A TRAVEL CHRONICLE
  • Home
  • Join our mailing list!
  • Contact
  • WHO WE ARE
  • Everything


​Alps to azores 2019-2020
​

Another authentically amazing awesome adventure!

A time for celebration

Picture
Holiday decorations, Porto Portugal
​We flew from Munich to Frankfurt last night around 9 p.m., arriving Frankfurt around 10 p.m.  Our hotel was actually in the airport, making our arrival and next morning departure quite convenient.  Yes, it was a tad more expensive but we were paying for convenience and it was money well spent.  

We had checked our bags straight through to Portugal and had only a few carry on items with us, like medicines and toiletries.  Traveling light and having a bag already checked made things easy. We got up this morning, and walked to security. Our flight to Porto, Portugal was without incident.  I’ll discuss the airline and a couple of issues we ran into on my wrap up at the end of the trip.
Picture
Holiday crowds out and about.  The smoke is from chestnut roasters, selling them on the street.  Laurie loves them!
We took the metro from the airport to the area we were staying, near Sao Bento train station.  Porto’s metro system was easy to use, inexpensive, and went where we needed it to go. We were greeted at the hotel with fresh Portuguese pastries and the specialty of the area, a glass of port wine.

We checked out our hotel and our room is on floor 5.  There is a restaurant on floor 8 and a rooftop bar that sees little use this time of year.  We left Austria/Germany where we had temperatures right around 0 celsius/32 fahrenheit and arrive in a city where the temperature was around 65 fahrenheit/18 celsius. 
Picture
Laurie buying roasted chestnuts
I didn’t even wear a jacket as I thought it was very warm.  The locals are used to much warmer temperatures and had on down coats, scarves, gloves, and all matter of cold weather gear.  We ran into the same thing when we visited the Florida Keys one year where the locals had every stitch of clothes they owned on.  When you’re used to 85 degrees, 65 is really cold.

After getting things sorted, we headed out to wander this new city.  It is Christmas Eve and many things are closed. We have no trouble finding a place to eat not far from our hotel, but it did close early.  I ordered beef steak with 3 pepper sauce and a bowl of soup. I asked if the steak came with fries and the waiter said “yes, it comes with chips”.  
Picture
Steak with three  pepper sauce from a Portuguese diner
​In the UK what we call french fries are called “chips”.  In Germany and France, they’re called “pommes”. When the waiter told me chips, my mind defaulted to UK chips, figuring I would get french fries.  The meal came instead with what we in the states call potato chips. It was sort of an odd paring but the chips were actually home made and were served hot.  It was good.

As we are finishing our meal, they are closing the restaurant (very similar to a diner in the US) early for Christmas Eve.  Our lunch consisted of a bottle of water for Laurie, two Cokes for me, two bowls of soup, beef steak with pepper sauce and chips, and fried fish with beans and rice for Laurie.  This lunch cost us a total of 20 euros.
Picture
Hand laid stone patterns in the sidewalks
​While Germany and Austria are less expensive than many countries in Europe, Portugal is much more affordable.  The meal we had would have been around 45 or more euros in Germany or Austria. It looks like Portugal will be very reasonable from a cost standpoint.

We wander around and run across a Christmas Market, and then walk along one of the main shopping streets.  It is festive and fun, with the locals dressing in Christmas wear. Santa hats are very common and many people go all out with full on Christmas outfits in red and green.  Often times their outfits will have bells or ornaments on them.
Picture
Inside Sao Bento, the Porto train station
We head back to the hotel and relax with a drink at the rooftop bar.  It wasn’t open as it is winter here but we took drinks from the restaurant and sat outside.  For us, it was not an unpleasant temperature and we liked sitting outside. Now we’re back in our room and headed to bed.

There are times during travel when I am struck with the realization of where I am, what is going on, and how lucky I am to experience it.  I came from a small town on the edge of the coal fields and never dreamed of traveling to the places I’ve been and seeing the things I’ve seen. ​
Picture
Tile work in and on buildings here.  It actually is a historical thing.
International travel during Christmas is not the norm where I’m from.  We didn’t start out traveling internationally, but after one of our daughters passed away in 1993, we just couldn’t bear spending Christmas at home.  So we traveled at Christmas, taking our children with us.  

As they grew and moved into lives of their own, we started traveling internationally.  Laurie and I have seen so much and done so much, and we have experienced so many places and things.  Every now and then, like today on the shopping street with thousands of Portuguese people out shopping and celebrating, it strikes me where I am and how lucky we are to experience these things.  Today was one of those days.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukka, or whatever celebration of life you participate in.  Have a good holiday. I hope you are as lucky as we are. Goodnight everyone.

Art work hanging off a while.
Cool street art
Christmas decorations
Big crowds in Portugal's pedestrian zone
Random church with the fancy tile
The tiles tell a story. If you can see them study the pics.
Porto train station
We THINK it's some sort of church
Laurie hanging in a Porto diner
Laurie's lunch
Downtown buildings
More Christmas decorations
Time for a break.
Train station exterior
Click here for a specific day!
Day 1  On our way!
Day 2 Mayrhofen
Day 3 Mayrhofen
Day 4 Mayrhofen
Day 5 Mayrhofen
Day 6 Mayrhofen
Day 7 Mayrhofen/MUC
Day 8 Porto
Day 9 Porto
Day 10 Porto
Day 11 Porto/Azores
Day 12 Azores
Day 13 Azores
Day 14 Azores
Day 15 Azores/Lisbon
Day 16   Lisbon
Day 17   Lisbon
Day 18 Lisbon/London
Day 19 London
Day 20 London/Nashville
Trip recap/comments
Click here to go back one day
Click here to go forward one day
Like and share us on Facebook!
Contact us!
Join our mailing list to get notices when we post!

us

Who we are
Other stuff we do
Laurie's place!

Trips

Stuff

USA trips
International trips
Packing and travel tips
Join our mailing list
Send us a message
Menu
© COPYRIGHT 2018. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
  • Home
  • Join our mailing list!
  • Contact
  • WHO WE ARE
  • Everything