IBERIAN GEMS

On our last night in Madrid, we went for chocolate!

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The last shot of the last night, was Elizabeth and DeVonda waiting for the bus for the long ride to the hotel. Hi Girls!

The Pritchett family enjoys the very thick, dipping chocolate. It was almost a chocolate fondu!

Rita picked this place for us to get our after-dinner chocolate fix. We just had enough time before we had to meet the bus. Thick chocolate and you dip long-skinny cake-sticks in it. Yum!

Here are a couple of more photos from across the river, by Howard Du Bose

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Here is an attempt at an artistic shot of the St Martin's bridge. You decide which one is better.

Most of the Virginia and North Carolina girls posed for this shot. I think we missed a couple.

The best shot of the Cathedral needs to be taken from the overlook. otherwise, you are just too close to get it all.

Some of the best views of Toledo are from the over-look across the river.

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the whole trip, Rita kept waiting for an opportunity to wear the magic hat. Here she is, pretending to be me. Not as tall, but certainly better-looking!

Rita, to remind you, was our wonderful tour director. We got shots in various places sitting next to her. You can see Toledo in the background.

Here are Rita and Donna from Virginia at the over look, across the river from Toledo.

Donna and Randy, the 2 adults in the virginia group, are posing in front of Toledo.

Here is our Toledo group show, taken at the over-look. say Banana!

the bus could never get into Toledo, so everything was a walking tour.

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There are several weirs on the river that surrounds Toledo, this one was the easiest to photo. .

Dijah met a couple of Japanese. She took their picture, they took her picture, and I took a picture of all three of them. Dijah was very friendly.

If the big gate I showed you before is Toledo's front door, the St Martin's bridge is it;s back door. That is how we left,

2000 years ago, when they built the walls, they also use available rock to build on and around. here is an example.

In the courtyrd of the only remaining old Jewish temple in Spain, there is this rain gutter downspout. Very classy.

Our last full day in Spain, we went to Toledo. Photos by Howard Du Boae

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Here, Rita, Randy, & Lynne are bringing up the rear in one of Toledo's narrow streets. Rita us making sure that no one gets lost.

In some places, they left off the stucco so you could see the original, 2000-year old stone. this is one of the old door lintels.

Toledo has very narrow streets. one had a sign that said it was 2 meters wide! Carlos, our tour guide said this is one of those places it is easy to get lost in. Gone in thirty seconds!

One of the shope had this tin man, who is Don Quixote, and Lynne and Donna could not resist getting next to a man who could not complain!

The front door of the old city of Toledo is this very impressive gate.

Day 8, thursday, was the day we did our Flamenco Lessons and saw our Flamenco show.

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Dijah had learned her lessons well, so they had her get up and dance a little. She was good.

Our flamenco instructor and a male dancer showed us just how good they were. Ole!

I got a shot of Brittany taking lessons, or actually showing off how much she had learned!

There was a very large, Valesquez-looking, painting behind the stage. I am not sure if the woman was dancing or strangling a chicken.

Naturally we had to hurry up and wait. They were shooting a movie during our lessons. Our 15min of fame?

Walking tours, 2 in one!

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We always met at the clock in Plaza del Sol. east to find.

On our evening walking tour, we ate supper at the Museo del Vino. Interesting Museum. They watered down their wine!

leave it to Hannah to pick a fight with something bigger than her!

This part of Madrid has pretty and interesting street signs. This one is just down from the Royal Palace.

We started our first walking tour in the rain at the Royal Palace, so I just had to get out my midget umbrella.

Sometimes we are lucky and see protests and demonstrations that prove these countries are democracies.

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Here is the other protest photo.

Not a protest, this is Raten Sanchez the Spanish tooth ferry. He lives in Room #8 of this building.

While we were taking a break, Hannah tried on her new shoes, then decided to wear out her old ones.

There was a farmer's protest in Madrid when we came by, and er got to see them and they did not bother us. Wonderful. Democracy in action!

We had a great Bus & walking tour of Madrid.

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In front of the Spanish Royal Palace is this statue of a soldier. I think it is the statue of the East.

