Karen’s Travel Notes

People everywhere want the same things. They want love, security and joy. They obtain those things differently. Those variations are what makes travel fun. Share those differences with me as I discover them.

This blog is a way to share impressions, experiences and adventures encountered during my travels. I’m excited to explore and share information about the different cultures, traditions, and customs I encounter, as well as the local foods, dishes, and culinary experiences unique to each destination.

Panama

November 24 – December 8, 2023

The evening of Thanksgiving, many people are visiting with family; and after stuffing themselves are taking a nap. That is all good activity.

Late the night of this Thanksgiving holiday, Jennifer and I will be flying from San Francisco to Panama City. It’s an overnight flight so we land in Panama at 11:30 in the morning. I’m sure we’ll have red blood-shot eyes, but we’ll be bright-eyed and ready to go anyway.

In Panama City, we will catch a ride to another airport to get on a small plane that will take us to Bocas del Toro. Bocas del Toro is a small group of islands near the Costa Rican border on the Caribbean side of Panama.

After landing at the airport in Bocas del Toro, we will catch a ride on a boat to Isla Cristóbal.

There we will finally get a chance to relax in a beautiful home over the water. I think it’s gonna be a miserable 24 hours to get there, but I also think it’s gonna be worth it when we do.

October 31 – November 1

I finally made it to Portugal. I’ve dreamed about it for a long time. It feels a little like San Francisco but warmer.

The overnight flight on TAP Portugal was pretty nice in business class. I watched flights for most of the year until I found a good price for business class. A 14 hour ride in economy didn’t sound like fun to me. The seats were angled so you could push a button and make it lie as flat as you wanted to. The screens were large and had movies, TV shows, and music. Toiletries-sleep mask, toothbrush, socks- headphones and water waited in an alcove. Breakfast and Dinner!

Coming in for a landing the scenery looked a lot like Sonoma County to me. I guess it makes sense because Portugal is considered part of the Mediterranean and we have a Mediterranean environment in Sonoma County.

At Lisbon airport I walked for miles and miles and miles until I found the bus I was looking for. I used the city metro bus as much as possible, in order to get a better feel for the city.

I met a guy at the bus stop who helped me put my suitcase into the bus. I was pretty gimpy and I had a cane with me so every once in awhile, somebody felt sorry for me and helped me out. It was a good move. It would also make a good weapon if need be. It turned out the guy who helped me was a disability assistant who worked at the airport. The perfect person to meet first.

We chatted quite a bit. He told me that the red bridge here over the Tagus river was designed by the same person who did the Golden Gate Bridge. Take a look at the picture and tell me if you think that’s true.

I used honors points to stay at the Hilton hotel the first night in the center of old town Lisbon. My hotel room was on the top floor and had three giant glass doors that opened to the outside. This was my first sight of the colorful azulejos (ceramic tiles) that I would see everywhere later in the city. I had a view of the city rooftops from my alcoves.

During happy hour, I discovered the magic of Portuguese gin. I went to sleep happy.

November 1 Lisbon – Lisboa

My first impression of the city is that it is similar to San Francisco. It has neighborhoods and different districts. It’s been raining a lot especially in the afternoons, but it’s warmer than expected. The first day almost felt like winter in San Diego. It’s about 66°F or 19°C. Everyone is wearing coats, so I suspect it’s colder than they’re used to.

The roads are incredibly narrow. I do not know how the buses make it through them. At one point I’m sure there was only 4 inches between us and a parked car. Both roads and sidewalks are made of small flat pieces of stones. Some are arranged in a pattern like a mosaic. They call it Portuguese pavement. It comes in small squares, large squares, white squares, tan and black squares. Many of the roads are built of this in addition to sidewalks. I don’t know how it continues to stand up to all the traffic. Some of it was built as long ago as 1498.

The traffic here is bad as any I’ve ever seen. Too many cars and roads too narrow; but I only heard one person honk the whole time and nobody made rude gestures to each other.

The hotel was booked for the 2nd and 3rd nights, so I had to haul my luggage with me to the Lisbon Aquarium. Opened in 1998 for the World Trade Fair Expo; the aquarium was wonderfully done. Focusing on ocean conservation and sustainability, the “Oceanário de Lisboa eternalised the centuries-old bond between Lisbon and the ocean.”

