Europe 2016

A 25-day adventure by Sarah Read more

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Europe 2016 Sarah McCabe
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Day 10
Saturday, October 29, 2016 at 8:10 PM
🌙 63 °F
Altitude: 43 ft
Spain Jardins Fontserè i Mestre 41.38882, 2.1792141°23’20” N 2°10’45” E
doing laundry
October 29, 2016 in Spain ⋅ 🌙 63 °F
Because vacation is not all fun and games!
Donna BielakI wondered what you were going to do about the laundry situation on a long trip. Were laundromats easy to find?
11/2/16Reply
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Europe 2016 Sarah McCabe
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Day 11
Sunday, October 30, 2016 at 10:56 AM
⛅ 63 °F
Altitude: 105 ft
Spain Fort Pienc 41.39102, 2.17341°23’28” N 2°10’23” E
apartment building designed by Gaudi
October 30, 2016 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 63 °F
Our first stop on our day of Gaudi
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Europe 2016 Sarah McCabe
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Day 11
Sunday, October 30, 2016 at 11:08 AM
⛅ 63 °F
Altitude: 154 ft
Spain Casa Batlló 41.39193, 2.1655241°23’31” N 2°9’56” E
second stop on Gaudi tour
October 30, 2016 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 63 °F
Rhonda and Russell are playing tour guides and doing a great job.
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Europe 2016 Sarah McCabe
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Day 11
Sunday, October 30, 2016 at 11:23 AM
⛅ 63 °F
Altitude: 180 ft
Spain La Pedrera 41.39477, 2.1619141°23’41” N 2°9’43” E
third Gaudi building
October 30, 2016 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 63 °F
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Europe 2016 Sarah McCabe
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Day 11
Sunday, October 30, 2016 at 12:23 PM
⛅ 64 °F
Altitude: 482 ft
Spain Casa Museu Gaudí 41.41478, 2.1538541°24’53” N 2°9’14” E
Park Güell
October 30, 2016 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 64 °F
It looks kind of like a cross between Arizona and Dr. Seuss.
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Europe 2016 Sarah McCabe
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Day 11
Sunday, October 30, 2016 at 2:37 PM
⛅ 66 °F
Altitude: 128 ft
Spain Plaça de la Sagrada Família 41.40334, 2.1734841°24’12” N 2°10’25” E
La Sagrada Familia
October 30, 2016 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 66 °F
The crown jewel of our tour.
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Europe 2016 Sarah McCabe
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Day 12
Monday, October 31, 2016 at 9:20 AM
⛅ 59 °F
Altitude: 20 ft
Spain el Prat de Llobregat 41.32657, 2.0785141°19’36” N 2°4’43” E
and so we leave Barcelona
October 31, 2016 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 59 °F
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.
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Europe 2016 Sarah McCabe
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Day 12
Monday, October 31, 2016 at 11:55 AM
☀️ 70 °F
Altitude: 33 ft
Portugal Cala do Norte 38.78457, -9.0787538°47’4” N 9°4’44” W
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
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Europe 2016 Sarah McCabe
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Day 12
Monday, October 31, 2016 at 1:42 PM
☀️ 75 °F
Altitude: 965 ft
Portugal Evora 38.57072, -7.9105238°34’15” N 7°54’38” W
Évora is amazing!
October 31, 2016 in Portugal ⋅ ☀️ 75 °F
Quaint cobblestone streets. Very narrow and all the buildings have these blazingly white walls. We are enjoying our first meal in Portugal.
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Europe 2016 Sarah McCabe
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Day 12
Monday, October 31, 2016 at 7:10 PM
🌙 66 °F
Altitude: 906 ft
Portugal Evora 38.56913, -7.9136538°34’9” N 7°54’49” W
snack for dinner
October 31, 2016 in Portugal ⋅ 🌙 66 °F
We weren't up for a real dinner and then the hotel offered us this little welcome snack. It's perfect!
