Lisbon and Marrakech

 

After my week on the Douro River Boat I jumped a high speed train to Lisbon where I explored some areas I had visited last year at the same time.  The weather was cold but sunny and it didn't stop me from taking a electric bike tour of the hills of lower Lisbon.  I was accompanied by a guide who was a university professor and learn an enormous amount about the history of Portugal and particularly how the country managed to create itself in the Iberian Peninsula.

I also flew from Lisbon to Marrakech for a short 2 day re visit.  This time I stayed in one of the nicest hotels in the city.  I had pre-arraigned  a guide from my previous visit and we spend about 4 1/2 hours walking and talking through the area and souks( market)

Cruising the Douro River

 

I flew from Houston to Porto Portugal on AirFrance to traverse the Duoro River on the AMA Vida.   This is a medium size river boat built especially for the Duoro.  It is shorter than many of the boats on the European Rivers in order to fit through the locks on the river. There were 5 locks that we engaged on our 7 day cruise.  The tallest being 130 feet.  It takes about 20 min to enter, adjust the water level and then depart the other side.  As we go inland toward the Spanish border we are climbing each level.  

Speaking of the 7 days, we sailed for 3 days usually in the morning as there is no cruising at night on the Douro.  So the mornings were relaxing with lots of food and coffee and using the free internet which was spotty at best.  When it worked I could upload photos. And logon to my trading platform

Meals were served in the dining room on the mid level with tables ranging from 2- 8.  The wait staff was quite good and the food quality was the best I have experienced on a cruise.  Now I'm not going to pretend that I enjoyed all the Portuguese cuisine but there were usually alternatives available.  Several dinners were part of the off ship excursions and they were private dinners at wineries or in the case of the day trip to Salmanac, at a 4 star hotel with Flamingo Dancers.

Speaking of wine,  there was plenty of white and red at each meal with a different Portuguese vintage at each meal.  Then there were the wineries, so I probably sampled a dozen different vintages on my trip.  Each evening for an hour before dinner, the cocktail hour was complimentary.

There was an upper deck with plenty of lounges and a decent size pool.  But we never used it because of the weather.  I would probably be really nice in the summer.  The capacity of this ship was right at 100 guests but we only had 80.   They were all english speaking as our Cruise Director was from the UK.  Slightly more than half were from the US traveling in pairs or foursomes.   I found two couples from Texas and we hung out the entire trip.  Many retirees and not that old.

Day 2 of the trip found us traveling to the Mateus Palace and grounds.  This is a 16th century structure that is half museum and half a private residence of the descendents of the family.  Also a working vineyard with production of the first wines I bought in college.  We had dinner at another winery on the way back to the ship.This was the region where Muscotel grapes are grown.  These grapes, if from a certain area, are used in the production of Port. 

Day 3 We drove about an hour and half up the top of the hills to a historic village of Castelo Rodrigo.  Famous but pretty deserted,  now just open for tourists.  Interesting structures.  This area is home to almonds and olive groves.  We had plenty of tasing in the village and then back to the ship.

So each day the same three buses were waiting for us at our port.  Having been divided on the first evening, we had the same bus and group each day.  They put all the Texans together with the New Yorkers.  That was like oil and water.  Anyway we had a lovely young Portuguese gall who our specific guide and we used theses radio boxes with different channels so we were kept separate from the other 2 groups  It was very organized and efficient

On the fourth day , we took a 2 hour each way bus ride across the Spanish border to the major city of Salamanca.  Claim to fame here is the historic university, one of the largest in Spain.

A one hour walking tour through the old city and fabulous lunch of Paella and Flamenco Dancers in a lovely hotel.

I returned the ship after that long and cold day, had a steak and went to bed

The next morning was the longest segment of cruising and fortunately the sun shone through for the first time and it was a pretty cruise.  That afternoon we bussed to the Pacheca estates where the owner who met us had just returned from receiving the Presidents award for the best Port for 2024.  We sampled it and it was fantastic.

The following morning it was off to the beautiful village of Lamego and the infamous 686 steps from the city center to the opening of the Cathedral.  I did the steps; of course in 17 minutes…,

Lamego is the mountain village that is the most popular for international retirees.

..