Fortunately, they had lockers onsite for storage. I walked at least 2 miles the first day. Half of that was hauling my luggage over cobblestone sidewalks. The other mile was inside the aquarium. Picture an enormous fish tank with a ramp, circling it from bottom to top. The incline was so subtle that it felt like I was walking level the whole time. I kept seeing fish, sharks and rays from different angles as they swam. There were numerous nicks and crannies in every section of the aquarium.

Outstanding.

A tramway was built next to it and I enjoyed riding the tram while my feet rested at the end of the day. While riding the tram it was raining pretty hard. On the return trip I saw a full 180° rainbow of the water. Stunning.

After that much walking, I decided I deserved an Uber to my next hotel. The driver did not speak English. I do not speak Portuguese, but we both spoke some Spanish. This is my first experience of communicating with someone in a language that was secondary for both of us.

As we drove, I was excited to see the old aqueduct. I knew I wouldn’t have time to visit it as a tourist. It was great to see it as we drove by.

I checked into the only other Hilton hotel that existed in Lisbon, again using points. This hotel was a new experience for me. It was black. Everywhere. When I exited the elevator, I saw a hallway out of the movie, the Matrix. Two nights here. Yikes. I better see if they have any of that Portuguese gin.

November 2 Lisbon-Lisboa

I guess I was worn out from yesterday. I slipped back into my old time zone and didn’t wake up until afternoon. I had just enough time before dark to take the city bus to the pasteleria, the local pastry shop. I discovered this delight, an amazing egg custard tart with a sprinkling of cinnamon, yesterday by accident. The pastel de nata is the most famous of Portugal’s pastries, a specialty of the belém district of Lisbon. Yum, yum, yum.

Walking to the bus stop I enjoyed seeing many of the buildings clothed entirely in Portuguese tile.

As I started to get the hang of the language a little bit, I realize that Lisboa actually sounds like Lisbon when said correctly in Portuguese. That solves the mystery of why they call themselves Lisboa on the maps and signs.

packing tips

I haven’t traveled a lot, but I’ve traveled enough to know that it seems like I always have too much stuff, and I take stuff I don’t need and haul that crap around the whole trip. Well, I discovered a few things this trip that are working out pretty well so I thought I would share.

1. A silly little app called PackPoint. You can customize the paid version, which is like three dollars or something. It seems like I reinvent the wheel every time I try to pack for something. That should make it much more simple and keep me from over packing.

2. Packing cubes! Everybody always talks about packing cubes and I’ve had them for a while but I haven’t been using them right. I found one packing cube that fits in one side of my smallish suitcase which is what I’m gonna use from now on. I’m tired of hauling around a big bag. The only thing I’m putting in this packing cube are clothes. As you can see in one of the pictures, I’m rolling everything. I have four pairs of pants, three shirts and enough socks for a week in this one packing cube. All I have to do is pull the packing cube out of the suitcase and set it on the shelf or in the closet and I’m good to go. I’m one of those people who never get around to hanging things up or putting them in drawers so this way they stay organized in the cube and I never have to hang them up or re-fold them for a drawer.

3. An electronics/cord carrier. I’ve always got cords floating around and can’t find what I’m looking for. I found this little thing and it keeps everything in one place. It’s about 10 x 12“ and it’s very flat. It’s a bright color so it’s easy to find if I’m looking for it in my pack while I’m in the plane and it zips up so I never lose anything. I’ve got camera memory cards in there as well as cords.

4. Everything here requires a European electric plug-in. I didn’t really need this until this trip but I found an international electronic plug that I really like. It hasn’t shorted out any of my stuff. It’s a neat little cube that’s smaller around than a bag of tea and about an inch and a half thick. On the bottom, it has four USB ports. On one side, you can see all these weird options for what you would plug into it. In our case it would just be the US plug. On the opposite side you have three options-UK, Euro and Australian that you can extend with a little lever and then retract when you’re done with it. I have used it in the airplane, on the train and all the places I’ve stayed so far. It’s worked like a gem.

Those are Karen’s travel tips for today.

November 3

Lisboa – Faro – Portimao by train

I have to admit to some anxiety while trying to sleep last night. I knew I wanted to take the train from Lisbon to Faro, but I didn’t know where the train station was or how to take the train. I also had set up an Airbnb in Faro at the last minute that I thought would be perfect. It turned out that it was 2 hours away from Faro in a town called Portimao.

This trip would’ve been very difficult without a cell phone and the technology that’s available. I would not have been able to make last minute decisions like this without it – everything from Airbnb, Uber, bus and train tickets. There’s some uncertainty with it, but there’s also a whole lot of freedom traveling this way.