The Madrid Cathedral, shot from the next hill. this is the best place for a good photo. We did not go inside.

We did a group photo under & around the statue of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza in Esanpia Square.

The statue to Cervantes is in Espania Square. There is also a nice bathroom across the street. this area also has a Starbucks(just ask the girls!)

We started out bus tour, in the rain, at the modern Arches at the "top", the north end of Madrid.

In Madrid we had dinner outside the hotels for the first time on this trip.

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We did not spend enough time in Plaza Major, but we visited it at night, when it is the most beautiful.

A man came thru the restaurant selling roses. Somehow Elizabeth ended up with one. Here she is doing her best Carmen interpretation.

They had a cowhide on the wall of this dinner restaurant. I always wondered if we were eating some of it. I believe we ate here last trip as well.

Sometimes we had to wait for other EF groups to get thru eating before we could go in. This is one of those times.

On our walking tour of Madrid we saw a few things worth photos.

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Many restaurants in this area of Madrid had tiled fronts. we saw this one on our walking tour near Plaza del Sol. The tiles were on the other side as well, but, alas, no photo.

I thought this building looked a bit colonial. It was across a small plaza from the Restaurant with tiles on the other photo.

Berlin has a symbol that is a bear, but Madrid does also. The story has something to do with a bear eating strawberries off a tree. i will try to look it up and get back to you with the real story.

I always love to take photos of Jewel next to or in front of things. she is very photogenic. Here she is next to a civil guard, in front of a public building, where our group met several times. He has a funny hat.

Between Salamanca and Madrid, we stopped in Avila, and we stopped at a truck stop for lunch.

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At the truck stop, we had a few minutes while the others finished lunch, so a few of the Canada girls and our Elizabeth sunned themselves for a moment or two.

Added to my collection of great doors, is the side door to the church in Avila.

We can start off with Avila, where we stopped for a short visit.

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Naturally we have to have a photo of me in front of the city! Cheese!

Massive city gate towers.

They have the neatest mailbox slots at the Avila postoffice.

Our group poses, again.

A photo of Elizabeth in front of the city. They have this nice photo overlook.

The walls of Avila, a new-looking walled city, but really from the 12th century.

The Public library in Salamanca is in a pretty old building.

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A large church was just across the street. We were in the cloister of the library, that was there before the library use. Very pretty architecture.

Some of our tour kids listening to the tour guide while I was off taking pictures.

The outside wall of the library has a shell motif. Why I do not know.

Brittany and Candice up on a ledge across the street from the library, looking like a couple of Pritchett book-ends.

After the university, we went into the cathedral and climbed the tower to the roof.

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Here is Donna from Virginia and some of our girls, Hannah, Candice, & Dijah, on the roof of the cathedral.

This is Susan and Howard on the roof of the cathedral. It was cold up there.

The Virginia group (except for Randy) on the roof, Donna, Drucilla, Monique, Jordan, and Athena (not in that order!).

Rita being held and carried on the roof of the cathedral by the parents from the Saskatchewan Group. Glad they did not drop her.

We went around and thru the universities in Salamanca (more doors later).

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Hannah was the first one to get in the well. I am not sure, but she may have been trying to hide.

Of course, I had to have my picture by the well. Notice that I did not get in. Brittany is in the background.

Donna got next to the well as well.

Brittany got in the well, and it made a good picture. Rita just finished taking her picture also. This well is in one of the student quadrangles of the university, between the student graduation wall, and the earliest room-sized celestial map.

Once in Salamanca, we had our usual walking tour and saw and did many interesting things.

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The iron balconies first sttracted me, I think they are outstanding. But if you look in the upper left, you will see a big stork nest on top of the chimney.

It was raining, and as our group walked on our tour, we passed this well-outfitted little dog. I could not tell if he had on doggie Wellies.

This is a university town, (two, a private and a public)so I guess I should not have been surprised to see a public condom machine on the wall. this is a Catholic country that dot have divorce until just a few years ago.

I guess this is called wrapping yourself in the flag. Of course, this was the Spanish flag. Oooops!

Donna from Virginia was the first one to hold the flag and stand next to the suit of armor. thanks, Donna.