And finally the last full day of our cruise was at our departure port of Gaia. This area is directly across the Douro River from Porto and its claim to fame is the storage and aging area for the port wines that are produced and shipped from the Douro Valley.  We were bused to the city center of Porto and a walking tour of the market and the train station. The train station is adorned with multiple ceramics which depict the ancient story of Porto.

After lunch on the ship, a few of us ventured across the street for another port wine tasting.  

I can honestly say that this AMA WATERWAYS CREW of  25 really took care of the 80 of us.  I have been on many cruises but the personal attention that we all received from this crew was really special.  This won’t be my last AMA river cruise.

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The Boys of Summer__Thank you Don Henley

 As the summer comes to an end, I sit here on Labor Day reflecting on the last 3months.  I put my car on a truck in May, packed 1 suitcase and left home for 3-4 months...I've been in this Summit valley with its beautiful lake and mountains, all within reach of my summer apartment.

I've hiked, climbed, been on the water, driven to the casinos for poker tournaments. Been on electric bikes, sat out at the Dillon Amphitheater under the stars listening to fantastic and some not so good music.

I been entrained by friends, eg. Cindy and Brian Atlas, Sherri Atlas, Susan Meyer, Cathy and Will Wiener,

Alan Zieben, Stephen Friedman, Eddie Gertner and sons, Gina and Bruce Taffet, Sandra and John Lopez, Mike Stein.  Wow, I'm not this active in Houston!  But then that's why one comes to the mountains of Colorado in the summer.

I still have another 4 weeks to go.  Who knows what that will bring?

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Hiking Lower Cataract Lake

 

About 45 min. N of Silverthorne on the way to Kremmling and Steamboat are several mountain lakes and reservoirs.  One such lake is called Lower Cataract.  This is fed by the Upper Cataract Lake which is several thousand feet higher up Mt. Powel.  One can drive along a hard packed somewhat rocky road (shouldn't have taken the Tesla) to a trail head which is about 1/2 mile from the lake.  There is a beautiful trail around the circumference of the lake which is less than 4 miles and end up back at the trail head with picnic tables to enjoy a lunch.  That's exactly what I did yesterday with several of my friends here in Summit County.  Cindy and Brian Atlas, Susan Meyer,  Brent and Eileen Ladd , Susan's friend Laurie from Austin as well and the Atlas kids and grandkids....

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4th of July in the mountains

 The favorite holiday wherever you may be in the US is the 4th of  July. Picnics, parades, concerts, bands, and fireworks...This is how they do it in 2 different Colorado mountain towns:  Vail/Avon gathered on their park and Melissa Etheridge entertained for and hour and a half.  The following night in the Dillon Amphitheatre we were treated to Air Force Band and a beautiful sunset over  Lake Dillon.

Hope you enjoyed your 4th.

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The Lake Dillon Bowl

 If you are not familiar with the area around Lake Dillon, this large reservoir was created by damning an area where 3 rivers joined in the 1950's and 1960's to create a water supply for the city of Denver.  The water is tunneled through the continental divide into a reservoir next t  o Denver. There are 4 residential areas clockwise around the lake;  Breckinridge, Frisco, Silverthorne and Dillon.

I'm in a condo about 100 yards from the Lake.  There are plenty of mixed use trails in the area.  I have walked in many directions.  I've walked across the damn and I can walk from my area to the Blue River area in Silverthorne.  There are several parks and restaurants along the river.  On Friday mornings there is a "market" about a 5 min walk from me where about 50 vendors were selling their products.  I bought a "half plank" of  smoked salmon which I ate for the weekend. Friday evening was jam of about 300 people drinking and listening to a local band.  This is the "Frist Friday" social which will be held monthly for the summer.  Saturday am I took a boat ride on the Lake with a member of the Historical Society who gave  me a 1 1/2 hour tour of the lake and the history of area around.  Our boat driver showed me several good fishing areas for my friends that will be visiting this summer.

I'm 30 minutes from Vail and an hour from the Blackhawk Reservation which is loaded with casinos.  I plan to visit them both.  When I start hiking the mountains, I'll have more reports.