So this morning I hired an Uber to take me to the train station. It cost about €10 Euros. That solved the problem of where the train was, since he knew where to go. The train station was immense and included eight trains and all of the city buses. I was able to look up the train and buy a ticket on my phone while in the station. I self soothed my anxiety with what is becoming my new morning routine. I’m mimicking the Portuguese with daily espresso and pasteis de nata. OMG. I’m moving here just for those.

I found my train just in time and realized I had to step up a foot and a half after crossing 10 inches of open space to enter the train. No one offered to help me. At first I thought they were being rude. Now I think they’re being respectful by not intruding unless they are asked.

The train horn went off and with a few people standing behind me, and the doors getting ready to close, I quickly threw my backpack into the train, then my cane, then my suitcase and my coat; grabbed the handle and made the jump.

The train ride was about three hours. When I looked outside, I saw increasing farmland as we got out of the city of Lisbon. The natural areas looked a lot like Sonoma County with rolling hills and oak trees? With a little investigating, I found out they really are oak trees. The difference is they are cork oaks.

It turns out the cork oak is a national heritage of Portugal. It has been legally protected since the Middle Ages, when cutting it down was prohibited. The cork oak was made the National Tree of Portugal in December 2011.

The bark of the cork trees is the part which is harvested to make bottle corks and other things. Cork trees are unique in that stripping them of this bark doesn’t kill the tree. The trees are harvested every 9 years, as it takes this long for the bark to reach the thickness needed to make corks. You learn something new every day!

I always find train time goes by so fast. The train is mesmerizing, and I often fall asleep. Before I knew it the train had arrived at Faro. I got all my stuff together and threw it off the train; then made another successful jump across the gap between train and ramp. After the train left to go back to Lisbon, I realized I had left my favorite jacket (yes, Melissa that nice off-white barn coat you like too) on the train. Rats.

Oh well, I’m gonna continue on and see if I can get a series of trains to bring it to me over the next three days while I’m staying at Portimao. Faro and Portimão are both located in the Algarve region of Portugal. If you’ve heard of this, it’s a region that for many years has been touted as a wonderful place to retire or buy investment property. Once upon a time prices were low. Many US ex-pats live there today. I found it to be barely less expensive than Sonoma County regarding real estate now. I guess I’m late to the party. On the other hand, I could still find incredible espresso for €.70 which is about $1. That espresso would be $5 at home.

I walked around Faro for a bit while waiting for the train to Portimao and took pictures of the amazing doors everywhere and more of that awesome Portuguese tile. One house was completely covered in tile instead of paint.

I have enjoyed having slightly longer hair since I left law-enforcement. But those of you who know me know that it drives me crazy when it’s in my face. It didn’t matter which direction I faced, the wind in Faro was always blowing from my back, which meant that I couldn’t see anything because my hair was in my face. I tested this by turning 180° and it was still blowing from my back!

I had another hour to kill before my next train, so I pushed my hair out of my face and entertained myself by taking a photo of my green luggage with green tags in front of green tile on the tan cobblestones. Then I found a little shop where I could sit with more espresso and cream tarts. I’m going to be soooo fat but I’m on vacation so the calories don’t count.

The next train arrived and I did my acrobatic act getting on once again. After a couple of hours on the train we arrived at Portimao. I was a little worried because it was starting to get dark and I had a half a mile to walk to my Airbnb.

I was pleasantly surprise by a darling town! All these little apartments are shoved together side-by-side with tiny alleyways in between them. It felt like a miniature sized San Francisco. Shops seemed to be everywhere mixed in with the living areas. Being Saturday evening, people were hanging out under canopies between the shops, drinking coffee or beer. Nobody looked at me funny for dragging a suitcase behind me on the cobblestones. They must see that all the time since it’s gotten so touristy. After a couple of sketchy alleyways, I made it to my location. It’s perfect. A tiny little flat with just the basics.

I was hungry by now, but I had no idea where to go for food and it was dark. Looking through some of the literature in the apartment. I found an app called Glovo. I ordered some pizza and groceries through the app and sure enough 20 minutes later somebody pulled up on a little scooter with a bag on their back containing my food.

It’s funny, at home I don’t use the bus or train system or have other people bring my food to me. It sure is an effective system though.

I had some pizza and drank some wine and thought I’d watch a little TV. I couldn’t get past the language barrier on TV so I watched the cartoon, Ice Age, where the language didn’t matter.

