We flew from Lisbon to Seville, Spain late at night on a plane that had to have been built by Howard Hughes. It had two propellors and I was surprised when it actually lifted off the ground! However, we arrived safely and awoke the next morning ready to explore Seville. These four days of the trip were a last minute addition so I had not spent a year planning and investigating. We picked up the rental car and headed for the historic area to visit the one “must see” place in Seville which was called Plaza de Espana. It was 95 degrees at 11am so we were both thinking we would quickly knock the plaza out and head out of town. Until we turned the corner and saw the plaza. I do not lightly say that a place is a “must see” but I am telling you…your life will be a little sadder and grayer if you do not see the Plaza de Espana in Seville. I cannot describe its’ grandeur so I hope the pictures do it justice. For any Star Wars fans, the plaza was the set for the city of Naboo in Episode 2. We wandered about the square for at least an hour and did not even notice the heat of the day. It was a great start to Spain! We then began our drive toward Granada which had an ancient walled city that was another “must see”. As we drove along, both of us were surprised at the landscape of southern Spain. It was much more arid than I had pictured and it reminded us of the central valley in California. There were crops spread out as far as my eyes could see. We arrived in Granada and after several frustrating attempts to purchase our tickets for Alhambra online, we gave up and had the concierge handle it for us. He even went so far as to use his own credit card to purchase our tickets since ours was not processing. A very kind and trusting young fellow! We then went on a food hunt. It was once again Sunday and everything was closed. A few restaurants were opening at 8pm but we were exhausted so we grabbed a quick bite in the hotel bar and went to bed. The next morning we walked up the hill to Alhambra. When we arrived, they checked our tickets and our passports. When we were waiting in the line to enter the main castle, they checked our tickets and passports. We walked twenty feet to the castle door and they checked our tickets and our passports. When we left Alhambra, we got to the exit and ….yep….they checked our tickets and our passports. We did not even go through Passport Control to enter the country of Spain but to see Alhambra we had 5 checks! We both voted that Alhambra paled in comparison to other things we have seen on our travels so it was not a “must see” in our book. On the next day of unplanned week, we headed to a hotel I had booked near Cartagena. When we arrived, Bill said, “Well this is a bit in the middle of nowhere. What was it we were planning on seeing here?” I stared at him and responded, “I have no idea! I thought you knew!” After a good laugh, we delightfully discovered the small town of Aleda which had a tower on a hill and one restaurant in town that was kind of like the Mel’s diner of Aleda. The night was one of those wonderful times when you had no expectations and made a forever memory. We also discovered that our hotel had a chapel attached to it and it was breathtaking! Wonders everywhere. We also passed by some vineyards that had bunches of grapes that were the size of basketballs. I had never seen bunches so large! The next night was a stopover in Valencia which had a super modern area with futuristic architecture. We went after dark so I could see it all lit and it was beautiful. The other area of Valencia was the exact opposite. Full of old cathedrals and buildings. We had a good day wandering through the historic district. As we made our way north, the scenery began to look much like northern California with green forests and mountains. We spent the next night in a small beach town which reminded us of Myrtle Beach thirty years ago. We had paella on the beach which was lovely but we still feel that our best paella is yet to come! We pulled into Barcelona this morning and the La Sagrada Familia greeted us around the first turn. We look forward to our days ahead! Ratings for Southern Spain Overall: 7.5 Points of interest: 7 Ease of communication: 8 (because we speak a little Spanish!) Ease of transportation: 8 (because we had a car) Friendly people: 7.5 Food: 6 (really struggling with Sundays and 8pm openings for dinner) Cost of living: 10 Weather: 9 (only a few drizzles!) Bill’s favorite thing: Plaza de Espana and Aledo Sally’s favorite thing: Plaza de Espana and Aledo