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Summer 2024 or Out of the Houston Heat

 
So this summer I'm going to avoid the airports and crowds and cool off in the mountains of Colorado(Texas-North).  I decided on the Dillon / Silverthorne area from my previous visits to the area. I started looking for suitable rental early in the year and with the help of Zillow I found this 2 1/2 Br condo overlooking Lake Dillon. Having  done the 16 hour drive before, I'm a big fan of putting the car on the truck and meeting it in Denver on the plane.  After several days of of no response from the truckers, I got a call on  Memorial Day from a heavy accented driver who said he would pick up my car in 2 hours.   Lucky for me, I had been briefed that this interaction was not only possible but probable.  The car was packed and off the Tesla went late Monday afternoon.  I spent Tuesday closing my Condo and early Wednesday caught a flight to Denver where I was met my cousin Bruce and his significant other Gina.   We spent 3 days around Parker, Co including a drive to the the Castle Pines golf course where the BMW invitational will be held in August. This is also the course that for years was a televised gold tournament called the International which had a unusual scoring mechanism but was a very popular spectator tournament.

After drooping Bruce and Gina at the airport for their trip back East, it was an easy 90 min. drive.  Essentially no traffic, but I'm sure as the summer progresses this will change.

The first morning I took a small walk in the neighborhood to check out the Dillon Amphitheater home of many summer concerts and the Lake.  My complex is directly across the street from the amphitheater 

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Finale

The final morning 

We loaded the bus on our last 4 hr ride to Casablanca.  To everyone’s surprise it was covered with a marine fog.  A full tour of the  Hassan II mosque which I picture on my first afternoon when it was sunny.  This time we toured the interior with our our personal guide and learned a lot about the Islam religion and their relationship with mosque.  This is the 2nd or 3 rd largest mosque in the Muslim world and will hold 25,000 people on the inside and another 40,000 outside in the courtyard.

That evening I had a beautiful suite on the top floor of a Spa hotel and took it easy.

So Morroco as a new experience for me and I must admit, even the experienced traveler that I am, I could have never made it without a group and guide.

I think 8 full days were  a little too much for me, but the highlights of the country are spread out and it takes a while to drive the country.  One could fly in and out of Marrakech, and just skip Casablanca and commute by local air to Fez and or Tangier and see most of the country. But the only way to get to the Desert and dunes is by driving and I would not have given that up.  Watching the sunset and rise over the desert sand will stick with me for a long time.

Our tour director Bren and her company Cherg Expeditions of Marrakech was wonderful handling every little detail. 

Photos Here

The Desert to Marrakesh

We left the desert camp driving south to Marrakesh.  We were between the two ranges of the Atlas Mountains which contains an elongated oasis.  Oasis are areas of vegetation in the middle of the desert where there is a water table running bellow the surface that the vegetation has found.  These appear near mountains as they contain the runoff from the snowpack.

The largest film studio in Africa is along the way and we stoped for a quick photo op. You can see the list of films and tv shows that were produced here.  Then onward to the Kasbah where the film people stay.  This is a very historic Kasbah as it is the oldest documented one in the desert of Morocco.  There is a small structure built at the top of a 300 ft hill which we climbed.  This had been constructed as a money exchange when built thousand years ago.  Recently it suffered damage due to the earthquake.  You can see the damage and we saw more damage along the roadway as we crossed out of the Atlas range into Marrakesh.  There we checked in to a wonderful riad for a 2 night stay.  We had a big group dinner of Tangine and Couscous which is the native dish.

The following morning we were the first to visit a Berber pharmacy.  This would be what we call naturopathic and they put on quite a sales demo.  It reminded me of the “sham-wow” commercial.  The guy must have sold us 2-5,000$ worth of product in 45 minutes.  The Jardin Majorelle which is a beautiful man made garden which reportedly was a favorite spot of Yves St Laurent.  Another historic riad and then lunch near the town square.

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A Camel Ride

 Possibly the highlight of the trip    

Was a camel ride through the dessert to a camp in an oasis. First we drove south and crossed  a branch of the Atlas  mountains.  This mountain chain cross  Morocco from NE to SW and was the source of the infamous earthquakes last month.  We didn’t witness any damage as that was all in the far southern region of the country 

We stopped in a small roadside village for a presentation of Berber music and couscous followed by a large lunch.

Then it was onward to meet Clyde the camel for an hour ride across the desert.

We watched the sunset from a sand dune and then into our camp.  This is a luxury camp with full toilet, large shower and large comfortable bedding.  Dinner was served in a wonderful dining room.  We closed the evening at the campfire listening to some Berber music under the night sky.

