Albergaria Vitoria Évora

... hallway if you wished to put on a show. Second, the shower worked by rotating a handle to get water that sprayed from a movable nozzle, a nozzle above your head and a series of nozzles mounted horizontally to the shower wall that sprayed at you horizontally. Another awesome bathroom was our bathroom in Seville. It had my favorite toilet so far. Everytime the toilet was flushed it groaned loudly for ten to fiftenn minutes. Miss you all and hope to talk to you soon.

... left the cafe with enough time to get to the bus station. Once we got there though, we found out it was a holiday, All Saints Day, and we just missed the last bus! The guy at the ticket desk said we could catch a bus to Portel, 30 min. south and then hitch from there, only option since we already paid for a ccomodations and a taxi back would be 80 euros! So we catch the bus and arrive in Portel where a couple of ...

... a gorgeous, uncrowded beach that looked almost like Door County, WI or somewhere off Cape Cod. We set up camp and headed to the beach, where we watch a seaful of kite boarders and wind surfers. The Portuguese seem much more adventurous than the beer-and-brats Milwaukee crowd we're used to... Our next stop was Porto, Portugal, the home of Port wine and....window-smashing thieves. We spent our first day pleasantly roaming Porto, a nearly crumbling old city still ...

if portugal had a version of bath-spa, evora would probably be it. a tiny walled-town of roman origins, it's a fun place to walk around, grab some of the many local dishes, and get lost in the narrow alley-way streets that have discovery after discovery everywhere one turns. of note, the intercity buses here have stewardesses on ...

... to do with it. In the distance we could see the whitewashed buildings and the old wall so we knew that we were getting close to Evora. We headed through the old wall of the city and made our way to the Praca do Giraldo, the main square and from there we oriented ourselves. First stop was to the Church of Saint Francis and to the special side chapel there - you will pick that out in the photos! After we checked that out we walked up to the Rua Vasco de Gama ...

... where. It was first founded in about 1485, but we weren't allowed to take any photos! The trip to Coimbra meant that we had to get a bus via Lisbon, so yet again 4 hrs. We were a little silly in the fact that we didn't write the address down for the next hostel so we had to find an Internet cafe to get it. Once the Internet cafe was found we were made to wait an hour until we could get on....

... change as I had shat myself during the exchange, and then we moved on. And Finally So that was Portugal, brief again like the last. Yes I am ****ing slack, but if the cheap airlines ever gave me a good price on a flight, I would go back at a moments notice. I want to see these walled cities. I promise to you all that I will go back. In fact, Lucy and I have discussed it I will not wait nearly nine years before the next Portuguese adventure takes place. I PROMISE, I HONESTLY DO.

... probabilidades de encontrarnos con gente que ronca...nosotros los llamamos carinosamente los "vacos roncadores", y hay que decir que son un problema, sobretodo los ingleses, porque su rutina es tomar, tomar, tomar, y tomar...asi que cuando vuelven a acostarce no se acuerdan ni de su nombre, y roncan como bestias. Bueno, justo sobre mi camarote me toco el peoe vaco roncador de todo el viaje, normalmente yo movia un poco la cama y paraban de roncar, en el peor de los casos ...

... the Alentejo region of Portugal which is reminiscent of California's Central Valley, only this is the region that produces over 2/3rds of the world's cork supply. The roadsides are surrounded by privately owned pastures filled with cork trees. The cork is stripped from the trunk portion of the tree so you'll often see these trees with the bottom two or three feet stripped bare, exposing a beige nakedness. Over time ...

... 5 x 7 ft "veranda"...and air conditioning! We spent the day wandering the narrow, cobblestoned lanes. Lots to see--rooster-themed pottery, friendly dogs, moorish influenced tiles, a church with mismatched bell towers/steeples. I especially liked the looks of one shop, where behind the counter there were hundreds of wrought iron key hole / door latch covers in Moorish, gothic styles and also all these arabic/syrian lamps with the beaded shades. For 2 days ...