Before arriving in Salamanca on a wet afternoon in April we stopped in Cuidad Rodrigo for a look.

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On my walk I found these 2 interesting doors. I needed more time to explore, but Salamonca beckened.

This is an ornate cross in the churchyard. It did not seem to be on a grave, but was pretty and interesting.

Cuidad Rodrigo is a medieval walled town with pretty complete walls. It has double walls with a moat in between. This is a photo of the moat.

This is one of the mail city gates thru the wall at Cuidad Rodrigo. We had a nice 45 min stroll in the town, where folks still live.

Our river cruise in Photos.

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There were too many things to take photos of to include here, but one of the highlights of the cruise was going under a bridge originally built by Gustav Eiffel, or Eiffel Tower fame. It was a railroad bridge, and it is partly under wraps now because they are working on restoring it to it's former glory.

There was a huge convent on the banks of the river, just behind the Port warehouses, that had a massive round chapel. When the king ordered out of Portugal all religious orders, the convent was abandoned, but the chapel remained a church. Now the Portuguese Army is using the convent as barracks.

There are many buildings, new and old, large and small on the banks of the river. Here are a few, chosen at random.

Our big deal in our day trip to Porto was our visit to a Port Wine Warehouse. This is the historical place that Port is made.

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Here is our handsome group, posing on the Port Wharfs after learning about how Port is made and aged. We are ready for lunch.

These are a couple of the traditional boats that were used to bring the grapes/juice down river from the growing area so that it could be proceeded in the factory. They use trucks now.

Not a good photo, but there are several rooms of giant barrels where the wine is aged after they add the brandy to stop the fermentation. You can actually drop your camera under one of these.

This is the factory/warehouse where we learned a lot about how Port wine is made, processed, and aged in Porto.

We ate lunch on the waterfront of Porto, after we did our port wine tour but before we took our cruise on the river. All this time it was raining and

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This woman has nothing to do with lunch or the restaurant, but she was next to the square, and she looked so old world leaning out the window smoking a cigarette in the rain with her wash hanging there. plus the tile on the building is typical, and pretty.

Lunch was in a picturesque little square just across the river from the port warehouse. we ate there mostly because it was raining and the cruise started nearby.

Jewel, DeVonda, and Elizabeth all enjoyed their hamburgers. It was a lit better than Mc Donald's or Burgergrumble.

Randy, Donna, and Lynne show you the "menu" specials at the "An Old Lady and a Cat" restaurant in the waterfront square in Porto, Portugal. If is still open when you come to Porto, I recommend that you eat there. Service is good, the food is good, the owner speaks English, and it is a lovely place. I have already shown you a photo of the bathroom.

More Art in the park. there were 3 of these statues, and I have photos of 2. Why they would have humorous statues of Chinese men, I do not know.

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Here is another one. They all three are somewhat alike, bu with different numbers of people, sitting on the benches.

Here is the first one without Randy from Virginia.

Our walking tour of Porto took us to a church tower where we could get good views of town.

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This church was the first one we saw on our walk. It has nice tiles on it. It was also next to the park where Randy & I found park art.

here is Randy standing next to the art i the par, 4 Chineese.

Lynne stands in front of one of the side altars in the church.

The altar of that church was very pretty, with a Jacob's ladder.

This is the tower that we climbed to get great views of Porto.

We start out photo tour of Porto with a tour of Porto Toilets!

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We ate lunch in a nice little restaurant names "An Old Woman & a Cat", which was small and narrow, and seemed to be built in an old wharf cellar. The bathroom was amazing. If you can tell from the photo, it is small, and 2 of the walls are old stone. It almost looks like it was carved out of rock. There is a plastic shield to protect the user from the wet rocks.

This Bidet and this toilet were locked, but the glass door was there so you could see how beautiful were the toilets that they used to make. Not much privacy in this room, anyway!

As we drove into Porto, our first stop was at a public convenience, so everyone could go. This is an older bathroom, and you can see the massive size of the urinals, and also the fine tiles on the wall. Much nicer than things usually are today.

Just walking thru the rest of Coimbra, heading for out hotel.

