Geo: 40.2115, -8.4292Very early on in our planning process, when we first divvied up planning responsibilities among the four adults, K set about booking us a "Fado experience" during our time in Portugal. For those who don't know -- and I was among them -- Fado is a traditional Portuguese style of song dating back a couple of hundred years. It is characterized as melancholy and, traditionally, the songs have been ballads based on stories of families being left behind by men going off to, and often being lost at sea. Fado "bands" are always three people, with a singer and one person playing a Spanish guitar and another playing as special 12-string Portuguese guitar. K did a lot of research and discovered that not only were there two distinct styles of Fado -- northern and ... read more

Geo: 38.7072, -9.13552Our hotel suite comprised the corner of the top (6th) floor of the hotel, and had a wraparound balcony and least six windows. We shut the automatic rolldown shades on all the windows which, when coupled with the height, meant that there was nothing to wake us in the morning. We also had no clock in the room (in fact, not one of the hotels in which we stayed during this entire trip had a clock in the room -- Latin-time, I joked). Anyway, I woke up and checked my watch, thinking it was the middle of the night, especially since we'd traveled the day before. I was shocked to see that it was nearly 8:00am, and we were all still asleep. The room was pitch black and silent as could be. As we ... read more

Geo: 51.5002, -0.126236Though we did have "Economy Plus" seats -- which at least saved my knees -- neither of us got too much sleep on the flight. As we started our descent for landing, the captain announced that we were arriving in the midst of a heatwave, adding that London had reported it's hottest July temperature "ever" the day before, at 98 degrees. Ugh. While we never planned to leave the airport, we agreed that it was a good time to NOT be visiting England, as very few places even bother installing air conditioning.We arrived at the new Queens Terminal, which opened last year, which helped immensely, as our connecting flight was leaving from the same place, saving us from going through immigration and any of Heathrow's nasty transfer buses. We visited the Lufthansa Lounge and ... read more

Geo: 39.0516, -77.4831As I noted, we can't recall one specific conversation with our friends the Rieckhoffs, during which we decided to travel together again. Rather, we believe it was an organic decision over time, that was finalized last summer. All of us wanted to visit Portugal -- having collectively never been -- whereas the Rieckhoffs have spent considerable time in the Catalonian wine country of Spain, near Barcelona. We elected to combine the two places, as they wished to return and Katherine has been wanting to visit Barcelona ever since she studied in Madrid, almost 30 years ago.We all wished to use air miles for our tickets, which meant we had to book well in advance. We settled on dates as best we could, so far out, electing to travel over the 4th of July, as ... read more

Geo: 8.99427, -79.5188Our alarm when off at 2:45 am, as our driver was to pick us up at 3:20 for our ride to the airport. Our flight left at 6:10 am, yet the transfer company insisted that we leave two and half hours before departure. We were surprised to find the breakfast buffet open, and while it was too early to eat, we did enjoy a final cup of outstanding Ecuadorian coffee.We had the same driver as upon arrival and, thankfully, he was far less chatty and respected our desire to doze during the drive, which took about 40 minutes with no traffic. Check-in was quick. They had again upgraded my seat to First; they upgraded one more when we reached the gate, which we gave to Anna, leaving K alone in Economy. Sigh.We waited in ... read more