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Europe 2016
  • Sarah McCabe
  • Sarah McCabe

Europe 2016

A 25-day adventure by Sarah Read more
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  • Sarah McCabeEurope 2016Sarah McCabe

    welcome to Portugal!

    October 31, 2016 in Portugal ⋅ ☀️ 70 °F

    We splurged and got a car that is picking us up at the airport and driving us all the way to our hotel in Évora so we avoided having to figure out metro and train and bus transfers.

    So when we came out of the airport there was our driver with a card with my name on it. Whee! High class!Read more

  • Sarah McCabeEurope 2016Sarah McCabe

    Chapel of Bones

    November 1, 2016 in Portugal ⋅ ☀️ 63 °F

    This chapel is lined on the interior with thousands of human bones. They had to move a whole bunch of monastery cemeteries many years ago to build estates on the land and so the monks disinterred the bones and used them to decorate the chapel.

    Russell and I showed a lack of decorum and started making puns.

    "This place has a lot of elbow room."
    "You're just ribbing me!"
    "Sorry, it was my knee jerk reaction."
    "Now you are pulling my leg"
    "It took a lot of elbow grease to build this place."
    "And quite a few skulled workers."
    "Are you lying or is that just a fib-ula?"

    The sign over the entry door loosely translated to "These bones wait here for yours."    Read more

  • Sarah McCabeEurope 2016Sarah McCabe

    Igreinha

    November 1, 2016 in Portugal ⋅ ☀️ 68 °F

    This is a little village. The houses are all blazing white with a stripe of color along the ground level. Usually blue or yellow, but sometimes other colors.

  • Sarah McCabeEurope 2016Sarah McCabe

    cork tree

    November 1, 2016 in Portugal ⋅ ☀️ 70 °F

    We passed some cork trees along the way. You can see where they have harvested the cork. They take the first cork (virgin cork) when the tree is about 20 years old. That harvest is not very useful. Then every 9 years after that they can harvest again. So it is at least 30 years after planting that the tree starts producing.Read more

  • Sarah McCabeEurope 2016Sarah McCabe

    cork factory

    November 1, 2016 in Portugal ⋅ ☀️ 73 °F

    Next stop was a cork factory. They harvest a given tree every 9 years. Then they dry the slabs for about 3 months. There is Russell standing in front of a drying pile. Then they boil the cork for an hour to make it more malleable. That big machine is the boiling vat. Then they sort and grade for quality and wait 30 days and then boil for one more hour. Then they package them in pallets. The best grades go off to the wine cork producers (about 18% of the total factory production) and the wine corks end up costing between 5 cents and 1 dollar per cork.

    I hope you were paying attention, there will be a test later.

    One thing they do with cork that isn't quite wine grade is cut it into very thin sheets with a felt backing and it can be used to make all sorts of stuff. We kind of went crazy in the gift shop.    Read more

  • Sarah McCabeEurope 2016Sarah McCabe

    wine tasting in São Miguel

    November 1, 2016 in Portugal ⋅ 🌙 72 °F

    We went to a very fancy winery. Got a great tour and tasted a bunch of yummy wines. The winery is trying an experiment making wine in ancient Amphorae. We tried some. It was kind of rough, but it was an interesting experience.Read more

  • Sarah McCabeEurope 2016Sarah McCabe

    pottery village

    November 2, 2016 in Portugal ⋅ ☀️ 68 °F

    Our first stop on our second day bike tour is a little village known for their clay, and therefore their pottery. After all the stuff we bought yesterday, we have no room in our luggage for more souvenirs, especially heavy fragile ones, so all we did was look, even though things were very tempting to buy!

    We wandered around a family run pottery business. Generations of men worked the clay and generations of women painted the pottery.

    The kiln, and the giant rack that rolled into it, were huge!    Read more

  • Sarah McCabeEurope 2016Sarah McCabe

    the Love Rock

    November 2, 2016 in Portugal ⋅ ⛅ 70 °F

    Our next stop was a megalithic monument that is known locally as the Love Rock. The young single women of the village come here on the first Monday of the Easter season (first Monday of Lent? First Monday after Easter?) and they try to toss a rock over their back (left hand only!) and if the rock lands and stays on the top of the monument, you will be married within the year. You only get three chances!

    Our guide, Maria, who is a local, showed us how it was done. Russell tried, but was not quite successful, which shows how hard it is.    Read more

  • Sarah McCabeEurope 2016Sarah McCabe

    cows and egrets with watermelon

    November 2, 2016 in Portugal ⋅ ⛅ 72 °F

    As we were biking, we passed a field of watermelons that must have spoiled before harvest, so they just left them in the field and let a herd of cows in. Evidently, egrets follow cows around here. So it was a very pastoral scene and Russell was entranced. He said later it was the coolest thing he saw all day.Read more

  • Sarah McCabeEurope 2016Sarah McCabe

    biking to castle

    November 2, 2016 in Portugal ⋅ ⛅ 73 °F

    Next we biked up a short (1mile) but very very steep road to an small village and ancient castle on the top of a hill. Good thing I had an electric bike! I was able to power up the hill without too much effort.

    The road up had great views of the largest artificial lake in Europe. It was dammed and created about 15 years ago. Great for irrigation and for electric power production, but evidently it has changed the local climate making it more humid and the temperature less variable through the year.    Read more

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