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Here Rita and Maria, our guide, were dancing on the edge of the fountain. I missed all the action, but not the laughter afterwards.

Inside the church at the bottom of the hill was a fine old organ that looks almost the same as the organ in the University of Coimbra chapel.

This is the entrance of the church at the bottom of the hill where the university is.

This is a door on an old mosque that was later turned into a Romanesque church. The carvings around the door are the ones that were there for the mosque. Therefore, there are only designs, not saints, or people. this church was also a basilica to protect the people from attack.

University doors.

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Hannah Squared. Both Hannahs got together for this math problem, one on each side of the center post of these doors.This is the door to the University Chapel.

Jewel and I decided to pose and show off our beautiful selves in front of this beautiful, old, door.

This is the door to the University Chapel. We had a bit of a wait, so we stood around this one. the chapel was nice, but we did not take any photos inside.

We are staying this night and the next on Coimbra, so when we got to town, we took and bus, and a walking tour to get acquainted.

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The mail part of the University, was once the king's palace. Nice house if you can get it.

In the courtyard outside the min gateway arch, the streey has a points of compass design. Very snazzy.

The roof on the main, old part of the university, has very colorful times on it.

We were really going to see the University Library, but to get there, we had to traverse this arch and go across the courtyard. It was lovely.

After we left Fatima, we visited a old monestary at Batalha and a little later stopped to eat lunch.

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Rita & Florintino, our driver enjoyed their lunch and posed for us before we headed for Coimbra.

This is the front door of the church that was once part of monestary. Unfortunately, it was locked.

The whole group, NC, Va, and Sasketchiwan posed after lunch tht day. It was a good lunch nd a mello group.

The monestary church at Balelha. The monestary part has not been used in 150 years, but the church is used as a church. At least one king of Portugal is buried there, but the back of the church, and burial for another king was never finished.

A few more from Fatima.

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Here is Lynne in front of the older church. this is the one where they were having a service while we were there.

I tried to get a photo of the service, but we had to stand just a little too far away. The crowds were not huge, but they had barracades up.

Jewel and Lynne relax and show off for a minute before we get closer to the little chapel and the service at the church. It was an amazing thing for non-catholics to see. It was also Easter Sunday.

Day 4, we left Lisbon, visited Fatima, and ended up in Coimbra. Glad Portugal is small. Here are some photos!

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Here I am standing in front of the old church at Fatima, the 2nd one (if you count the chapel) built to commemorate the 3 childen's visions of the Virgin Mary on a tree in Fatima.

People come to this holy site to pray and/or to be penitents. I only saw women doing it, but there was a special walk for people to crawl on their knees, praying all the way. Here several people are carrying candles that they will light when this woman gets thru.

At the top of the hill, they have just built a new, 5-10,000 set church for the faithful. This is the very modern crucifex that is out front.

The front door of the new church is very magnificent.

The altar area of the new church is huge, and magnificent. it is all mosaic & gold leaf.

Our Fado Evening was very DSA music. Lots of Guitar.

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It was a dark night on a dark street, and suddenly, there was our Fado place.

I did not want to take too many photos, because they had the lights low, but this one was just so great, I had to get it. You sing, girl!

Oh, I left this one out. See how they managed to set the stones in this plaza so it does not look flat? It looks like ocean waves. Good job, buys!

A couple of other interesting photos of things were left out.

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At the end of our free time, we were all sitting around the central square, being tired and hungry, just waiting for Rita.

Lynne Sullivan finally got a date with a famous Portuguese man. Too bad he was Vasco de Gamma, and has been dead for at least 400 years.

We visited a monistary church, which has this reallty beautiful door.

We kind of wore out our city guide, Rafaela, or did she wear us our? I am too tired to remember.

Walking tour of Lisbon, our third day

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Another thing that I found interesting was this statue of a nude. I never did find out why this was there.

I did not take many photos of the castle, since it was just walls, but they had a peacock, which posed for us.

In Old Lisbon, many houses were covered with tile on the outside. It saved on paint. This one sort of looks like an oriental carpet, if you have a good imagination!

This one was classier, since it had flowers, and several different types of painted motifs.

