Guadalupe

Alto Alentejo

Portugal

May 21, 2013

Dear Friends,

I follow the directions in my guidebook and drive west from Évora on the old Lisbon Road (N114), and then turn south to Guadalupe.  I follow the signs from there, down a pitted, gauged out dirt road to the Cromeleque dos Almendres.  

This morning, I will not be visiting a 700 year old castle.  Instead, my destination is a pre-historic sacred site, 7000 years old.

Surrounded by a landscape of olive trees and cork trees, I stroll among a circular group of one hundred Ancient Neolithic megaliths.  

Coimbra

Lusitania

XXIX Maii MMXIII

Salve,

The Ancient Romans sure left us a lot of good stuff.  

Derived from Latin, the Romance languages, for example.   The five most widely spoken are: 

Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese and Romanian.  (The French don’t have a monopoly on ”romance.”) 

But let’s not forget other Latin derived languages: 

Aragonese, Aromanian, Arptan, Asturian, Catalan (Recently I met a man from Barcelona who insisted on speaking his native language of Catalan.), Corsican, Emiliano-Romagnolo, Friulan, Galician, Ladro, Leonese, Lombard, Mirandese, Neapolitan, Occitan, Piedmontese, Romanish, Sardinian, Sicilian, Venetian and Walloon.  (Of course, you know where they speak Walloon to this very day?) 

Alto Alentejo – Beira Baixa

Portugal

May 24, 2013 

On the road. 

From the Upper Alentejo Province, across the Río Tejo to Lower Baixi

Let’s face it.   I can read a hundred guidebooks.  But as I am an independent traveler with a life-style part casual or “cavalier” as I was once told, and part impulsive, part impatient, part lazy, and even somewhat disorganized, I never really never know what I’ll find, when I go wherever it is I decide to go on any given day.   That is, if I decide to go anywhere.  Why not just hang around awhile? Admire the scenery.  Order a coffee.   Chat. 

Casa do Pedrão

Coriscada

Beira Alta

Portugal

May 27, 2013 

My Dear Jan, 

Don’t you think it’s time to take a break? 

No castles today. No climbing.  No photography.  And no Internet! 

Find a remote town in the countryside.  Rent a room in a private home.  Enjoy home cooked meals.   Take a walk down a country road. 

Sounds good, yes? 

Bangkok

Thailand 

Dear Friends, 

“Aren’t you afraid to drive?”  

A friend of mine asked me that question when we were comparing notes about our travels.   I mentioned that I had recently rented cars in both Morocco and Portugal. 

“No, I am not afraid to drive.” 

Over the past twelve months I have driven around Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan.  In Israel I drove from Tel Aviv to Tzfat, but in both directions I must admit, I got terribly lost in the hilly streets of Haifa! 

In case you are wondering, no, I will never drive in Thailand.   Here we drive on the "wrong side" of the road.  (I did manage a successful motor tour of Western Australia several years ago.)