November 4 Portimão, Portugal

I did a little shopping in town and found an entire shelf in a grocery store full of different kinds of sardines. Sardines are big here and they grill them fresh from the sea. Even so, the shelf surprised me.

They have the most interesting door/window system here. You have the option of opening just the top of the door so it’s like a window, or opening it like a regular door.

I’m inside the Algarve apartment, but I feel like I’m actively participating in the community. I’m only about 6 feet away from the apartment across the alleyway and I can hear everything that’s happening there. In fact, I can hear things that are happening all over town. Going outside to explore, I planned to walk down the hill toward the sounds of seagulls, hoping to find a waterfront. I opened the front door and right across from me I saw two black cats with green eyes sitting on the windowsill of an open window an arms length away eyeing me. A dog sat in the top of a tower, looking down at me through another open window.

November 5 Portimão, Portugal

I walked through the maze of streets to the waterfront and found a bustling outdoor café. It was Sunday and everything else was dead, but people were seated at the open air cafe drinking coffee, talking and smoking. As soon as I realized this little café, served the strong espresso that every other little hole in the wall seems to have, along with the custard tarts, I sat down. The person serving me was very hesitant trying to communicate with me. I switched from English to Spanish, and she visibly relaxed. Neither one of us could speak great Spanish, but we were able to communicate the basics.

Sitting at the waterfront felt very much like being at the waterfront in San Diego. Things looked similar with boats in the water, the sun shining, and the seagulls out. The weather felt similar too, but the sounds were different. I was surrounded by conversations in multiple languages.

Then I heard a machine gun go off – Rat tat tat… high above me. I looked up and saw an enormous white stork sitting next to an enormous nest high in a tree. The stork was making those sounds. I don’t think THAT happens in San Diego.

November 7 Portimao to Tunes to Lisbon to Porto to the River Boat via Train

This was a long, but ultimately exciting day. It started early and ended late. My goal was to go from the extreme South of the country North to Porto, the second largest city in Portugal. I called an Uber early in the morning to go to the train station with all my luggage. I’ve had zero problems with Uber here in Portugal. In fact, I’ve had zero problems with anyone here in Portugal.

I caught a little regional train in Portimao that goes east and west, parallel to the southern coast and connects all of the small towns along the coastline to each other. At Faro in the middle of the bunch, you can transfer to a countrywide train that goes north to Lisbon. I was traveling as far as Tunes, a little triangular cut off, so I didn’t have to go all the way to Faro to catch the main train north. When the train stopped in Tunes, half of us jumped off and immediately jumped on the other train that was waiting on the other side of the tracks to go north to Lisbon.

There is no fooling around with train travel. They are almost always on time to the minute and if you’re not on the train, they go without you. Sometimes you just have to follow the group like one of the sheep, but with fingers crossed, and then once you’re on the train and settled in, check your cell phone map to make sure you’re going in the right direction and you’re in the right place. They don’t check your ticket until after you sit down and you started moving. You could be going completely the wrong way without knowing it until the conductor comes and looks at your ticket. I’m not sure what happens next if that occurs!

The next few hours were spent looking out the window at the changing landscape until arriving at Lisbon.

In Lisbon, I experienced the same rush from one train to another because we were a few minutes behind our scheduled time. My third and final train today was a high speed train from Lisbon to Porto. It didn’t stop very often and it got pretty fast sometimes, but mostly it shifted side to side constantly. I don’t get motion sickness but if I did, this would’ve been ugly. Fortunately, no one threw up on my shoes.

Between Lisbon and Porto, there were more farms. There are a few with livestock, but many were growing oranges and olives.

Upon arriving at Porto, I followed the hoard out to the front of the train station building. What a beautiful building.

At this point I had absolutely no idea where my boat was or how I was getting there. That created some anxiety, but I noticed that if I just kind of went with the flow, things usually worked out.

I realized everyone was calling for Ubers or whatever other options they had as we exited the train station, so I did the same. It was starting to get dark and I knew I needed to get to that river boat fairly quickly but also knew that Porto had a show room for some notable Portuguese hand painted tile I had been seeing everywhere. I really wanted to see that show room.

My Uber driver couldn’t find me at first. It’s such a funny feeling watching them coming for you, knowing it’s them, then watching them drive past you and continue on. We got it straightened out and he agreed to take me to the tile place. I convinced him to wait for 10 minutes and he agreed. He said he was happy to take me to where we thought the boat might be even though it was probably 30 minutes away upriver.