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Morroco

 Followings my Lisbon visit,

I boarded a most comfortable commuter jet to Casablanca

Morocco,  a drive to a magnificent hotel; Le Casablanca and a walking tour of Casablanca. The boardwalk at the beach reveals the  massive  waves of the Atlantic ocean.  Then a visit to large mosque.  Casablanca is the largest and commercial center of Morocco with a port that can handle 350 ships simultaneously, but its not the capital. That would be Rabat. The hotel was very luxurious and and opulent.

The following morning we met our guide for the trip; Abdul. In case your are wondering how a bus tour works; one loads up on the bus every day and the guide narrates the entire day.  Multiple stops during the day for attractions, refreshments and WC breaks.  The bus has good wifi and charging ports.  

The terrain inland from Rabat to Fes  is arid and hilly.  Remined me of the Texas hill country.  One main difference; olive groves as far as the eye can see.

When we arrived in Fes, the real adventure began.  We spent 2 nights in a Riad which is deep in the medina.  The baggage  was handled by local porters who met us at the Riad.  We had to walk ~20 minutes through very narrow streets in a line as to not get separated and finally arrived  at our lodging which was through a small door behind the non descriptive walls.  Once inside it was apparent that this had been a family home in the past with multiple bedrooms and open air sitting rooms.  Today riads are used as hotels while in the past they represented homes for the privileged.  The kasbah refers to a walled city typical of ancient civilizations while the term medina is often interchangeable with kasbah..  So, we walked  through the kasbah past several  open markets and merchant stalls to our riad.

How bought that for some arabic.  By the way, the majority of inhabitants are not arabs but berbers. The berbers are the one of the original populations of what is now Morocco.  Followed by the Jews and most recently(hundreds) of years the arabs.

There are only ~4000 jews remaining in Morocco  due to the many that fled during the Vichy occupation of Morocco during WWII.  Most berbers today have acclimated to modern society and are indigenous in the middle class.

I must emphasize before we leave this topic of kasbahs that there is absolutely no way I  could walk through the kasbah independently.  The width of the walkway was about 8 feet and there was 2 way trafic of people, carts and motorcycles.

We left Fes the second morning for visit to the the romain ruin Voulibilis which was a film site for”The Last Temptation of Christ” and a then a visit to a private cave where Mohamed prepared and served us berber tea.

Photos

Lisbon

 Lisbon is the capital of Portugal and is situated at the mouth of the Rio Tagus  which actually originates in Spain.  The river empties into Atlantic ocean and thus is the home of a large marine industry which happens to be the 2nd largest industry in Portugal.   What is the largest, well that would be tourism.  

Since tourism is my new profession and since I have never visited, this felt like the time to book a premium seat and make my way.  It also happens to be on the way to Morocco which actually is the main destination of my journey.  More on Morocco in my next note.

I arrived after an overnight flight on Air France with a 55 minute connection @ CDG.  I cant really recommend that itinerary . It would have been 90 min if the flight had left IAH on-time.

To the hotel and I picked up a SIM card for my phone so I would have all the portable data I require for my Google Maps. First evening was spent in a British Gin restaurant where I dined on beer and Octopus.  I don’t like Gin. I do really like fresh octopus marinated in EVOO.

Tues, I felt fresh and spent the entire  day on 2 different Hop On/Off bus routes.  If you follow my travels you will recall that I am a big fan of these for the fist day In a new town. I don’t get off, I use them for the narrated tour of the city. I didn’t realize how spread out and diverse Lisbon is.  Modern building at the site of the World Expo of 1998, to the cruise terminal on the bay front of old Portugal where the cathedral and Royal Palace overlook the ocean.

Wednesday I was picked up at my hotel and joined 6 other Americans for a day trip to Sintra and Cascais. Sintra is the home of one of the oldest fortresses that the Moors established when conquering the Iberian peninsula.  From there we drove along the coast to the Cabo da Roca which is the most western point in Europe. Then on to Cascais for lunch on fresh Cod and a relaxing afternoon stroll along the waterfront.

The food in Portugal is seafood based with an abundance of Atlantic Cod and Octopus and more pastry shops than banks.

