Friday, August 13, 2004

We left Garabolhos at around 1:40pm to return "home" to Sao Salvador. I was determined NOT to drive over the mountain again, but it was somewhat unavoidable. We did take an alternate route back that was less treacherous and somewhat quicker. Actually, we think this was the way we were supposed to go on the way up two days earlier before we missed a turn. The views on the way back were just as spectacular, and we stopped a number of times to take pictures. We spent some time at a dam that was literally at the top of the mountain! When we finally made our final descent from the mountain, we ended up in Covilho right before we got on the highway, and actually found some Golden Arches (McDonalds)! Happy meals for the kids, and a double cheeseburger for me. We hit the road, and got the kids set up with their food, and when I asked Bob to hand me my double cheeseburger, we discovered that the McGirl at McDonalds forgot to McPack my McLunch in the McBag. No McDonalds for me, I got screwed big-time.

We made it back to Sao Salvador at around 5:45pm, only a four hour trip with multiple stops, so that wasn't so bad. I went golfing as soon as we got back, played the front nine and shot a 52. I was hitting the ball long, but far from straight.

After golf, we went out to dinner that night at the little restaurant down by the river in Portage, then went back home to put Kevin to bed. Friday night was the first night of Sao Salvador's festival, so Maria, John and I went to the bullfights behind the church next to her parents house. We stayed for about five fights or so, then got some fried dough (dipped in cinnamon sugar, yum) and went in at around midnight.

Dad and the boys first thing in the morning.

We walked around the farm before we left. Kevin found something to snack on on one of the trees.

There were also some blue grapes growing on the grapevines.

White grapes, too.

None of my fantasies about having a Bimbo sandwich ever involved baked goods.

A group photo right as we were about to leave. The reason why everybody is squinting is because the noonday sun was shining and reflecting off the marble porch into everybody's faces.

Some views from the dam on top of the mountain on the way home.

Bob, Nathan, John and "Buddy" (the neighbor's dog) back in Sao Salvador.

Thursday, August 12, 2004

A quiet and uneventful day visiting Ana's mom. Not much at all to report. Probably the most relaxing days of the vacation so far.

Kevin found a harmonica and entertained us first thing in the morning.

John plays with his Gameboy.

John, Nathan and Kevin are hanging out in their jammies.

The front of Ana's mom's house. Bob and I are apparently engaged in some sort of deep and meaningful conversation.

The back of the house.

We went for a walk around town in the afternoon. That's Isabel and Maria with the three kids.

Naptime for Kevin with his buddies.

Wednesday, August 11, 2004

We drove north to Garabolhos to visit the mother of Maria's best friend, Ana. It was just the four of us and Isabel, Bob, and Nathan. The directions that we had indicated that it should be about a three hour drive, but for us it actually turned out to be about five hours. The reason it took so long was because (a) Nathan got a little sick in the car and we had to stop to clean him up; (b) we stopped for lunch; and (c) we missed a turn (we think) and ended up having to drive over the Serra da Estrella (Mountain of the Stars). This was probably the most beautiful scenery I've even seen: driving up the mountain and looking down into the valley. It was also the most nerve-wracking drive I've ever done, with winding narrow roads, lots of blind curves, steep dropoffs off the sides of the roads, and no guard rails for most of the drive. I started to get a little freaked by the time we got to the top, and it was all I could do to just keep both hands on the wheel and watch the road in front of me; I didn't dare try to take a glance at the scenery and try to enjoy the view.

The sign at the scenic outlook on the way up the mountain.

Views of the valley.

We finally arrived in Garabolhos at around 4:00pm, and Ana's mom had dinner waiting for us. Her house is huge and beautiful, quite a contrast from the closet we felt we had been living in back at Maria's parents house in Sao Salvador. The kids were able to have a lot more room to play, and Bob and I were able to hang out in the living room by ourselves (which we named the "quiet adult room"). We finally went to bed at around 9:30pm for a great nights sleep.

Oh yeah . . . Vanessa called . . . she found Maria's jewelry!

Tuesday, August 10, 2004

All eleven of us, for reasons unknown to me, went into Portalegre for the morning so that a handful of us could run some errands. First, father had to go to the hospital for a routine blood test, then Maria and her mother walked over to the government building to get Maria's passport taken care of. Everybody else hung around at the little shopping mall by the hospital for what seemed like forever. A couple of hours later, everybody was bored, tired, hungry and grumpy, and there were still a number of errands to run. We decided to cut our losses, so we drove everybody but Isabel and mother back to Sao Salvador for lunch. Isabel and mother stayed behind to go back to the hospital to get the blood test results.