My friend Jennifer and I have worked with broken pieces of Portuguese tile at home making mosaics. It feel like we were working with rare valuables then, but to see where these tiles came from originally and to know who painted them was very special. I scrambled around this tiny store for 10 minutes trying to decide what to buy. I could’ve been there for an hour or longer and I would’ve been happy.

I think I’m beginning to get the physical layout of the country figured out. On the south coastline we have the Algarve region, which is on the coast, touristy, warmer and sunnier and includes Portimao.

Moving north toward Lisbon, there are many open areas and orchards of olive and orange trees. Lisbon is the biggest city in Portugal. The weather is slightly cooler and rainier there than it is in the Algarve. Moving north toward Porto, the oldest and most authentic Portuguese city according to some of those I talked to, the weather is colder and wetter yet. As you go inland (east) from Porto, you follow the Duoro river which is known for its port wine production. Eventually you hit Spain.

The little map below is pretty much where I’ve been on this trip. I started in Lisbon then went south to Algarve, then up to Porto and then took a boat east towards Spain and back to Porto. I’ll be flying home from Porto. I didn’t go to Evora. No time.

November 8 First day on the River Douro somewhere east of Porto

I was the last person to arrive on the boat last night. I had very low expectations based on my experience with ocean cruises. I arrived at the boat in the evening which was docked alongside the river. There was no waiting line. I wasn’t sure if I even had tickets or not, but they found me on a list and showed me to my room. Easy Peezy.

They say there’s 180 people on this ship, which makes it pretty small from a tourism standpoint. The Douro river is really quite beautiful. It’s calm and just wide enough for our ship. Apparently we’re going to go through five locks as we head East, up-river towards Spain. We’ll make it to Salamanca, Spain and then turn around and come back through five locks again. It’s a little bit late in the year to be doing a river cruise but I got the last room in the last boat for this season, so I feel pretty fortunate. I was pleasantly surprised to find out my room was a good size and had a decent sized window above waterline.

The company running this deal is called Gate One. I just kind of tripped over it at the last minute before I left for Portugal. I had to pay extra because I was a single, but that was expected.

The ship is nice but it’s a typical tourist deal and there are too many people who all talk too much. The food is OK but I’ve gotten so spoiled on the local espresso that the ship espresso is definitely a notch down. I’m gonna be dreaming about those expressos and egg tarts for the rest of my life.

As we go up river, it is narrowing substantially. I don’t think we’re more than 50 feet from each side of the bank. Later, I’ll find out that the gap will become even more narrow.

We just had a mini Portuguese lesson on the boat. I was supposed to study Portuguese before I came, but I was very lazy. I have discovered some interesting things over the week, though. Portuguese language has spelling similar to Spanish in many ways. I can often read Portuguese, but the sounds are very different. There’s a lot of guttural, nasal and dipthong sounds that are not used in Spanish. I also just found out that, even though Spanish is a good language to have in common for speaking to each other, the Spanish have tried to conquer Portugal so many times, the Portuguese don’t think all that highly of Spain as a result. Additionally Portugal it’s been around for about 900 years. Spain is a much newer country. The Portuguese consider them to be babies.

I sat with some very nice people from China at dinner tonight. They haven’t been anywhere in Portugal except the boat yet. Talking to them made me realize how happy I am that I spent time on the train and the bus with the locals before I got here. Doing the tourist stuff just makes it impossible to see what’s really going on. At least for me it does. Some of it was difficult, but I’m super happy that I spent my first week traveling with the locals.

November 9

Somewhere close to the Spanish border

One of my favorite things about being on a ship, is that I don’t have to make my own bed!

We are deep in the port wine region of Portugal. I could easily be looking out the window at the hills of Sonoma county – grapes and olives. The one difference I see is there are many orange trees next to the olives and grapes. I think this is to help stabilize the terraces. They are pretty steep – often 45°.

My understanding is that none of these grapes are irrigated. The history of port has something to do with the English wanting wine and importing it from Portugal. The wine kept going bad before it reached England. To stop the fermentation process the Portuguese added brandy. This developed a drink called port that could be stored indefinitely.

Much like the Parmesan region in France where real Parmesan cheese can only come from that specific area, real port can only come from the Douro river valley. We make some port in California, but it’s California port, not real port according to one of our guides.