The next day I relaxed, did laundry and got ready for the next leg.

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Boulder Colorado July 2023

 

If you live in Houston Texas and you can afford to take 4-6 wks off, you leave town in the summer for a cooler climate.  For the past several years, Covid excluded, I have gone to Spain and Italy for the Mediterranean climate.  Crisp and cool early in the morning, dry and warm as the day heats up and a very pleasant evening. Last summer was a bit of a disaster.  Oh the weather was fine, it's just that every American who was pent up during Covid decided to visit Southern Europe.  Many of my favorite spots in Barcelona were not even reopened probably due to lack of help.  The airports, all of them, Heathrow, Barcelona, Paris, Frankfurt were all a mess.  Not enough ground crew or security personnel to move the unexpected surge of tourists.

So this summer I decided to stay home; US that is, and rented an apartment in Boulder, CO. I visited my cousin Bruce in the Denver area, who spent his profession life with Regal/UA theaters. He managed to install a home theater and this is the old 35mm Reel type projector.

Now Boulder is an interesting city of 110,000 people, 31,000 of which are Colorado U students who aren’t around in the summer as there is no on campus summer session.  The town is full of nature freaks who love to walk, hike, cycle and just gather outdoors.  The town is nestled right up against the Rockies and there are numerous hikes and paths that I could reach by walking 5min from my summer rental.  I spent every morning on a 3-6 mile walk or hike.  Lots of healthy food but historically warm temps.  I really didn't get to cool down as I had planned. It was cooler than Houston, but I didn’t put on a long sleeve shirt or slack the entire month.

Here are some pics of the scenery in the neighboring area.

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Buenos Aires

 Buenos Aires has been given the reputation of the Paris of S.America.  It has enormous areas devoted to green-space.  Beautiful buildings.  A vibrant nightlife and restaurant scene.  We did not go tango as we had two different shows on the boat. We took the hop on hop off bus on a tour of the city which occupied several hours and ends up in LaBoca which is home to a street fair known as Caminito. We did however eat the specialty of Argentina, steak.  I mean it's really something different.  First of all, the meat is raised differently.  All natural feed on the range.  No antibiotics, cereal or other additives that you can’t get away from in the US.  Then its cooked over a wood embers flame and severed without salt or seasoning.  Just  chimichurri sauce on the side.  “Filete  de Lomo”; what a fantastic piece of meat.  

Buenos  Aires has the look and feel of Madrid.  More parks and monuments.  Too much to see in 2 1/2 days.  This calls for a return trip in their winter.  Just a nice hotel and tour service next trip.

So I board my overnight flight back to Houston somewhat disappointed at the cruise line for many reasons.  I possibly had too high of expectations of this cruise and it basically was a typical cruise with lots of noise.  Heavy on the cruise and short on the history ,terrain and culture of the area. A real disappointment, but definitely a new continent partially explored.

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MONTEVIDEO

is the capital of Uruguay.It sits on the northern bank of the channel from the Atlantic to Buenos Aires and beyond.  The history seems to be that it was settled by the Spanish from Buenos Aires in a blocking effort to keep the Portuguese from traveling from Brazil down the river.  There is a rather large Jewish community there as it was one of the earliest settlements of the Jews leaving the middle east and Europe.  I took a tour with a lady who is of the local Jewish community and learned some interesting facts.  We visited a Holocaust memorial that the city erected on the beach and two different synagogues.

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S.ATLANTIC and PUERTO MADRYN

We sailed northward from the Cape of Good Hope for the next 48 hours.  The seas were not bad.  I 've experience worse on a southern atlantic crossing but I guess the weather is really the determining factor and we had good weather.  We pulled into Puerto Madryn which is a small fishing port halfway up the Argentinian Coast. Not much going on here. I am now realizing that S. America is really the third world.  It just hasn't made it to the rest of European and N American standards. We walked around and found a local restaurant where we order Steak!

Boy do they butcher meat differently down here.  We each were served what looked like 3-4 pound slab of cooked meat.  There was no bone, just a huge chunk of fat.  After slicing off the meat.  It was really delicious and fresh tasting. There was really nothing else to see, so it was back to the ship after lunch.  This time we took a leisure walk down the pier.   No Tenders. 

