Portugal is known for their green wine, most of which is made not far from Porto. Here’s a fun question: Why is green wine green? Is it because the wine is “fresh”, or not aged very long? Is it because the region has a lot of rain and humidity, making the region look green year round? Is it because the color of the wine is green? The answer is yes. (However, the region also makes red wine. One can have red green wine.) The vineyard we visited has a 25 acre garden. It’s absolutely fabulous.

Here’s a whimsical guard house.

After that wine tasting, we moved on to the Duro Valley where Port wine as well as table wine is made. They don’t have a huge garden, but they do have vineyards.

And for certain types of wine, they still stomp the grapes.

They have a wine cellar, but the summer temperature is too hot for the wine. Back in the day, they transported the wine by river boat to the cooler areas in the north. Over the years, they switched to moving the win on trains, then trucks.

After the tour, we had another 2-hour lunch. The food was quite good. Most of our party liked the white table wine the most.

I hope this finds everyone doing well.

Yesterday we took a bus ride to Porto. We had several stops along the way, including a 2-hour lunch. The most scenic stop was this castle. I suppose one could claim that riding the bus to the top of the hill was less authentic than walking up. Nobody in our group complained.

The chapel in the castle is still an active church. It isn’t used weekly but is used for weddings and such. The most striking image is the one of Mary below. The artist shows her pregnant. I never thought of this before. I am so used to seeing the Holy Mary. Of course, she was pregnant just as was any other woman carrying a child. According to our guide, there are only two statues of pregnant Mary in all of Portugal. I think the artist did a good job of portraying how a pregnant woman carries herself.

After we arrived in Porto, we took a quick walk around the block and grabbed a sandwich for dinner.

Today we’re in Coimbra, a relatively small town in the countryside. This is the home of the University of Coimbra, the oldest university in Portugal. It’s a popular site to visit, but visits are very well managed. Each important area has exquisitely timed visits. One of the most unusual things about the university is that they have an active Catholic church as part of a secular campus. Here’s a pic of the nave.

And here is the pipe organ. I haven’t seen many of these with trumpets included.

The other day I missed a presentation of Fado music. We got a second performance today. Most of our tour thought today’s performance was the better one.

We’ve been enjoying perfect weather and good food. Yesterday we had salmon which was off the charts good. At lunch today, we got to sample some Portugal suites. They were amazing.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

We visited Obidos, a walled city with a lot of tourist shops. We’re not into cruising through tourist shops. Here’s a pic from the top of the hill.

Then we visited a monastery. They had a unique fat monk detector. If you couldn’t pass through the narrow door in the pic below, it was time to cut back on the beer and wine.

I missed the singers last night because I had a pretty sever cough. I slept instead of going to the program. Today, I slept at every opportunity. There were quite a few opportunities because we spent some serious time on the bus. The sleep seems to have done the trick. I feel much better.

We did more or less regular tourist-ing this morning. Portugal is famous for their painted tiles. The pic below is a very small part of a painted tile set that shows what Lisbon looked like before it was destroyed in 1755. It was found in somebody’s basement. It is the only known representation of early Lisbon.

The tiles are amazing, buy I was more interested in the maritime museum. Nobody could sail out into the Atlantic until the Portuguese invented the Caravel. This ship was quite sturdy and more importantly, could sail into the wind.

Here’s a model of the ship Vasco de Gama used to reach India.

The Caravels ships were a huge step forward, But the Portuguese also needed to protect their merchant ships against attacks. It didn’t take them long to develop the Galleon. Fast, low, maneuverable and heavily armed, they served their purpose admirably.

This “super sized” Galleon was the aircraft carrier of the era.

Of course, ships are no good if you can’t figure out where to point them. One of Portugal’s great advantages was the invention of the mariner’s astrolabe in the late 15th century. This allowed them to measure their true latitude with less than a 3 degree error.

Tonight we will see Fado singers. Tomorrow, it’s time to leave Lisbon.

I hope this finds everyone doing well.

We had a fairly uneventful trip until we got to the Lisbon airport, where we had to stand in the immigration line for 3 1/2 hours. This is no exaggeration. The driver that picked us up checked on our progress twice. Nobody could believe it. And nobody knows why it was so slow.

The first days of our trip are in Lisbon. We had spectacular weather for our first day of touring. Our first major stop was a summer palace. It looks a lot like other palaces. Here’s a shot of the main entrance.

The garden includes a fake river. They dug a dry canal and filled it with water from a diverted stream. For entertainment, royals rode back and forth on little boats. Really! You can see the tile walls from a distance.

Palaces have rooms. Rooms have chandeliers and cabinets. These were interesting enough to be worth a quick pic. You can’t see the cabinet very well, but it has lots of doors of various sizes. Rich or poor, it’s nice to have money.

Lots of streets and sidewalks are paved with stone and sand. Sometimes it’s just white stone. Sometimes white and black stones are used to create a pattern. If you ever visit Lisbon, you are unlikely to forget this pattern. It’s a flat sidewalk, guaranteed to make you feel a touch of vertigo.

Some machines are cool. Old machines still in use are usually cool. This elevator is an old machine that is so cool that some tourists pay over $5 to take the ride. This was built a little after the Eiffel Tower.

This monument is an apology for a massacre of many jews that happened in this plaza on April 19, 1506 — 500 years ago.

A major earthquake, plus a tsunami, plus fire destroyed Lisbon in 1755. They did a total rebuild using modern ideas. The old section of Lisbon is quite attractive.

Dani and Gayle came down to visit with Mom for a few days. They were a tremendous help for Mom. Flying out of Bangor, ME is a mess. They had three flights both coming and going. I had to get up a 4:00 AM Thursday to get them to the airport on time. It was somewhat less than a terrific that I didn’t turn off the alarm. It announced it’s presence again at 4:00 AM Friday. Danita had a heck of a time getting me to wake up and turn off the alarm.

Friday we got Mom’s rug back from the rug cleaners. It came out looking fantastic. I put the rug in the kitchen and taped it to the floor. I was just putting the kitchen table on the rug when the Occupational Therapist came in. She suggested we tape the rug to the floor. Bang! ALREADY DONE! Woo.

Danita and I plan to attend a play at Howard College tomorrow. It sounds like fun.

The big news is coming soon. Danita and I are taking a tour of Portugal. We leave May 10 and return May 30. We’re traveling with Road Scholar. We take a land tour from Lisbon to Porto, then a river boat cruise down the Douro river.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.