BEST DAY EVER – BELMONTE & MONSANTO
Belmonte was home to a group of crypto Jews, some of whom still reside there today. There are a number of other museums and a castle and for 10 Euro you can see them all. Our day started with the long drive from Coimbra eastward. We passed through mountains and valleys mainly staying on the […]
Museum of Glass
We had a big day and a lovely drive to the Museum of Glass. The museum was made up of three separate buildings. The first held a temporary exhibit of Christmas glass on the main floor and a permanent display of older glass upstairs. Entrance fee was 1.50 Euro so an absolute bargain for all […]
Aveiro & pastries, The Drone, The Beach, the summer town and fried fish
Vacationing is becoming exhausting. It seems we leave the house wanting to do one thing, perhaps two, and we wind up doing eight things even though we think we haven’t done any. The highlight today was flying the new drone! We went out to the beach near Aveiro and walked, and wrote in the sand, […]
Palace in the Sky, a dam, a drive, and roundabouts
After traversing many winding roads and one cemetery we arrived at the Forrest. After paying 5 Euro to enter and park we got a quick look at the Bussaco Palace Hotel and the nature reserve that surrounds it. The hotel was over the top grand and DEFINITELY a place to spend a night or two. […]
Casinha Velha and a drive to a castle
The absolutely most wonderfully amazing lunch, in the absolutely most wonderful and amazing setting. After a long drive up twisting turning roads to try to find a castle, after getting out of the car and walking up steep twisting turning roads to try to find a way to drive to the castle ( see car […]
Walking to ALTA for dinner
Night one here in Coimbra, Portugal, I decide we are too far from our restaurant of choice to walk so we drive from Santa Clara where we are staying, across the bridge and into Coimbra. We park on a side street and get out to walk the last 400 meters. I think to myself I […]
A Cozinha da Maria
Not our first pick. And if you read yesterday’s dinner blog you will read of my walk. I hate to share we repeated practically the same walk tonight. Up, down, up, stairs, cobbled streets, alleyways. And in the end had a mediocre dinner in a lovely place but totally tourist. There were a trio of […]
From Coimbra Portugal – Day 1
With rain forecast north of us we headed south with an ambitious plan. Drive off the main roads to Souce, lunch at Dom Largo, drive on to Lourical, Viera De Leiria, Batalha Monastery, Alcobaca, then finish the day at the coast in Nazare where they surf huge waves. We didn’t quite keep to plan. By […]
When visiting London you might want to try…
I am starting a list of things to do and websites to visit to help with your trip to London. Or more likely for me when I return. I am on my way to Istanbul and Paris before I head back to the States for a couple of months. PORTRAIT BENCHES – Traveling outside the […]