Christmas 2018

Playing around on Christmas Eve

Enjoying her presents (a garbage bag of wrapping paper as a pillow)

Haiti

A few pictures from my trip to Haiti. 

The wedding was supposed to take place at sunset, and this was the setting.  It got off a little late and took place in the dark.  But we still enjoyed this amazing sunset while we waited.

Here's me and my coworkers, while we waited for it to start.  

The Bride an Groom started off with a couple's dance at the reception.  Then came a live band and we danced until 2 am. 

This scene was right outside our hotel window.  In addition to the wedding, we had a day of beach time.  

These guys came along in their boats to sell stuff to the tourists, but are not allowed to come on the shore.  Just like anywhere else in the world, they were very persuasive.  Despite not having my wallet with me while swimming, they were very patient and allowed me to go on dry land to get them some cash.  

Douro Valley & Lisbon

We drove out to the Douro Valley and went to a small little town.  This is where all the vineyards are that make port wine.  It was green and beautiful and also at least 10 or 20 degrees warmer here (i.e. we dressed too warm).  We didn't go to the effort to make a reservation to tour a vineyard, so it ended up being a little bit of bust because we just had lunch and went back to Porto.  But the drive out there was really pretty, and on the way back, we went on some back roads that took us all the way up into the hills. 

We spent one last night in Porto and then the next morning, drove back to Lisbon.  Since we had already done most of what we wanted to do in Lisbon, we spent our last day just going shopping.  

This is an old mansion that they turned into a shopping center.  

We went back to our favorite place for a pastel de nata.  At this place, they ring a bell when they are warm from the oven.  You can see the line forming in this picture.  

For our last night, I wanted to stay in a hotel where we could swim and sit by the pool and relax before flying home.  Kathy wanted to stay at a place with a spa so that we could get massages.  We both got our wish, but unfortunately, it was too cold to swim.  But we did enjoy sitting on the roof and watching the sun set.  

The end!  

Porto, part 3

On our last day in Porto, we took one of those hop-on hop-off tour buses all around the city, and to the outskirts.  This didn't end up being that great, since we had already been walking all over the best parts of the city and there wasn't much to see in the outskirts.  The last part of the tour bus takes passengers over a bridge to the other side of Porto.  We ended up just walking over this bridge to the other side, and we got some good photos of the city from there.

These boats are filled with barrels of port wine, which comes down the river from the Douro Valley.  

I don't know where these sky rides come from or where they end, but I thought it was interesting that they were right here in the middle of the city. 

It was kind of chilly and rainy (like Seattle and Bergen weather), so we stopped for some hot chocolate at the Majestic Cafe.  Here is Kathy in chocolate heaven.  

We found a place to buy fancy chocolate truffles.

This is a sandwich called Francesinha ("Little Frenchie") that Rick Steves recommended we try in Porto.  It is made with bread, cured ham, pork sausage, steak or roast meat, and covered with melted cheese and a tomato and beer sauce.    

It was really good, but I was glad we split it.  I saw other groups of tourists come in and order one for each of them, but that would be way too much.  

This is the only place we stayed that we did not get breakfast, so we went to a little coffee shop down the block for our daily pastel de nata.  At this place, they served it with a bottle of cinnamon that we could sprinkle on top.  

Next stop, Douro Valley

Porto, part 2

Here are some random pictures of the streets in Porto.

Shopping street

A few churches

Hmmm... this might be a church, but it might be something else.

This is the outside of our B&B

We stayed on this street, with a view of the river.  It made it easy to navigate.

Inside the train station

More Porto to come...

Porto, part 1

After Coimbra, we drove northwest to Porto.  Our first stop was this bookstore, Livraria Lello.  Once again, the rumor is that it was the inspiration for the Harry Potter books, but it's probably just the inspiration for the Harry Potter movies.  I asked a friend who had lived in Porto over 20 years ago if she had gone to this bookstore, but she hadn't even heard of it then.  Have you ever been to a bookstore that you had to have a ticket to enter?  We had to go around the corner to another store to buy a ticket, then wait line to get in.  The ticket was around $10, I think, but then you can use the ticket for a 10% or 15% off a book.  I really wondered why were going until I saw it.  It was really beautiful.  

You can read more about it and see more pictures here.  

These are the pictures I took.

these are the pictures Kathy took.  I said, "How did you take such great pictures, without dumb people in them?"  She answered, "Patience."  Well, there you go!