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Lisbon and Sintra: From Pinhao, we jumped on the train and headed south. We expected to have some lovely views of the coast on the way but the only views we had were usually scrubby trees by the train tracks. Minus the view, the train ride was easy and we made it to Lisbon without issue. After three days in Lisbon, I can only use one word to describe it…confusing. In most cities, we arrive and we figure out the public transportation system with a quick look at the train and/or bus map. Not so in Lisbon. Lisbon has a metro, bus, tram (2 different kinds), taxis and Uber (our lifesaver!). The maps make no sense and the trains don’t seem to go anywhere useful for a tourist. We asked one of the Uber drivers about the public transportation and he said, “Oh, you will never figure it out. We can’t even figure it out most of the time. “ At least that made us feel a little better! The first day we started out in an amazing cemetery. The proprietor would not let me take pictures but I snuck a few quick shots with my phone. They do not do it justice. Bill even went so far as to say it was better than the all tile cemetery we had seen in Guadeloupe! After the cemetery, we walked over to the Museum of Tile. I am sure you are thinking, ‘how interesting can tile be?’ because that is what Bill and I both thought as well. The answer is….tile is AMAZING! The museum was housed in an old abbey which was stunning. Those nuns must have been a bored group of ladies because there was tile on every surface. We passed by a room where several craftsman were working on refurbishing tiles and there were thousands upon thousands of boxes of tiles lined up in the room. It must take a great amount of patience to do their job. We then grabbed a taxi and asked him to take us to the Lisbon Cathedral. Unfortunately, there were at least three cruise ships in port and tourists were everywhere. We realize that we are also tourists but we really dislike tourists! I am voting that there be a worldwide referendum that states, “If you are going to take selfies or a picture of your family with your phone, you have exactly to the count of three to take the picture. You also only get one shot to get it right!” I even got to where I would stop, wait, then start counting to give them the hint! There was a 10 year old who was in charge of taking his family picture and when I started counting, he hit the button and turned and smiled at me. One child educated, millions more to go until the great conversion takes hold! Let’s face it…all of us survived the family picture in front of the Washington Monument that took two weeks to develop and then no one in the picture except the 4 year old had a head….No harm done! Due to all the people, our cab driver just dropped us off in the middle of the melee and we were nowhere close to the cathedral. A lot of people were in line for something so I jumped in line figuring it must be something good to do. Luckily, it was! We bought tickets and went to St. George’’s castle which were ruins of a castle started by the Moors and finished by the Portugeuse. We then made our way downhill toward the water and saw some stunning architecture and finally located the Lisbon Cathedral. The coolest cathedral we saw was one that had been destroyed in the 1755 earthquake. It had been turned into an archeological museum which was very unique. After a crushing day, we hobbled back to the hotel and gave our feet a rest. The next day, we slept in a bit and then made our way to the part of the city called Belem. This area had several cool monuments and huge tower. We also visited the Jeronimo Monastery but after the brilliance of the Abbey, it was a little lackluster. Our final tour in Lisbon was an old power plant that had been closed down in the 1980s. It was a beautiful building and the mechanics of it all were amazing. The next day we jumped in our trusty Uber and headed out to Sintra. Sintra was the playground of the rich and famous back in the day and there were castles on every hill. We went to the Palace of Sintra, Pena Palace, Palace of Monserrat and Regulaira. All the castles were unique but we both loved Regulaira the best because it kind of felt like Disneyland and would have been a great place to grow up. Sintra was also uphill in every direction so we are sore all over! We made it to Spain late last night via a prop plane that I swear Howard Hughes built so I am glad to have landed in one piece! Looking forward to our time in Spain for a week! Ratings for Southern Portugal (Lisbon and Sintra) Overall: 6 Points of interest: 7.5 Ease of communication: 9 Ease of transportation: 3 (Thank goodness for Uber!) Friendly people: 7 Food: 9 Cost of living: 9 Weather: 10 (however, hilariously….we left the Caribbean to escape hurricanes and Portugal is expecting one tomorrow!) Bill’s favorite thing: The Tile Museum and the Power Plant Sally’s favorite thing: The Tile Museum Portugal: Porto and Pinhao. We had an easy flight from London to the Portugal city of Porto. Porto is located in the northern region of Portugal. It is a thriving modern city with a beautiful historic district located on the Douro River. We arrived at our hotel which was located right in the heart of the historic district which was perfect for exploring. All the sights were within