After we brought both cars full of people back to Sao Salvador, I immediately turned around and went back to Portalegre to wait for Isabel and mother. While I was waiting, I went into this little cafe and had the most disgusting hamburger I've ever eaten. Basically, it was a pre-cooked hamburger in a cellophane wrapper that was heated up in a toaster over. A hamburger in a bag. And it tasted like a hamburger in a bag. Isabel and mother showed up while I was eating, so they also had hamburgers in bags, then we went to the bank and the grocery store and returned home to Sao Salvador.

As soon as we got back, Maria and I headed back to Portalegre yet again with the boys (my third trip there that day) to go back to the government building to get her passport taken care of. They told us it should be ready by Friday.

When we got back to Sao Salvador, Vanessa and I went "dumpster diving" looking for Maria's missing jewelry. No luck. But we did find enough of our own trash from the past couple of days to rule out the possibility that the jewelry was thrown out accidentally. Our conclusion is that the jewelry is somewhere in the house. But as an added bonus of my dumpster diving adventure, I was treated to all sorts of interesting smells and odors. What a country!

Monday, August 9, 2004

Nathan and John at the cross in the square outside grandma and grandpa's house.

Everybody slept in, getting over the events of yesterday. Everybody was rested and in better moods, and tensions overall were much lower. I went golfing in the morning, played the back nine and shot a 47, including a birdie on #13 (110 meter par 3). That's two birdies on two continents in one week!

In the afternoon, everybody except mother and father went to Castelo de Vide just to get out of the house. Bob, Isabel, and I took the kids to the park while Maria and Vanessa went shopping. Joe just kind of hung around in between. I found the library in Castelo de Vide right across from the park, so if I get the opportunity I'll be able to get on to the internet to check email and news, etc.

Nathan and John at the park.

Kevin enjoys the swing.

Nathan, John and Kevin had a great time at the park in Castelo de Vide.

After dinner, we went to the cemetery where father's parents are buried, and then everybody but mother and father took a ride out to the dam . . . no big deal.

Maria hasn't been able to find her jewelry since Sunday. This includes her watch, engagement and wedding rings, and a few other pieces of jewelry she had been wearing. She thinks she took them off in the kitchen to clean up and that they somehow got misplaced. The big fear is that they went into the trash by mistake. Stay tuned . . .

Kevin crashes after a long day of fun.

Sunday, August 8, 2004

Got up at 2:30am to drive to Lisbon to pick up Isabel, Bob, and Nathan, who will be visiting for about a week. Their plane was supposed to arrive at 6:20am, but was about 40 minutes late. Maria's aunt and uncle met us again at the airport, and when Isabel and family finally got their luggage and made it through customs, we went back to aunt and uncle's apartment for about an hour or so. It was a long 2 1/2 hour drive back to Sao Salvador, I was exhausted and could barely keep my eyes open. We finally got back at around 12:45pm or so, and I took a much needed nap.

While I was sleeping, Maria's cousin and her family arrived for the day from Evora, which is about 1 1/2 hours south of Sao Salvador. Once I got up, we hung around outside for a while before it started to rain.

After that, it rained for pretty much the rest of the day.

Later on that evening, tempers started to get really short because a number of us had little to no sleep the night before (I got maybe an hour). It didn't help that we were eleven people all stuck inside a fairly small house because of the rain. Bedtime was a welcome experience that night.

Live From Lisbon International Airport . . .

It's 6:30am on Sunday morning, and I'm typing this at an Internet kiosk in the Lisbon airport. We're three days into our trip, having a good time so far. The trip over on Wednesday / Thursday was rough with the kids but we eventually made it. Played my first round of golf on Saturday afternoon, shot a 45 (not bad). Right now we'rer waiting for Maria's sister and her family to arrive, we had to get up at 2:30am this morning to drive cross country (3 hours) to get here by 6am (their flight is delayed). It's going to be a long day.

I'm almost out of time (6 minutes per Euro), so that's all for now. Supposedly, there's a cyber-cafe in Portalegre, so I should have more opportunities to update this (with more time to write) over the course of vacation. Stay tuned . . .

