Europe
4 adventures documented
PortugalOur last day in Lisbon, spent in a three-wheeled Tuk-Tuk with Salvador, a guide pulled straight from central casting. The Alfama's long history, the Cherry Liquor Queen and her homemade ginjinha, the old Jewish Quarter and its hard story, the highest viewpoint in the city with its love-locks, and a farewell at a tiny local restaurant before the ship home.
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PortugalA day trip out of Lisbon with a tour guide and a vanful of strangers: the fairy-tale Pena Palace and the old Moorish Castle above Sintra, the guide's harrowing account of the 1755 earthquake, the windswept cliffs of Cabo da Roca at the western edge of Europe, the best fish dinner of our lives in Cascais, and the lights of Lisbon at Christmas.
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PortugalOff on another adventure, this time with Kieran, John's daughter, who booked the whole thing on a week's notice. Three days in Lisbon before a sixteen-day crossing to Puerto Rico. The Alfama, the walk down to Praça do Comércio, the Time Out Market, and Pink Street.
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PortugalThe first leg of our ten week European adventure was the crossing itself, thirteen days on the Norwegian Star from Tampa to Copenhagen. Between long stretches at sea we paused in Bermuda and spent a glorious day touring Sao Miguel in the Azores with our guide Josef, from the twin crater lakes of Sete Cidades to a mountain lake the wind unveiled just for us. We rode out a storm with waves as high as forty-five feet, sailed up the English Channel past the White Cliffs of Dover, and made friends with three couples we hope to see for years. Crossing the Atlantic, as we found out, is not for sissies.
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