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Beagle Channel and Ushuaia

There is a 150 km long totally navigational channel on the southern tip of S.America which connects the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean.  Named after the HMS Beagle which carried Charles Darwin to this are in the 1830’s.  Midway along this is the Argentinean port ofUshuaia, a port town of a couple hundred thousand.  This is the launch point for all Antartica explorations.  Tied up in port are numerous seagoing exploratory vessels from Linblad, Huntigren and National Geographic.  Also seen was the ill fated Viking Polaris.

I  boarded a enclosed cabin catamaran with a 150 fellow Celebrity pasenges for a 4 hour tour of the Beagle channel.  We saw seals sunning on a big rock.  Multiple flocks of birds and the highlight of the morning, one of 3 different colonies of Penguins.  Theses are the middle size.  We ended back in town and I walked for a couple hours, had a quick lunch and went through the ordeal of lining up for a  tender back to the ship. I felt a cold coming on, so I had a small dinner and went to bed. 

As advertised. We sailed out the Beagle passage to the Atlantic, turned south and arrived at the Cape of Good Horn  @ 6am the next morning.  This is the southern most piece of any continent on earth, Antarctica excluded but thats all ice.  Beyond this is the Drake Passage which before the Panama Canal opened, was the only way to sail from the Atlantic to The Pacific.  The Drake Passage reportedly is the home to more shipwrecks than any other location on earth.  If you have studied the California gold rush and the development of San Francisco, you will recall that the trip from the East Coast to California in the 1840’s took 3 weeks. I was expecting the worse but it was actually quite calm and temperate. A really inspiring site.  There is a metal monument on top of the rock to celbrate "the end of the earth".  Look carefully in the photos and you can barely see it.

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Strait of Magellan and Punta Arenas Chile.

We entered the Strait of Magellan from the S.Pacific open waters about 4 PM and the weather immediately cleared.  The wind died and the sun shined through.  John and I made it to the top deck, open a bottle of wine and enjoyed a good cigar while the mountains of the strait went by.  Dinner was marred again with bad service on the part of our restaurant crew and we vowed to take the remainder of our meals in the Oceanview Cafe; the buffet.  Will see how long that last.

The next morning we pulled into the harbor of Punta Arenas about 7 am.  I was on a tender to the port at 7:45.  Expecting a circus, I had no problems getting to and exiting the terminal onto the streets of Punta Arenas.  The problem was that this little port town was completely closed.  I mean not even a coffee shop.  So I walked a mile or so to the city square where sat looking at a  statue honoring the founding of the town in the 1850’s.  With nothing else to see or do, I walked back to the terminal, boarded  a tender and was back on the ship by 9:45.  What I have realize by now after 4 different cities in Chile is this country is not ready for US tourist.  The cities just completely shut down on Sat and Sun. Of course I am referring to downtown areas but this is where tourist stay and congregate. 

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Puerto Montt

Our first port was this seaside town of 250,000. It was settled in the late 19th century by German immigrants.  It is now a fishing center with no real passenger terminal which meant we “tendered” to shore and our excursions.  We had between 1000-2000 passengers to take the 20 minute ride to shore in 4 different tenders which meant it took about 3 hours from start to finish to get everyone ashore.  Not good planning.  So our excursion was a 90 minute bus ride to Lake Todos 

Los Santos and the Petrohue waterfalls it created.  Beautiful scenery but not sure it was worth the 3 hour ride on a bus, 3 hour wait and round trip on the tender.  The captain and cruise director got an earful all right.  His comment was “this is S America. They don’t build nice passenger terminals here. If you demand nice terminals, stay in the Caribbean”.

With that we opened a bottle of wine and forgot about it.

We then had 2 days of sailing thru the fiords' of Chile.  Very interesting scenery.

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South America

I've been on many cruises in my life. 30+ so I've sort of been conditioned to consider each cruise to be a continuation of the last experience and program myself for 7-10 days of “more of the same”.  This trip was way beyond the “norm” and I don’t mean wonderful.  Everyday brought something new and bit of a hassle to deal with. My first trip South of the Equator began with a flight from Houston via DFW to Santiago Chile.  I traveled with my friends Sandra and John Lopez who I have shared many adventures in the past.  
We arrived earlier in the morning of New Years Eve.  The New Years Celebration is taken very seriously in the Latin culture, so to no surprise.  Everything was closed.  I mean banks, restaurants,

stores. So I was unable to withdraw any local currency. It didn’t matter because there was no place to spend it. The weather was nice so we spent 2 days walking around looking at closed, shuttered storefronts. We did manage to find the most important square in town and there were a few street food vendors open, but the stuff didn’t look appetizing. We walked to a wine store and bought some very nice Chilean Reds for our cruise and we spent a couple hours at the Zoo which is situated along and up the side of one of the mini mountains in town. Fortunately the hotel was nice comfortable and had food, a bar and good wifi.

