Portugal
Our summer vacation this year was to Portugal. My husband’s mother is from the island of Madeira, so he has family there that we visit every so often. It’s a nice place, full of good eats and beautiful scenery. Plus, if you’re into swimming, lots and lots of ocean to dive into.
We began our trip on the mainland, starting first with the city of Lisbon.
We were there during the Feast of St. Anthony festival. THIS is quite a citywide party. It’s otherwise known as the sardine festival, as the main street food of it is grilled sardines. Beer seems to be the primary beverage, and beer companies pass out cool little hats that look like a sardine hanging off of your head. This festival is also where a lot of Portuguese couples choose to get married, and so there was a stream of brides and grooms coming down the street, being cheered on by onlookers.
The various neighborhoods of Lisbon also have dancers in bright, flashy costumes that come down the main street and represent their area, to cheering onlookers. This goes on literally all night. 3 a.m., and they were still out there parading down the street. Thankfully, the locals are off of work the next day to recover.
Our next leg of the journey was to the wine-producing region of Portugal, near the Spanish border. There was a neat winery that had ENORMOUS clay urns in which they aged the wine, all set in this cool, dark, cave-like room. I never wanted to leave it. We also went to a winery that served dinner and had grounds for letting the kids roam around on, swim, and some truly beautiful scenery in which to watch the sun go down.
The next day was not exactly my favorite. We went to the remains of a castle/lookout area that was higher up; where else would it be, right? And it was cool to look at, for sure. But it was also a lot hotter than usual there, and a learning experience for me – there are species of earwigs that can fly, and Texas does NOT have the edge when it comes to the bug population. That place was LOUSY with those creepy flying earwigs, and we were finding them in our clothes after we had left.
The last part of the trip was to the island of Madeira, so that we could visit family. My husband has some relatives there that are aging, and so felt it important for us to see them while we still could. It was a nice visit.
Madeira also happens to be the birthplace/home of Cristiano Ronaldo, and there’s a little museum with a hotel dedicated to him there. This was also during the World Cup, and the game with Portugal against Morocco was being broadcast in the town square. On the way back to our hotel, our younger son came across Cristiano Ronaldo Jr., and snapped a pic with him. He was a bit pumped about that. Apparently, on the island, Ronaldo and fam live normally. They walk around unaided, and people let them be — except for a curious little American tourist, that is.
After that, we had the dubious pleasure of hauling ALL that wine we bought back home. I hope it’s as good as we remembered.
