Portugal, Again

On Sunday we're flying back to Portugal, our fourth trip there in two years. This time we'll fly in and out of Porto to explore the northern part of the country, almost two and a half weeks traveling between Porto, Pinhão, Guimarães, Viana do Castelo, and Braga.

You've already read about the way we travel, and this trip will illustrate another of our quirks. We like to go beyond the usual destinations commonly published in guidebooks and explore lesser-known locales. For example, every guide to Italy mentions Rome, Florence, and Venice, but most of our travel there has been to what I call The Other Italy, wonderful cities with enticing food, art, culture, and history and very few tourists.

So it will be on this trip. There's lots of information about Lisbon and quite a bit about Porto, but Braga? Viana do Castelo? Not so much. We've done a fair amount of research but much of our adventure will be spontaneous and unexpected -- Serendipity is a good friend of ours.

We considered renting a car. (The last time I drove in Europe was in 2002 when we wandered around Italy's Le Marche region for a couple of weeks.) Checking on rates and regulations showed that things had gotten more expensive and more complicated: the rental itself was reasonable, but then there's several layers of insurance that cost far more than the rental itself, and even then it didn't cover glass, tires, or undercarriage. Look out for potholes! Renting a toll tag is extra. Gas is around $8 a gallon and Portugal has the worst accident rate in Western Europe. When I found out that I'd have to pay yet another fee and find a local AAA office to get the recommended international driving permit, it all got to be too much. I chickened out. We'll miss visiting some out of the way quintas and I dearly wanted to visit Almendra, the family home of our friend Ana, but in the end I opted for less stressful train travel.

Laptop and cameras are packed -- stand by for updates.

The Way We Travel

Terri thought it might be interesting to tell others the how and why of our traveling, since we seem to approach things a little differently. So, this blog post is mostly Terri with a little bit of me.

It occurred to me, while relaxing in our Lisbon apartment on a rainy afternoon, that the way we travel may seem quite odd to most people.

After checking out every travel book available at the library for a particular destination, and making a rough list of things to do, the goal is not scratching those 'must-see' tourist attractions off the bucket list. Many times, the most important and famous monuments, like the Rialto Bridge in Venice, the Leaning Tower in Pisa, and the Trevi Fountain in Rome, for example, wind up being the least memorable experiences. They are crowded with tourists and kitschy souvenir kiosks. They aren't real. Walking around Venice at night is real -- you have this quiet magical place to yourself after all the day-trippers have left.

It's important to stay long enough to get a sense of place, to know a city and figure out how to get around via public transportation. (Deciphering bus and subway and tram schedules and fares and how they interconnect is far from easy, but being able to use the public transportation system is essential for understanding a city.) We aren't early risers, so we take our time and usually head out to explore around 11 a.m. With a detailed map and usually the Rick Steves and Eyewitness travel books, we start out on foot and walk around and take in the sights. Then stop somewhere for lunch, depending on where we end up. Then head in a different direction, exploring a different neighborhood, and so on. The next day, figure out how to ride the bus/subway, go a little further and get home in time for dinner at a neighborhood restaurant. Then another neighborhood, church, museum. And so on. There's no time for day trips to nearby cities -- that comes later, once you have a sense of place. What's left undone on your list becomes the starting point for the next trip. By the third trip, we know the city pretty well and venture out even further, with day trips to nearby places.

I realize that our independent style of traveling is quite different -- by being perfectly content walking around the neighborhood, eating lunch at the restaurant across the street, going to the grocery store, buying pastries at the bakery, buying a bus pass from the amiable guy in the shop next door, and sitting at scenic overlooks and taking in the view. And when it starts raining, going back to the apartment to listen to fado and to plan the next day, and maybe even the next trip to a new city.

I'll add a few things. We've traveled a lot but haven't been to that many places: UK, only London, once; France, only Paris, twice; Spain, only Madrid twice and Barcelona once; but Italy nine times, month-long escapes to Buenos Aires six times, and Portugal three times and planning more. We always go in the off-season. We don't buy travel books, we borrow them from the library. We plan ahead but often make last minute changes depending on weather, our mood, and new information. We go back to places we like but try to add at least one new destination every year. We prefer apartments to hotel rooms. We can't hide the fact that we're tourists but we work very hard to be as unobtrusive as possible.

