doing laundry

Because vacation is not all fun and games!
apartment building designed by Gaudi

Our first stop on our day of Gaudi
second stop on Gaudi tour

Rhonda and Russell are playing tour guides and doing a great job.
third Gaudi building

Park Güell

It looks kind of like a cross between Arizona and Dr. Seuss.
La Sagrada Familia

The crown jewel of our tour.
and so we leave Barcelona

We are on the bus to the airport. R came down with my cold yesterday so he is not at 100℅ , but it should be a not to hard day.
welcome to Portugal!

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 cameLue lisää
Évora is amazing!

Quaint cobblestone streets. Very narrow and all the buildings have these blazingly white walls. We are enjoying our first meal in Portugal.
snack for dinner

We weren't up for a real dinner and then the hotel offered us this little welcome snack. It's perfect!
view from our hotel window

Those are the ancient walls of the city in the background
Chapel of Bones

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 theLue lisää
city center of Évora

This feels like a small village in the city center, but it is actually quite a large town
Igreinha

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.
cork tree

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.Lue lisää
cork factory

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 anLue lisää
lunch break

After spending all our money at the cork factory, we had to hit an ATM before finally eating a late lunch.
wine tasting in São Miguel

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 wasLue lisää
first real dinner in portugal

Russell ordered a half portion of beans to start. It was huge. Then they mixed up and missed my dinner order which was a really good thing because Russell and I together barely made a dent in hisLue lisää
pottery village

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 moreLue lisää
the Love Rock

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? FirstLue lisää
cows and egrets with watermelon

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. SoLue lisää
another megalithic monument

Located near a very nice farmhouse
biking to castle

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 tooLue lisää
lunch on top of a mountain

Biking is hungry work. Forgot to take a picture before we ate, but here is the view from our table.
Donna BielakI wondered what you were going to do about the laundry situation on a long trip. Were laundromats easy to find?