Last Day Utrecht -- July 11

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Well we woke up this morning to beautiful sunshine for our last day in Utrecht. We plan to squeeze in a cruise on the old canal between conference sessions some time today since it is our last chance to do so. i will hopefully come back with some interesting pics later. Karla and I did our conference presentation yesterday afternoon and it was very well received. Nice to have it over now and to be moving on soon to the real vacation part of the trip. We ate last night (for the second time!) at a Portuguese restaurant not far from our hotel called Algarve. Just a wonderful place. Excellent food and fantastic service. Friendly and unpretentious and so accommodating. The first night we had a dish called Cataplana - we were brought a closed pot right from the oven filled with salmon, whitefish, shrimp, mussels and the like cooked in a tomato based sauce. It was unbelievable. Last night we ordered separate dishes - Lenora had the Bacalhau com natas -- salt cod cooked with fresh cream and served in a large bowl with what appeared to be slivers of potatoes - sounds weird but it was very good (I called it fish cakes in a bowl), Karla had the Gambas a casa - a large plate of shrimp in the shell over rice, and I had the Bife com porto (top sirloin in port wine sauce). All three dishes were excellent. And the house wine was Portuguese Douro red and white - very drinkable! This restaurant was recommended by our hoteliers and really was amazing - and not expensive at all. Well it is time for coffee and to get going for the day. I will come back later hopefully armed with some final pics of Utrecht.

PS -- just a reminder that there are two ways to add comments -- public (comments that you want to go up on the website for all to see) and private (a comment that you just want to send to Lenora and or me personally).

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Comments

[Margaret]

Hi Guys, I love your photos and the description of the seafood dishes makes my mouth water. I have never travelled to this part of europe but i am thinking it should be as must! Any vineyards there Joe?

[JoeandLen]

Utrecht
Hi Margaret, no vineyards but lots of brewhouses! we are more in your territory now -- Budapest is amazing - and tomorrow off to Croatia! Joe (Lenora will email later).