walking distance. The only issue was that all of Porto was uphill. Or up stairs. Including our room which was on the fourth floor with no elevator so we got our workout! Upon arrival, we were starving and the hotel manager directed us down to a restaurant on the waterfront. We ordered roasted veal and when it arrived, it was a bit of heaven. By far the best meal we have had so far. After a good night’s sleep, we headed toward a bookstore I wanted to see that was advertised as the “most beautiful bookstore in the world”. I tend to geek out on bookstores so I was looking forward to a quiet visit. Not to be. Evidently, the bookstore is one of the top sights to see in Porto and people were everywhere. After attempting to figure out their online ticket ordering without success, which line we were supposed to wait in with no success and what the overall process was supposed to be, we gave up. We went for gelato instead so we will just have to live knowing that we will never see the most beautiful bookstore in the world! We spent the day exploring cathedrals, castles and amazing architecture. I apologize that the pictures won’t be labeled well but after awhile, all the buildings blend together and I can’t recall their names! After exploring Porto, we hopped on a train and headed out to the Douro Valley which is the region of the world where port wine is made. I generally do not like wine but quickly discovered that I do like port. In the small town of Pinhao, there were at least 30 wineries so we thought we would have an easy time getting on a tour. Not so. After several attempts to schedule online, we decided to walk to one of the wineries and had luck getting an afternoon tour and tasting. We learned all about how this particular winery made their wines and ports. They were a small winery and they still stomped the grapes! They had 10 men that would show up at harvest time and stomp the grapes for 4 HOURS nonstop! On the second day, they would stomp for 3 hours and then 2 hours on the last day. The guide said that their feet would be a lovely shade of red for months after the harvest stomping! We also did another tasting in town and we preferred those ports to the ones at the winery. Bill decided it was probably because of the stinky feet residue! We have had a difficult time finding “real” food in Pinhao. Since the town runs on port, most of the restaurants serve meat and cheese boards instead of a complete meal. We love meat and cheese boards but after having them for the past two days, we are ready for a real meal! We leave tomorrow morning for Lisbon via a 6 hour train ride so we are looking forward to a quiet day with some beautiful scenery. Ratings for Northern Portugal Overall: 7.5 Points of interest: 6 Ease of communication: 9 Ease of transportation: 8 Friendly people: 8 Food: 7 (a little lower due to difficult to find full meals outside of Porto) Cost of living: 8 Weather: 9 (finally had a day of showers!) Bill’s favorite thing: Bishop House/ Porto Cathedral Sally’s favorite thing: Architecture and beautiful tiles So, bill here again, with a few more random thoughts.. First up, something very few people we know will or may ever experience. Visual pollution.. Spending most of our time in the islands, where signs are just not in use.. At least govt issued streets signs etc.. when we return to the states, or in this case london, there is a sign for something every 50 feet.. After a while it really becomes quite a distraction. The us is bad about it, and london/england is the us on steroids.. Its just messy.. Its as if no one can find his ass with out a govt sign.. Next up: more road stuff: cobblestones, england purports to have lots of them, plymouth even touts itself as having the greatest concentration of them in england, well, neither of those has shit on porto portugal.. Every street and sidewalk in the historic zone is cobbled.. With so many of them, someone finally got smart, and they are all approx 4” cubes of granite.. Most of the streets are straightforward and lots of curves and designs on the sidewalks.. But lots, and i mean millions upon millions of them, everywhere. Perhaps you can tell from some of sallys pics.. This does make repairs fairly easy,, just remove the bad ones and replace with new ones.. And last today. A tirade against a man and his ideology…Karl Marx is buried in londons highgate cemetery. He was in a smaller grave, but then they moved him and gave him the largest ‘tombstone’ on the eastern side of the cemetery..sally has posted a pic.. It absolutely disgusts me that anyone would celebrate this assholes life.. From everything i have read, he was a useless rotten human being and father.. Rarely holding a steady job and interacting with his family.. The marxist philosophy is directly and indirectly responsible for millions of deaths in the 20th century, see, hitler, stalin, mao, and pol pot to name a few, its also responsible for impoverishing hundreds