And that's the way we travel.

Mostly by Bus

Our trip so far has been going to different parts of Lisbon and exploring. To get around, we've gone on some very long bus rides. I love very long bus rides, especially if I am lucky enough to get a seat. Figuring out stops and transfers can be challenging, but fortunately I am married to someone highly skilled in deciphering bus maps and routes. We always end up some place interesting.

We've eaten frango assado (roasted chicken) two days in a row and had at least one pastel de nata per day.

Today will be like the other days, I think, except we may not have frango assado. While we're out and about, here's some snaps to look at: Terri and Mike in Lisbon, 2013 edition. For your convenience, Flickr makes it easy to watch a slideshow of our trip so far.

March means Lisbon

A few weeks ago, I flippantly suggested that we go to Lisbon for lunch. We laughed at my silliness but then looked at each other and asked, why not? After all, as I've written before, lunch in Portugal is a wonderful thing. The silly idea became a serious plan and within a few days we had reserved air tickets and wired a deposit on an apartment in Largo da Graça.

So, tomorrow we're off, DFW to Madrid, then Madrid to Lisbon. By late Tuesday afternoon we should be walking to the Pingo Doce supermarket to pick up a few necessities after which will come the difficult task of deciding where to eat.

This will be the third March in a row we've visited Lisbon. Of course we'll eat lunch and I'll have a custard or three, and we hope to see our dear friends Ana and Manny. And we have a long list of things to do and places to see.

Until we have a chance to settle in and post some snaps, here's a photo from our 2011 trip, a view from the miradouro (scenic overlook) around the corner from our apartment.

Couples Weekend

Everyone has told us we shouldn't even consider moving to Seattle until we've been there in the winter. Of course we took this as a challenge and decided to visit Seattle in the winter.

There was a bit of rain when we arrived on Thursday but by Friday the sun was shining and Mt. Rainier was out in its glory. Our hotel's in Capitol Hill so we spent the morning walking around the neighborhood, visiting the Sorrento Hotel and the Frye Museum before grabbing a burger for lunch at Dick's Drive-In and recovering by sitting in Cal Anderson Park. Later in the day we walked downtown to Pike Market and along the waterfront, stopping for a chowder taste-testing at Ivar's. Our hotel was uphill from there so we wandered over to Pioneer Square to wait for the hotel van to pick us up.

On Saturday the fun really began. Terri had gotten in touch with Gwen, an old friend from their days working for the Texas Legislature, who has moved on to much bigger and better things and now lives in Seattle. She and her boyfriend Kerry picked us up at the hotel for a whirlwind day of eating, driving, and walking. We had lunch at Plum's, took a drive through Madison Park and Queen Anne, enjoyed incredible views from Kerry's beautiful condo in Belltown, walked leisurely down and back up 1st Street, ate a light dinner of Vietnamese crêpes at Long's, and finished with a nighttime drive out to the suburbs across the lake. It was one of those perfect travel days, hosted by a lovely couple we hope to see again soon.

On Sunday the fun continued. While the rest of the world gathered to watch some sort of sporting event, a super something or other, we enjoyed the quiet streets and headed to the Seattle Museum of Art. Afterwards, we went to the top of the Smith Tower to enjoy the views. In the evening we walked up Broadway to the heart of the Capitol District and the home of our friends George and Ward. George and I have 'known' each other for years via Flickr and lately on Facebook, but this was our first chance to meet in person. He prepared a wonderful dinner (shellfish and pasta!) and I finally got the hear the story of how a kid from Minneapolis went to Manhattan, Hawaii, and now Seattle with stops in India and Paris, but still wants to go back to Venice. Ward and George are the poster children for Family Values: they've been together for 56 years.

Today is our final full day in Seattle and we're still figuring out what to do. Terri is checking the ferry schedules so I suspect we may get out on the Sound.

I am still going through the snaps from the trip; this is what I have so far: my camera's view of Seattle.

