So, catching up on our travels, on Friday we went to the Douro River valley, which meant a trip through the mountains. Unfortunately the day was cloudy and dark and rainy off and on, and although the scenery was beautiful, it was too California-like to be really interesting to me, and most of the places we visited were frankly underwhelming, except for the last city, Vila Real, parts of which were charming. In truth, I was probably already coming down with the flu, which probably shaded my opinion of the area. Here are some pictures; as I said, the scenery was beautiful (it's a wine region, famous for port):
As always, more pictures are on my Flickr site.
For better or worse, our apartment here has a big flat-screen LCD TV, with several English-language stations, including one that broadcasts live and recorded sports, so we've been glued to the set more than we should be, watching election news and college football. I suppose everyone's caught the Sarah Palin fake phone call from Montreal radio hosts claiming to be French President Nicolas Sarkozy; if not, you can hear it here. Nice going Sarah, that's what we like to see two days before the election!
I am really looking forward to being back in Paris. Portugal was OK, certainly much less expensive than France, but as a vacation spot (at least this time through), I'd give it a B- at best (although in fairness much of that may have had to do with the weather, or maybe the traffic).
I realize this post was boring, maybe I'll try again tomorrow.
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