This post has been gathering dust for 3 days as we had lousy connection in Lisbon and little time to do battle with it. Here it is without my planned pictures just to get it up. Posting from Evora in the Pestana  Monastery from a former monks cell.

In short we joined our OAT tour group after our continued museum/art gallery extravaganza and began doing some touring of historical and interesting places. Our hotel, the Grand Hotel Porto, is located on a walking street with permits for buses and taxis to pick up and drop off passengers. It is an old hotel with much history harking back to the times of British desire for Port. Actually Porto predates the British by many centuries as the Romans founded a settlement here, but the hotel isn’t quite that old. What it lacks in some amenities it makes up for in location. 

We have been to the northwest to the Douro Valley where Port   the comes from and we tasted it on location. and we have been to the northeast where “green” wines come from and where the country claims to be the to be the birthplace of Henry the Navigator is in that region. The “green wine” not so much, the pastries filled with pumpkin sugar are phenomenal. The green means young, not color and it is sparkling and served chilled.  

After touring closer in parts of Porto today and a lovely lunch in Gaia – the section of town across the Douro River Carol and I were dropped as the Casa De Musica a modern concert hall designed by Rehm Koohlhaus, a Dutch architect. We took a tour of this unique venue and were again overwhelmed by the creativity of the architect and the community that has adapted to the shapes provided.

This day started with a visit to a privately run Jewish Museum in Granada. it is a work of passion by a couple who feel the powerful need to preserve something of Jewish heritage in a place where it has been extirpated. They have a community of 3 families and put out a sandwich board sign each day to point the way and take it in at night because that is all that the authorities will permit.

We met the couple in a small plaza in the Realjo neighborhood which was once the Jewish quarter. From the left Ziva, our Spanish guide,  the museum owner, Kayla, our tour leader from Keshet and the husband of the museum owner. 

Thbis is the entrance to the museum and their private home on the floors above. 

From there we wended our way back to the bus which took us to Alhambra which is a fortress, a palace and a city set on a hills adjacent to Granada but removed enough to be defensible. It is here that Isabella signed the documents to charter Columbus’ voyage of exploration and the order of expulsion of the Jews. 

Fountain of 12 Lions

Key fountain leading to the lions

One gorgeous ceiling among many

View of Granada from the Palace

We returned to Granada exhausted  after four hours of touring on uneven stones and many changes of altitude.  And we were not done.

We had a group dinner in a cave where the featured entertainment was local flamenco. The pictures are all pink from the lighting so I will not post them. This was the most energetic and forceful flamenco I can ever remember seeing. 

We crawled in to bed  prepared for a long bus ride to Madrid the next day.

To all who I have hurt, insulted, harmed in any way, by intent or through carelessness in the past year. I apologize.  Please forgive me. I forgive you for any slights or hurts you may have done to me.

The new header image above is our apartment building in Rochester. If you look at the first floor above the grey paint from the left corner to the  middle column that is our apartment (the arched windows are the floor above us). This image will be changed when we start traveling in a couple of weeks so I’ll insert it here as well.

  Living in 1450 square feet feels like we are in a mansion with much more space than we are used to. We love it and love its contents, but will be ready to move on to new adventures when the time comes.

We have been very busy seeing friends, and a few doctors, We are taking in two Rochester Philharmonic concerts a play and we have even been to a film. We saw BlackkKlansman  Spike Lee’s recent film. We highly recommend it. It is tough and the language is as strong as it must be.

The arts scene has been vibrant as Rochester leaves Summer behind heading into Fall and people return from vacation. Someone forgot to tell the weatherman that summer ends here with Labor Day. We have been sweltering in high 80’s and low 90’s. Combine this with high humidity and SoCal at 100 seems almost pleasant. 

It feels like we are flying through time because we are making so many plans for the remaining almost three weeks we are here. We are trying to slow down so we can enjoy our time here. Today I walked to a meeting about 1 mile from the apartment and then stopped by a pharmacy 2 miles beyond that. By the time I returned I had covered over 5 miles and felt fine, just a bit warm. Compared to our hikes in SoCal this wasn’t even a “walk in the park” more of a stroll on the sidewalk, but after so much sitting it felt good to move again.

We move on to Yom Kippur starting Tuesday evening and will be greeting most everyone with the opening paragraph above. Over the years during this time I have attempted reconciliation with people from whom I have become estranged and  restored what seemed like lost friendships. It is a good time to be at peace with oneself.

PS the “Walk in the park” reference is from our 85 year old hiking master who calls every hike no matter how strenuous just a walk in the park.

It is Thursday, September 26. We are in Dan and Malena’s yard in the coach. On Tuesday we will put the coach in storage and be driven to the DC area.  We will stay at a hotel near my cousins Jane and  Bob Levey so we can have dinner with them before flying out on Wednesday evening to Kiev, first stop.  We do not have passports in hand yet. PVS Inc has had them since late July or early August. We need 5 visas for this trip.  Apparently  China, Vietnam and even Myanmar were relatively easy. Russia was swamped and would not even accept the application until  a month before the entry date.  Cambodia would not grant a visa for more than 60 or 90 days in advance of entry.  I spoke to Ruth at PVS today and she assured me that Russia had issued our visas, yesterday, and our passports are at the Cambodia Embassy and should be done by tomorrow.  This is getting tight.

We arrived here a week ago after an uneventful trip with a stop at Shangri-la by the Creek in Milton, PA. We have made that stop often on our trips between Rochester and Charlottesville.  The big event of the week was Dan’s birthday on September 25. I’m not sure how I feel about that as I was 25 when he was born.  We entertained with dinner at new local restaurant, Pasture, it was okay, a bit noisey, and a bit stark.  It cost more than the bris!

On Tuesday the 24th we drove to Fredericksburg where we met Anna Lee and Jerry. We spent a delightful day touring, eating and talking.  I hope we will see them next in California, or someplace on the road.

I suppose I should include a picture so here is a shot looking down the driveway from the steps of GeeWhiz.