of millions more.. And is the seed that sprouted the evil -isms that caused this.. Sad to see that his history is celebrated at all and glorified by many these days, even here in the states.. He should be buried under a rock in some nondescript place, rotting in the dustbin of history instead of looked up to at all. All for now,.. We have been walking in the footprints of history this week. We began our trip to the “countryside” (not quite as country as it was 30 years ago when I was here!) with a night in Portsmouth. Portsmouth is a port town and there were thousands of sailboats in marinas and on moorings. I was glad we did not have Galt there or else we would have never found him again! In Portsmouth, we went to see two very impressive ships at the Maritime Museum. The first was the Mary Rose. The Mary Rose was the first ship that King Henry VIII had commissioned for his navy when he took the throne at age 18. The Mary Rose sank in 1545. A group of divers located her in the 1970s and she was raised from the bottom of the ocean over the next decade. It was amazing how well preserved the items were! The second ship completed a journey for us and Capt. Nelson. . As you may recall, we visited Nelson’s Dockyard in Antigua and learned about the early years of Capt. Horatio Nelson and his ship the Victory. Well, this trip, we got to go onboard the Victory. They were refurbishing it so it was covered in scaffolding but it was a still an amazing site. The next morning we headed out for my bucket list item, The Jamaica Inn. The Inn is famous for its’ history of smuggling on the Cornwall coast. Not only did they smuggle, the smugglers would lure the ships into the rocks on purpose to steal their wares. Quite the ugly lot! The Inn was featured in a novel by Daphne du Maurier called “The Jamaica Inn” and ever since I read it, I knew I had to visit. We splurged for the night and stayed in the Daphne du Maurier suite which not only had a clawfoot tub in the middle of the room but it had a seven foot wide bed! I thoroughly enjoyed myself while soaking in the tub and sipping champagne. Bill was very sweet to be my butler all night by refilling my glass. The next morning we went through the Daphne du Maurier museum onsite before heading out to the coast. At the coast, we visited the Geevor Tin Mine. From the 17th to the 19th century, England was the primary source for tin. The mine closed in the 1980s when the mine was forced to shut down due to low tin prices. Bill was a great tour guide and explained all the machinery so now I can make rum and mine tin as well! After the mine, we made a quick stop by the Pendeen Lighthouse and then made a long, tedious, traffic-filled drive over to Plymouth. It is my opinion that England must be the RV capital of the world. I counted 15 RVs in less than 3 minutes so you imagine the jam. Plymouth was our favorite town that we visited. It was also a port town and had hundreds of boats. There was a seaside promenade filled with cafes and restaurants. After the stressful drive, we enjoyed tapas for dinner by the sea on a beautiful evening. In the morning, we went on a tour at the Plymouth Gin Distillery which had been around for hundreds of years. During WWII, Plymouth was heavily bombed and damaged. The navy sent the following message to their ships in the area, “Plymouth heavily damaged. The gin distillery still stands.” The distillery even had a special “navy gin” which was 57% alcohol so that it could be stored next to the gun powder on the ships. I guess the lesson would be….if you want to be saved by the Navy, run to the distillery! After our tour, we headed toward Bristol where we would stay the night before driving back into London to catch our afternoon flight. Bill routed us through the Dartmoor National Park which was beautiful! I had been waiting and waiting for unspoiled moors and we finally found them. While the Jamaica Inn was technically in the moors, much of the land around the inn had been claimed for farmland. In Dartmoor, the moors were exactly as I had pictured them when reading Wuthering Heights, Secret Garden, Jane Eyre and dozens more of the British classics. I took a few minutes to wander along a path and felt like I had stepped into another time. Another bucket list item completed. We fly out tomorrow to Portugal! We will be visiting Porto, Pinhao, Lisbon and Sintra. More trains and planes and sights to see! Ratings for the English “countryside” Overall: 7.5 Points of interest: 8.5 Ease of communication: 10 Ease of transportation: 5 Friendly people: 7 Food: 6 Cost of living: 7 Weather: 10 for additional miracle days!! Bill’s favorite thing: Plymouth Sally’s favorite thing: The Jamaica Inn and the Moors (Please excuse Bill’s all lowercase writing….my head is going to pop but I agreed not to touch it! Lol!) Hey all, This is bill, i am going to hijack the blog for a few minutes, to give my perspective on oslo/norway, london and the sw