Saturday, August 7, 2004

Went into Portalegre for the first time this trip. Maria, Vanessa, and mother went shopping while me and the boys (and Joe) kept father company at the park. Then we went to a restaurant right off the park for a mid-afternoon lunch (which I actually enjoyed!). Then we all went to the supermarket to stock up on food for the next couple of days.

When we got back to Sao Salvador, I went to the golf course for my first round of the trip. Shot a 45 on the front nine, played well. I met Robin Wilson, the Brittish gentleman who runs the course. He knew who I was, he was expecting me from the emails I sent him back in July.

When I finished my round, I went out to the car to discover that I had been ticketed! I think it was a parking ticket even though it didn't really specify. This puzzled me because I thought I was parked legally on the road (there were no signs that indicated that I couldn't park there, and there were other cars parked nearby on the road). Fortunately, Uncle Carlos, who I guess used to be pretty high-ranking in the GNR (Guard of the National Republic, i.e. the national police) was able to make a few phone calls and take care of the ticket. Obrigado, Tio Carlos!

Finally got to bed at around 11:00pm, which wasn't so great since we had to get up at 2:30am Sunday morning to drive to Lisbon to pick up Isabel, Bob, and Nathan at the airport.

Friday, August 6, 2004

Got a good night's sleep, mostly from shear exhaustion. After breakfast/lunch Joe, Vanessa, Mother, me, and the boys went to Castelo de Vide to go to the bank to get some money. The exchange rate is turning out to be around $1.25 US for 1 Euro. Found a park with a nice playground for the kids to blow off some energy.

John and Kevin, sitting on the steps outside the church in Sao Salvador. Kevin's face is all broken out from exhaustion from the trip.

Later, after dinner, Maria, Vanessa, Joe, me, and the boys went up to Marvao to check out the castle. Beautiful view from up there, can see the whole valley below including Sao Salvador and the golf course.

John and Kevin enjoy a drink from a fountain in Marvao.

A view of Sao Salvador (center) from Marvao.

A view of the golf course from Marvao.

Other than that, we laid pretty low for the day, just trying to get adjusted and caught up after the long trip over.

Wednesday/Thursday, August 4 and 5, 2004

The trip from hell.

We left Simsbury at around 10:30am; it took about 3 hours to get to JFK because of traffic and such. No problems checking in at the airport, and the kids were pretty good during the long wait at the gate (our flight was scheduled to leave at 6:00pm).

We boarded on time, but we didn't actually get in the air until closer to 7:00pm. We were on a 747 and I was cramped the whole time; I had to twist my legs at an awkward angle the whole time in my seat. Both of the kids refused to fall asleep, and Kevin was a handful by the time he was past exhaustion. I didn't get a wink of sleep the entire flight.

We landed in Madrid right on time (around 7:15am local time, 1:15am our time). We had about an hour layover in Madrid, about 55 minutes of which was spent trying to get to our gate for the connecting flight to Lisbon. What a nightmare that was! We made the flight to Lisbon at last call for boarding.

The flight to Lisbon was about an hour long, and uneventful. Landed in Lisbon right on time at 8:30am (Lisbon time is -1 hour from Madrid time). Maria's aunt and uncle, who live right in Lisbon, met us at the airport, and after we got our rental cars, they brought us back to their apartment for a visit. What should have been a quick stop for a snack, something to drink, and a bathroom break turned out to be a three hour visit, complete with a full sit-down lunch.

The happy travelers in Lisbon. From left to right: Joe, Vanessa, Maria (with Kevin and John), Maria's aunt and Maria's uncle.

We left their apartment at around 1:00pm, then had a 2 1/2 hour drive cross-country to Sao Salvador. The weather was nice, and the boys slept most of the way.

When we finally got to Sao Salvador, somewhere around 3:30pm-4:00pm or so, everybody was waiting for us. Tia Emilia, Tio Carlos, and Maria's father were sitting outside. Maria's mother was in the house. Vanessa was giving Maria's aunt a big hug and kiss, saying it was "so nice to meet you" when I had to tap her on the shoulder and tell her "That's not mom". It was kind of funny.

The rest of the day was mostly uneventful as we just unpacked and figured out who was sleeping where. The biggest problem we faced was bedtime, when the boys were so messed up from the trip and the five hour time change, that it wasn't until around midnight or so when everybody finally fell asleep. That was 7:00pm EDT, so it was the end of a very long 36 hour day for me and Maria.