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Europe 2016 Sarah McCabe
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Day 13
Tuesday, November 1, 2016 at 8:54 AM
☀️ 61 °F
Altitude: 902 ft
Portugal Evora 38.56898, -7.9132938°34’8” N 7°54’48” W
view from our hotel window
November 1, 2016 in Portugal ⋅ ☀️ 61 °F
Those are the ancient walls of the city in the background
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Europe 2016 Sarah McCabe
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Day 13
Tuesday, November 1, 2016 at 10:15 AM
☀️ 63 °F
Altitude: 906 ft
Portugal Evora 38.56693, -7.9036338°34’1” N 7°54’13” W
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
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Europe 2016 Sarah McCabe
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Day 13
Tuesday, November 1, 2016 at 10:29 AM
☀️ 63 °F
Altitude: 991 ft
Portugal Evora 38.5706, -7.9091838°34’14” N 7°54’33” W
city center of Évora
November 1, 2016 in Portugal ⋅ ☀️ 63 °F
This feels like a small village in the city center, but it is actually quite a large town
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Europe 2016 Sarah McCabe
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Day 13
Tuesday, November 1, 2016 at 11:44 AM
☀️ 68 °F
Altitude: 935 ft
Portugal Igrejinha 38.70564, -7.8976838°42’20” N 7°53’52” W
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.
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Europe 2016 Sarah McCabe
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Day 13
Tuesday, November 1, 2016 at 12:25 PM
☀️ 70 °F
Altitude: 981 ft
Portugal Comenda de Cima 38.74464, -7.8319138°44’41” N 7°49’55” W
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
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Europe 2016 Sarah McCabe
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Day 13
Tuesday, November 1, 2016 at 2:23 PM
☀️ 73 °F
Altitude: 925 ft
Portugal Azaruja 38.70743, -7.7815938°42’27” N 7°46’54” W
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
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Europe 2016 Sarah McCabe
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Day 13
Tuesday, November 1, 2016 at 2:24 PM
☀️ 73 °F
Altitude: 902 ft
Portugal Azaruja 38.70449, -7.7782938°42’16” N 7°46’42” W
lunch break
November 1, 2016 in Portugal ⋅ ☀️ 73 °F
After spending all our money at the cork factory, we had to hit an ATM before finally eating a late lunch.
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Europe 2016 Sarah McCabe
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Day 13
Tuesday, November 1, 2016 at 5:31 PM
🌙 72 °F
Altitude: 761 ft
Portugal São Miguel de Machede 38.64523, -7.7293238°38’43” N 7°43’46” W
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
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Europe 2016 Sarah McCabe
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Day 13
Tuesday, November 1, 2016 at 8:11 PM
🌙 64 °F
Altitude: 932 ft
Portugal Evora 38.5763, -7.9095338°34’35” N 7°54’34” W
first real dinner in portugal
November 1, 2016 in Portugal ⋅ 🌙 64 °F
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 his dish.Read more
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Europe 2016 Sarah McCabe
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Day 14
Wednesday, November 2, 2016 at 10:58 AM
☀️ 68 °F
Altitude: 656 ft
Portugal Aldeia do Mato 38.44596, -7.4831938°26’45” N 7°28’59” W
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
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Europe 2016 Sarah McCabe
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Day 14
Wednesday, November 2, 2016 at 11:32 AM
⛅ 70 °F
Altitude: 653 ft
Portugal Aldeia do Mato 38.44565, -7.4756438°26’44” N 7°28’32” W
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
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Europe 2016 Sarah McCabe
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Day 14
Wednesday, November 2, 2016 at 11:50 AM
⛅ 72 °F
Altitude: 659 ft
Portugal São Pedro do Corval 38.44848, -7.4558538°26’55” N 7°27’21” W
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
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Europe 2016 Sarah McCabe
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Day 14
Wednesday, November 2, 2016 at 12:24 PM
⛅ 72 °F
Altitude: 715 ft
Portugal Barrada 38.47036, -7.3935838°28’13” N 7°23’37” W
another megalithic monument
November 2, 2016 in Portugal ⋅ ⛅ 72 °F
Located near a very nice farmhouse
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Europe 2016 Sarah McCabe
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Day 14
Wednesday, November 2, 2016 at 12:42 PM
⛅ 73 °F
Altitude: 709 ft
Portugal Outeiro 38.47, -7.3933338°28’12” N 7°23’36” W
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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Europe 2016 Sarah McCabe
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Day 14
Wednesday, November 2, 2016 at 2:54 PM
☀️ 75 °F
Altitude: 1,017 ft
Portugal Monsaraz 38.44427, -7.3804238°26’39” N 7°22’50” W
lunch on top of a mountain
November 2, 2016 in Portugal ⋅ ☀️ 75 °F
Biking is hungry work. Forgot to take a picture before we ate, but here is the view from our table.
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