After our bus tour, we did a walking tour up to the castle on top of the hill. We saw some pretty Lisbon things, and some pretty interesting things on the way. Here someone has made flower sconces out of their old legs!

Morning at the Hotel, after our first night. Dawn, Yawn!

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The rising sun reflecting on the clouds above the buildings foretold a pretty, but perhaps cloudy & stormy day ahead. Hope there is not too much rain!

The view down the street from my hotel window shows that it rained over night, and also the palm trees of this fairly tropical resort.

Still by the river, this is the monument to the Portuguese exploration that was started by Prince Henry the Navigator.

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This is the riverside monument dedicated to the Portuguese sailors who helped "discover" the rest of the world. It is on a site where many of these ships left from in Belem, near Lisbon.

Here I am pointing to some of the massive carvings that adorn both sides of the monument. I did not want you to miss them!

Here is the full set of the figures on the other side of the monument. No need for me to point these out.

Also on the river is a monument to the 2 Portuguese airmen who first flew across the S. Atlantic to Brazil, from Portugal. Rita is here, showing me this monument.

Day 3 of our trip, we are in Lisbon

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We visited one of the forts on the River Targus that protected Lisbon in the days of sail and the early sea exploration. Here are the Prichetts standing by the draw bridge.

I tried to get everybody to pose together, but this time I could only get Hannah, Dijah, Hannah, and Jewel together.

Elizabeth shows you what the fort looks like from farther away. It was closed, so we could not get inside.

I caught Davonda before she could get away. Smile, Davonda!

The closest we could get to the inside was the model, so here are Hannah and Jewel looking to see what it really looks like. Thanks, Girls!

More Lisbon

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Here are some more of thise sculptures near city hall.

The door of a ruined convent in Lisbon that is a center of archeological study.

Rita really enjoys herself on out walking tours!

A large Arty deco Building (with palm trees) is in the middle of Lisbon. Beautiful.

More from our first day in Lisbon

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Some doors on foreign countries look really spectacular! these old RR station doors have a moorish look, remembering the time when Spain & Portiugal were muslim.

The view from the men's bathroom window in the mall where we ate lunch.

I am always attracted to soldiers. Must be something to do with my year in Vietnam.

Dijah was also interested in the soldier!

A Rainy Day in Lisbon Town

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Elizabeth Klinck looks good posing in front of the modern art by Lisbon's city hall.

When we got to the train station in estoril, the girls could not resist getting a photo.

Our very nice, modern hotel in Estoril, only 3 blocks from the besch. Too bad it was too cold to hit the water!

In the Lisbon Airport, we saw our first weird, foreign thing, she was wearing a picking hat!

Late Plane

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No photos this time, but they tell us that out plane to Newark is going to be late. Not good. We have only a short window to make our Lisbon plane in Newark. Drat More later. Howard D

SITTING IN THE AIRPORT IN DURHAM, WAITING!

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Poor Hannah could not decide whether to smile or not! Hi! Hannah!

We all finally arrived at the Continental ticket counter. A lot of good smiles. Obviously we are not tired yet! Fun is starting soon.

Introducing Lynne Sullivan!

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Lynne Sullivan, who has worked at DSA since it was Durham High School, will be retiring this year, and part of her celebration is that she will go on our trip to Portugal & Spain. Thanks for coming along, Lynne, and welcome! Oh, and sharpen those pencils for testing!

OUR TOUR DIRECTOR

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For those of you who were wondering, here is the photo that Rita, our Tour Director sent me. She is Portuguese, 27, lives in Ireland, and to me looks like the perfect person to show us the secrets of Portugal & Spain. Hola! Rita!!!

WELCOME TO OUR TRIP BLOG!

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My wife, Susan, seen here in Rome, will be on our trip to Portugal & Spain, starting on 9 April, 2009. She has never been to either place, and is looking forward to seeing all new things.

Of course, your always cheerful and debonaire group leader, Howard Du Bose, (seen here by a fountain last year in downtown Nice, France) will be trying to make the trip memorable by taking and posting photos of the kids and some of the places we see, as well as keeping a running trip log about where we have been and are going next.