The third morning we were picked up at our arraigned hour and driven directly to the port which is an hour and a half away.  We traveled through miles after miles of vineyards and wineries.
We had plans to spend the day in the port town of Valparaiso after dropping our bags.  Didn’t happen that way.  The port and the Terminal were hard to navigate and dysfunctional, we gave in and just spent time in lines waiting to board which we eventually did after several hours.  This was just the beginning of series of events which led me the opinion that this cruise line wasn’t ready for prime time. 

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Northern Spain w/Insight Travel

Day 1 We joined up at a Hotel near the American embassy.  Dinner the first night was at a solarium type restaurant near the botanical gardens.  

Day 2The next morning an excursion to Segovia a UNESCO world heritage city home of an amazing Roman Aqueduct that supplied a palace from ancient times.  

Day 3 Traveling  to  Santiago de Compostela which is reportedly the third most import city in the Christian religion ; Know as the “Way of St.James.

We stoped for a wine tasting and learned about the regions production.

Day 4. A escorted walk through the gardens and old city with emphasis on the “camino” traveled by those completing the pilgrimage. It was raining all morning and I was soaked.

Day 5. Left the hotel for Oviedo. Stoped for a coffee and then proceeded to a “point” overlooking the Atlantic for photos at Oviñana.  We had a lunch at a private residence consisting of classic fare of the Asturias region; fava bean stew and Beef.  Onward to Oviedo and a walking tour of the city before checking into out hotel.  It was raining there so a quick walk to a Patisserie afforded a small bite and then bed.

Day 6. The highways throughout this trip are beautiful.  The autovias are control access multilane  and we’ll manicured.  There are bridges that are hundreds of meters above the valleys.  And everything is well maintained and paved. The drive thru these mountain valleys is spectacular.  

Covadonga is our first stop.  It is a stop for the “pilgrims” making their “way” across northern Spain.  There is a chapel inside a cave. These is an old stone bridge in a local town. Hotel at the Real in Santander.  Its on a hill overlooking the bay and port.  It was a beautiful accommodation.  I had drinks on The patio.  I never  left the hotel.

Day 7. First stop was the Guggenheim in Bilbao.  The structure was more interesting than the exhibit.  The museum is world famous because of the architect Frank Gehry.  This modern titanium building was built on an industrial site on the middle of this unknown town.  The museum opened in 1997 and has completely change the economy of Bilbao. We stopped for lunch in a small port city of Getaria  where they grill freshly caught seafood.  I had Octopus(pulpo a la gallega) which is grilled and sautéed in olive oil and paprika.  Its a real Iberian delicacy.

Finally we arrive in San Sebastián where we will spend the next two nights.  After a really short check in and “confort” stop we load on the bus again with a local expert to see the town which is beautiful.  It is as developed and manicured as any place i have seen in Southern California.  There is a long horseshoe shaped beach  “La Concha” which we overlooked from a vantage point high above the city.  We went to the old city and walked for  an hour and half and then presented ourselves to pre arranged restaurant for a gourmet dinner.  This city is know as the culinary capital of Spain as more Michelin chefs got their training here.  This restaurant was ranked 5 stars and it was something. This city is also home to the wealthy Spaniards.  It was the most expensive place of my summer

Day 6 The official tour loaded and went to France to some resort for the day.  I slept in and walked to Playa La Concha.

Day 7. To Pamplona.  We walked the narrow street which hosts the run of the bulls and then a coffee at the Cafe Iruna, which may ring a bell for Hemingway fans.

 On to Barcelona. Hotel check-in and then a short walk to one of my favorite pintxos bar.

Day 8 Local guide took us through La Sagrada Familia .  

Day 9 Early call and off to the airport for my flight home. 

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