Into a Time of Can't

I grew up in a simpler time, when there were three television networks, two superpowers, and one phone company. Life had but one direction, upward and onward, more and better, cast off the old and embrace the modern, a world of exciting potential. Progress! Rockets shot satellites into space, jet airliners zoomed through the skies, doctors eradicated diseases, everyone could afford a car in the garage and a TV in the living room. Interstate highways! A man on the moon! Better living through chemistry!

All of this took effort and money, of course, but the question was never if but when. We would figure out a way to build it or invent it or discover it, then the rest of the world could marvel at what we had accomplished while we boldly marched ahead to outdo ourselves again. We tackled racism and sexism and wars with confidence and assurance that we would make things right. We had problems but more importantly we had solutions.

This American Optimism was infectious and intoxicating. But it did not last. Slowly, over the years, the lively spirit of can do became the half-muttered resignation of can't. Public proclamations of future greatness ring hollow, especially when they're followed by long lists of things we have to reduce or eliminate. The excited Yes! of fifty years ago is now a meek no or, at best, probably not.

How did it happen? Was the decline in expectations inevitable? Will those who are growing up and maturing now be affected by the larger sense of limits and constraints? Will the young and new be able to reverse the decline of the old and worn-out?

Waldorf Salad

The symptoms began in Madrid, in January: occasional spasms in my right leg, an ache in my right buttock, furtive searches for a place to sit down to relieve the pain. I suffered from severe sciatica twenty years ago and was certain that I could manage it now, as I did then, by walking, exercising, and even better, losing a few pounds. But instead of getting better it got worse. By the time we went to Barbados, in June, I began to dread standing and walking, and in Chicago, in July, I was in agony, the pain so excruciating I wanted to scream and punch holes in the wall.

Then the doctor visits: primary care physician, neurosurgeon, anesthesiologist, radiologist, orthopedic surgeon, long consultations with Dr. Google, even a chiropractor. A MRI showed a synovial cyst in my lower lumbar spinal column and I was desperate to find a non-surgical solution. The radiologist might be able to aspirate the cyst and the anesthesiologist might be able to temporarily ameliorate the pain, but one and all said that surgery was the only sure cure.

The idea of getting cut on made me despondent, and my mood worsened when I realized we'd have to cancel our yearly trip to Buenos Aires: no grilled steaks at La Cholita, no sitting in Plaza Vicente Lopez soaking up the late winter sun, no strolls down Avenida del Libertador. Instead of escaping the Texas summer heat, I moped around the apartment, unable to do much of anything except sit, lie down, and wait for my date with the scalpel.

Finally it was my turn; I had the surgery about four weeks ago and I'm glad to say it went exceedingly well. My orthopedic surgeon, Jason Tinley, is a talented young doctor who removed the cyst and used some bone grafts to help stabilize my spine. The surgery took about an hour, in late morning, and I was able to go home around 3 p.m. The sciatica was completely gone and I was able to resume my walking exercises almost immediately. I am tickled beyond words that Terri and I can once again walk the Trinity Trails; just yesterday we did about three and a half miles.

I have a few more weeks of exercising and recovery before we're ready to travel again, but lucky for us there are three great exhibits going on at our local museums. The Kimbell has "The Kimbell at 40: An Evolving Masterpiece", 220 pieces from their permanent collection displayed in the chronological order in which they were acquired. The Amon Carter has "To See as Artists See", late nineteenth and early twentieth century American works from The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. Finally, The Modern has "Lucian Freud: Portraits", an incredible collection of paintings in its only U.S. venue.

Oh yes, about the Waldorf Salad. Sam's Club sells big tubs of the delicious, addictive stuff, but it's seasonal and I was pleasantly surprised last week when we found it in stock again. I consider myself a Costco type of guy, but Sam's Club's Waldorf Salad is so good I got a membership just so I could buy it a few months each year.

Let's hope my next blog post takes less than three months to write and is datelined from someplace other than Texas. I haven't taken many snaps lately, but I have my eye on a new camera and if I buy it I'll have to go somewhere to test it out.