Solar Dom Carlos Cascais

... way they were going to put up with one more question from him. I do appreciate his willingness to jump into the most foreign of exchanges with an attitude of adventure and fun. He is great traveling company.

We then sauntered along the riverfront to the Aquarium. The path took us along some great water-inspired art work that I'm sure was not given its best justice on film. The Aquarium was truly knock-your-socks-off-AWESOME! I ...

... the river Tajo, which is an important river in Portugal and Spain. That in and of itself made me happy--I love being near large bodies of water! Belen has three main tourist attractions: The Monument of Discovery (of America), the Tower of Belen, and St. Jeronimos Monastery. St. Jeronimos Monastery by far takes the cake out of those three. It was absolutely gorgeous as you'll see in the pictures. Also in this area is a famous pastry ...

... Barcelona, and Tossa de Mar (following entries). I've shown you guys most of Lisbon and Sintra back in November, but here are two pretty cool pics. Tower of ...

... on some of the equipment, enjoying the sunshine and the warmer weather. Not quite sure what to do, we walked back down hill through the Barrio Alto district but missing the more interesting bits I think, because we ended up walking along some fairly uninteresting streets until we got back to the Baixa district. Tired and a little bit disappointed with what we had seen (or failed to see), we stopped at a pastileria for coffee ...

Boa noite everyone!!! I know it has been awhile since the last entry but I've been unable to spend enough time in front of a computer to type. Since we got to Amsterdam we have met lots of cool people that shaped the course of the trip. From Italians in Amsterdam, to Californians in Porto, to the family in Coimbra, it has all been amazing!! Kyle got a job making sandwiches in Amsterdam for some middle Eastern dude and I was able to help him out with easy computer stuff. We got to ...

This was our last academic day. It was another loosely paced day with a late start, so I slept a little later and still got up early to write. Christina was our guide again, and we visited two museums, each with a short tour and some free time to wander. This was the best way to structure the day, I thought, and we all got a lot more out of it with a little free time to ourselves. The first museum was the Museum of Modern Art. Even two days later I don't remember very much, just ...

... by a drop of port of course) and tears of laughter. At some point we also discovered Licor de Amendoa Amarga (an almond liquor). I personally prefer Amaretto but others preferred this. To be honest it was so windy in the evenings you didn't really want to venture very far. Day five - the gang headed off for the rest of their summer tour and Mark and I went to Estoril. It was a bit strange them heading off, it was as if we had spent longer together and it was ...

... vlak langs ons varen grote rollers achter zich latend en ja hoor onze temperatuur alarm gaat weer af, geen koelwater. Bij het open maken van de wierpot zie ik het water weer binnen stromen en doe snel de deksel er weer op, motor aan en ja hoor, het koelwater stroomt weer. Dus deze reis visserboten op afstand houden. De regen stopt en zo waar de zon komt af en toe bescheiden door, dan wordt het koud en de zeemist slaat toe. Hoever kunnen we nog zien, 500 meter? De radar biedt uitkomst, we ...

... We headed out to a little seaside town called Cascais, which was really nice and quaint and had some amazing views of the Atlantic. Standing up on these cliffs, looking out at this huge expanse of endless ocean gave me a little feel for what some of the world´s great explorers saw and felt. You really do wonder "what´s out there". Our next stop was Sintra, an adorable little mountain town that use to be an old summer vacationing spot ...

Travelling light is a virtual impossibility I find: how do you fit beach wear, rain wear, night wear etc into a small suitcase??? Tomorrow we fly to London via Zurich, picked up at Heathrow by Adrien, only the coolest driver around who has also kindly put us on guest lists for the hot spots of that great ...