We are getting close to the border with Spain. There are old castles dating back to the 13th century along the border to protect Portugal from invasion by Spain. We visited one of those today. I bought some shoes at the tourist shop there.

I think I told you about the cork oak trees in an earlier missive. Well today I got to see some of the things that can be done with cork. The bark comes off in thick sheets. The tree is left with a red trunk and the last digit of the year the cork was harvested is painted on the tree. For instance, if the cork bark was removed from the tree this year, a three would be painted on the tree trunk. No one would harvest for the cork bark for nine or 10 years. No harm comes to the tree and these trees are protected by law from being cut down.

Somehow they take cork bark that’s 2 inches thick and mill it down to a very fine supple material that feels like leather. From there, they make all kinds of things like purses, hats and shoes. The cork shoes I bought are surprisingly warm and comfortable. They’re supposed to be water repellent and quite sturdy.

The captain of the ship is quite impressive. We have had to go through five locks up river from Porto to Spain, and the same five locks down river coming back. When the lock is especially narrow, I often thought there’s no way we’re gonna fit in there. Sometimes there was only 6 inches of space between the side of the boat and the wall.

I stood behind a tall guy in case he hit his head on the road as we went under it so I would know to duck. I wasn’t sure if we were going to make it under that overhang.

November 10 – Spain

We docked in Spain last night. We will be here for just a minute and then will be heading back toward our point of origin in Porto, Portugal. We’ve come through five locks to get here and risen 400 feet above sea level where we started.

The Douro river is beautiful. Miguel Torga, one of the most important writers of 20th century Portuguese literature wrote: “The Douro Valley is a geological poem.” I like that. I think the river is just big enough for the ship and just small enough to be interesting.

Today is a lazy day for me. There are only a handful of us on the boat in addition to the crew. Most of the people went to Salamanca, Spain by bus to poke around. I’m worn out from yesterday and I didn’t like the sound of a two hour bus ride with a bunch of people to get there and then another two hours back. I’ll come back to Spain someday and take a look on my own.

One of the habits the people in Spain have is a Siesta between 2 and 4 PM. They actually close the stores and everything. I think it’s a great idea. As the day has gone on I’ve decided Spain sucks otherwise. We parked next to another ship and tied up to it tandem style.That means I had another bedroom window looking into mine at a distance of 6 inches all day and into the night. In addition, the weather has been a dull, gray, still day without change. As the day continued, I found I was getting depressed.

Ship routines make it too easy to eat and drink too much too close to bedtime which causes me to go to bed feeling lousy. I started drinking a little more each night until I decided to stop because it was becoming a bad habit again. Then everybody’s little noises and bumps through the paper thin cabin walls pissed me off because I was sober and I couldn’t sleep. So I went back to drinking again. I’ll fix that when I get home.

I reviewed my journal and realized I’ve only been on this boat for four days! It feels like it’s been significantly longer. Probably because the weather has been so dark. One problem is the top deck has really been unavailable most of the time due to the weather. It’s about two thirds of the ship space that if available, could separate people a little bit more.

So, the moral of the story is, a traveler should know thyself. Four days is apparently my maximum for cruise travel; even for river cruises if I want to avoid ripping people’s heads off and dropping them (the heads) overboard.

November 11 – Moving downriver away from Spain and back toward Portugal.

I woke up this morning to a clear window and the ability to view the water again. We wandered our way downriver to the tiny town of Pinhão where we had planned to offload half our passengers onto buses for an optional tour. The rest of us would continue downriver on the boat. We would all meetup together at the town of Peso de Régua that night.

However, someone sunk a barge in the river downriver from us so we got stuck in Pinhão until the barge cleared. I was irritated at first. Not having any control is hard for me. Huge surprise for everyone I’m sure.

Then I took a nap and woke up feeling better and decided to take a walk into town. One of my first stops was the local shop for some port on the terrace.

After that, I felt good enough to keep walking. If you look closely at some of the terraces, you can see stone stairs between some of them.

And where we would use olive trees like decorative borders, they seem to use them mixed in with the grapes to stabilize the hill. A lot of these are grapes are planted in slopes of 45°. I took some nice pictures while I was in town, but ended up walking until it was almost dark and then I could barely move. lol.

November 12 – sailing down river to Porto

November 13 – docked to disembark

I leave today. It’s 3:30AM. Of course, for all of you. It’s 8:30PM last night. So I’ll see you later this evening. Crazy. I hope you enjoyed the trip!