moors area of england.. first off is olso/norway. Norway is a geographically large country with a small population (about 5.5 M) and about 20% (1M )live in and around oslo.. That means that there are about 15 MSA’s (metropolitan statistical areas) in the us larger than norway. This will be important shortly. Oslo is a very clean, very efficient city, with lots of public transport at reasonable (about $3.50) for a one on/off. The trams and buses went every where, and where ever they didnt people mostly walked, very few cars in the city center.. Lots of bike, scooters, etc, (look at sallys pics) and lots of them for rent. It is almost a very homogenous group.. We saw a few asians, a few muslims, and 15 black people in 3 days. This leads to a ‘nice little collectivist enclave’ to quote a bartender.. The city is also homogenous.. Lots of low and mid rise buildings housing apts and storefronts.. The oldest around 1850s and moving forward.. Lots of building going on as well. So our little collectivist society taxes the holy crap out of things it doesnt like.. A beer in a restaurant was about $10, a pack of smokes $20, even beer in a store was about $3-$4 each. Even in bulk, they also tax sugar and anything they dont like..probably cars too.. Food was expensive, even fast food, BK double cheeseburger meal started about $10. For people that know me personally, you will be shocked that this method does work, i did not buy a beer in a restaurant while we were there.. So if you want democratic socialism feel free to move to norway.. Btw in the middle of winter, they get about 2 hours of gloaming a day ( thats partial sun) and we didnt see many stand alone houses. Almost all were attached, especially in the city center, or mid rise apts, so no yard for you.. Although there was a decent amount of parkland, id still hate to walk a dog in february!! Sally and i tried to come up with basic words to describe oslo, i came up with the stepford city, for those of you who know the reference, or even sterile.. Not my cup of tea.. Wouldnt live there even if weather was perfect.. On to london..so im comparison to oslo, london is cheap!! Bet youve never heard that.. Pints of good beer can be had in the $4-$6 range, food not too bad (although we had i think the worst wings ever in london). London is very diverse. People from everywhere are everywhere.. Lots of new construction going on. (for now) we did lots of walking, as again, cars in the city center are almost impossible to find a spot for unless you get one with your flat.. So we spent alot of time on the tubes. They are mostly clean, efficient and sprawl all over the place, but its almost always a 15 walk from where you want to go ( prob with mass transit in general) and not alot of fun i would think in crappy weather.. So life in london is a series of tube rides. Get up, walk to tube or rail station, get on tube, perhaps with a change or two, get off , walk to work, do in reverse to go home, and god forbid you have to purchase something for dinner to drag on the tube for dinner.. This lifestyle would never work anywhere in the us outside the big cities.. If most folks couldnt drive to walmart, itd be hell to pay.. That being said, the history and architecture in london is amazing.. I am glad to have spent some time here to see where we, as americans came from. Food was kinda vanilla but not horrible..(except the one meal) prices arent horrible.. No AC here though except in new buildings so if you get a hot summer like they had, watch out! People generally friendly but not warm. Still a bunch of stodgy brits!! The english countryside : as is typical in the US, things generally get cheaper as you venture off into the countryside.. And the roads get crazier.. Driving around in cornwall (sw england) was an exercise in patience and pain.. Roundabouts coupled with traffic lights and small villages made for a long day or two.. And many of the roads were barely, and i mean barely wide enough for two vehicles, with walls or hedges right on the curb.. It was crazy.. (and ive driven some crazy roads) especially in the islands.. We spent some time in both portsmouth and plymouth. (that of pilgrims fame) and enjoyed them both, plymouth more so.. Food still avg, but cheaper than london, so a plus.. Prices in general were better than london, except for sallys dream stay at the jamaica inn!! So on to the pain part of the driving, we rented a ford focus, not a bad little car, its a stick, driving on the left side of the road, on the right side of the car with lots of lights, narrow streets, and roundabouts, lots of shifting , legs still hurt!! If you ever come out here, shoot for the auto (but be prepared to open the wallet) Ok enough rambling for now,, ill be back shortly with more ‘commentary’ in the near future, now you can enjoy the much more eloquent ms miller again!! |
AuthorSally Miller Archives
May 2024
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