Travel home, favorites, and frustrations

Our flight left Porto at 5:00 a.m. which is 10:00 p.m. the previous day in Utah. 

Overall, we had a great trip! 

Favorites:

1 - Sagrada Familia (Barcelona)

2 - Barcelona Cathedral

3 - Rolling green hills of northern Portugal

4 - Catching up with Eduardo and enjoying his hospitality

5 - Seville - everything except the food

6 - Nazare

7 - Food in Portugal - fresh fish of various kinds, local beef and vegetables, delicious desserts 

8 - Kathe Wohlfahrt shop

Frustrations

1 - Too many smokers

2 - Credit card issues based on our location, even though we did a travel notification before leaving

3 - Small beds (double size only) and small hotel rooms (Spain)

4 - Laundry not drying due to the humidity

5 - In flight entertainment that didn’t work for the first 3 hours of a 10.5 hour flight

6 - Airport logistics with baggage and customs

Travel is an adventure, and we had a grand adventure the last two weeks! 

Day 12 - Relaxing Final Day of Vacation

We had a low key day. We slept in and hung out at Eduardo’s while he had some work meetings. It rained and the wind blew hard, but we were able to enjoy a little time outside. 

We went out for a late lunch. The dessert we had was a cake made of layered cookies with cream in between layers and topped with coconut. It was the best dessert we have had on this trip. 

We have a good friend in Eduardo! He has agreed to take us to the airport at 2:30 a.m. to catch our 5:00 a.m. flight. 

This has been a needed relaxing vacation where both of us completely disconnected from work. We will do one more post with a summary. 

Day 11 - Return to Portugal

We had breakfast and walked around near our hotel and at the park until we left for the airport. 

Eduardo picked us up, we dropped our luggage off, and then ‘em we went to dinner. It was delicious fresh seafood! 

We were going to walk the beach, but it was raining, so we went to a local mall that had neat decorations that were made by crocheting ribbon. 

One more full day tomorrow before we head home on Wednesday. 

Day 10 - Seville Cathedral

We started the day with laundry on the roof of the hotel. It was interesting, to say the least. We have found on vacations to Europe that a few days in, you are ready for American food. We had lunch at Hard Rock Cafe. 

We went to the Museum of Fine Arts. Only one level was open, so there wasn’t much to see. The building was a work of art itself.  

We had tickets to the cathedral this afternoon. It is the largest Gothuc cathedral in the world and the fourth largest of any cathedral worldwide. 

We walked up to the top of the bell tower called Giralda Tower. Here are views from there. 

Giralda Tower from the ground

After dinner we heard music and decided to see what it was. We found a religious processional. It was interesting to watch. 

We ended the night with a carriage ride around the city. 

We have very tired legs since we have averaged about 7 miles a day for the last 5 days!

Tomorrow we return to Porto for one more day before heading home. 

Day 9 - Busy day in Seville

Our first stop today was the Real Alcazar Palace. It was built on to by various Spanish royal families, so it has Roman, Gothic, Renaissance, and Moorish elements. 

We ate lunch at a Lebanese restaurant. It was delicious! 

We went to Maria Louisa Park and wandered around the Plaza de Espana, which was built for the 1929 Iberian-American Expo. 

We visited the Museum of Popular Art and Costumes. This was really about preserving the artisan crafts of Spain including tile and ceramics, pottery, basket weaving, and bespoke clothing. We were both low on battery at this point, so there is only a picture of the exterior. 

We returned to our hotel for a nap before dinner, mostly because we logged almost 19,000 steps today, but also to charge our phones!

Plaza de Espana at night. 

Tomorrow will be another day in Seville. We are expecting rain, which is why we tried to do outside things today.