was a fishing town and it [View Full Entry]

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Cascais to Lisbon Lisboa Camping Parc Monsanto Lisboa, the capital of Portugal, is a rare combination of history and bittersweet memories, and occupies a hilly site on the estuary of the Tagus. The Lisboa Camping located in the Parc Monsanto, is close to public transportation and has many facilities. After settling the Bothan here, we headed by foot, for the public transportation, a bus into Belem, a section of Lisbon. Belem, an area of Lisbon, was the port that famous navigators and explorers headed out from on uncharted waters to find new lands. Often the last night before the voyage, explorers [View Full Entry]

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Nazare to Alcobaca to Cascais World Heritage Site and a Seaside town in Portugal We visited Alcobaca after we left Nazare. The Monastery of Alcobaca is an impressive monument classified as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1989. Its construction started in 1153 and was home of the Cistercian monks. This 220 meter long monument is Portugal's largest church. Among those buried here are the tragic lovers King Pedro and his murdered mistress Ines de Castro, whose tombs face each other across the transept of the abbey church. Ines' death was ordered by Pedro's father. Touring the monastery was quite [View Full Entry]

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Buena noite!! Hello everyone!! So sorry to only be getting on here now to let you know how all is going!! We have just been having way too much fun! All was good with the flight..it didn,t seem as long as overseas flights Ive taken before...maybe cuz I had someone to get giddy with on the plane. we were separated on the long leg (mom and dad got to sit together at least), while I enjoyed my special vegan meal near the front of the plane. Didn,t sleep much on the plane but all was good. We nearly missed our last [View Full Entry]

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Picture "catch-up" in Coimbra Sorry for the terrible picture quality! All through my trip, I looked in vain for an Internet cafe that had USB upload capability (to grab pictures from my camera), on which the whole travel blog idea hinged (for me at least--naturally, I could have just entered unadorned text). I pretty much stopped taking any pictures at all. This accounts for the very fragmentary coverage of my trip so far, I've left out tons! Now that I've managed to upload some, I'm even including some pretty awful ones. Next up, I'll attempt to interlace some commentary. [View Full Entry]

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Nazare, Portugal Castelo de Vide to Nazare--- Portugal Campismo Paradiso May 3 Nazare is a coastal town just north of Lisbon (Lisboa). During the second half of the 17th Century, the sea level fell... uncovering an extensive area of sand where today stands the centre of the town. Until then the population lived in the highlands, up on the cliffs. This campground has Wifi, so Bob is happy. The gal tells me Nazare Beach is about two kilometers away. So I start off on my walk. Believe me it is not two kilometers, (maybe 2 kilometers to the start of Nazare) [View Full Entry]

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Dear friends of Maddy, I decided to publish this after the interest in the McCanns seemed to be freshly in peoples minds. I hope that those of you who are still interested in helping to find madeleine will spread this information...as perhaps it will help to find out who dunnit... Ive had an incredible amount of people reading my articles on the disappearance of Madeleine and it shows me that I must be doing something right. on a personal note; ive had some challenges myself... I've had an interesting last few months to say the least... in fact its been [View Full Entry]

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Espana to Portugal Toledo to Castelo de Vide It was a long drive, 300 kilometers or so, not all on highways, some farm roads and ancient narrow cobblestone streets. Castelo de Vide is in the middle of...... nowhere. This is our first town in Portugal. The town was conquered from the Moors in 1138. The Portuguese language is a source of pride, but extremely difficult to grab hold of. Something like: "Oh bree gah dah" meaning "thank you" can be very useful. So when all else fails say "Oh bree gah dah" ...and people smile. They know you are trying... even [View Full Entry]

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