Rantose Is...  What You Think It Is.  Or possibly not.

fred t. hamster's portugal journal 2007
----being a not entirely unredacted chronicle of the author's first trip abroad, to portugal----

8/15/07
the night before we leave the island and go to barb's.
last minute frantic packing is going on.
oddly, i seem to be the most ready.
this is wednesday.  tomorrow is thursday.
friday we fly.

8/19/07 sunday
now in portugal.  8/16 (thursday) was the trip to barb's.
we stayed there on thursday night and took a plane to frankfurt
starting on 8/17 (friday).
the flight left at 4:20 pm for some reason.
we got to frankfurt at 11:15 pm our time, 5:15 am their time on the 18th.
then the flight to porto left at 9:30 am their time and got in
around 11:30 am in porto.  hustle and bustle at the airport
and much luggage wrangling.
the rest of the 18th (saturday) was some dazed tourism.
actually we were allowed on the boat almost immediately.  (they had
been making noise about our having to wait on the top deck for
the rooms to be available.)
dad and i both chose to use the time for showers and a nap.
around 4pm, we woke up and went out to wander
on the shore nearby.  [ed: shore here means the fancy array of shops
and restaurants in vila nova de gaia, near the dock where
the douro prince was moored]
saw a couple of nice buddha statues.
jeff got everyone psyched for a carriage ride,
so after a bit we went out on a ride in a horse drawn
carriage--two big black horses and a rider dressed
in a black zorro costume.
we rode along the shore and saw some great scenery.
one whole length of the facade of city wall was just that--balconies
and windows with nothing behind them.  but then in among the
deteriorated ruins were often functional buildings
with modern glass doors and very classy houses and apartments inside.
after we got back, i ended up buying one of the buddha statues i had
liked.  we had a really tasty dinner, but our table was
the most overdressed.
after dinner, donna and jeff and i went walking along the
shore again.  we ate some disgusting greasy churros before coming back.
much wine and beer was consumed all evening, as well as a tawny port.
the buildings were all lit up beautifully at night,
especially the big round tower up on the hill.  then some zzzz....
today (the 19th), we're supposed to go to a monastery for dinner, with a tour
of porto during the day.

8/20/07
monastery last night was amazing, lots of priceless art works
like ming vases and a pregnant madonna sculpture.
the dinner was quite good and i got to talk to ken and joan a bit.
they had a breathtaking view
of the valley below [ed: the monastery, not ken and joan]
today we travelled to lamego,
where the church of the redemption? [ed: remedies] is located.
it's another incredible and huge church, with fantastic religious art
everywhere.  too bad it's not buddhist.
jeff, donna, barb, and i walked down the 700 steps to the town
below and then shopped for a bit.
we met back up at another church which had marvelous frescoes
on the ceiling, and a lot more of the gold gilded carved wood
all over the altar.  [ed: "gold gilded carved wood" is apparently
the phrase that was repeatedly uttered by the portuguese tour guide]
now back at the boat again, very tired.  also, managed to
*clang* my head against the top of the covered portion of the deck
which had been lowered to go under a bridge.  this is not feeling
too bad yet and hopefully it won't.  now in the room with my
dad who is fidgeting around after a shower.
dinner soon.

8/21/07 tues
last night they had traditional portuguese music, which was great.
it was very moving and a bit rowdy.  about eight musicians,
with a couple traditional fado songs, where the singer wears
a black cape.  today we're going to vintage house, which is a
"wine academy".

8/23/07 thurs
on 8/21 (tuesday) at night, they had traditional spanish dancing,
which was pretty cool.  four spanish beauties performed several
dances with much foot stomping.  [ed: they stomped on the floor
of the "bar lounge" so hard it seemed they would inevitably break
boards]  then on wednesday, we went on a walking tour of salamanca spain.
they had many beautiful churches, some of which we visited.  also, we
went to the art deco museum to start off the tour, and then we wandered up
to the plaza mayor(sp?).  after that we got off course and lost,
but finally made our way to the hotel monterrey again.  then...
the official walking tour began, guided by anthony.  he was a fountain
of knowledge.  he showed us where the frog was sitting on the skull
on the church front.  [ed: or, on the front of the church]
after that, back to the boat and everyone seemed pretty bushed.

8/23 part 2
tonight we had dinner at the vintage house, which was exceedingly
tasty.  salmon in crepe followed by (for me) more salmon.  [ed: the
author is a piscatarian, who only eats vegetables and fish, and the
tour supplied him with food options other than the pork and beef everyone
else was having]  there was white wine followed by red wine
followed by port.  all were much better than the wine at the spanish
hotel in salamanca.  during the day, we travelled to castelo rodrigo
and tromped around in this quite small town (80 inhabitants).  later
we came down the mountain to figuera de castelo rodrigo (with 2200
inhabitants).  they had a market going on, but it was muito underwhelming.
at least at dinner we had got talking with some brits and one guy
(mike?) was appreciative of fawlty towers and monty python.
back at the boat, people again passed out early despite this
being the penultimate day of the trip.  got on the internet
again finally today also, made contact with bob (sort of) and shredder,
and had a nice chat with quag.  [ed: these are three of the author's
bizarro friends]  soon to bed though.

8/25/07
leaving today and on bus to aeroporto right now.  yesterday we
had a tour in the morning to castelinho rodrigo?
getting fuzzy on all the destinations now.  this was a nice
castle town but the main gov...  oops.  no.  that was the 23rd.....
[ed: the author had been about to riff on how the main governor's mansion
in the castle town was destroyed by angry torch wielding serfs at some
point in the past and had been left as mostly a pile of rubble.  there
seemed to be a back story that some jerk was appointed as the local governor
and he spent all the money the crown gave him (for the town's upkeep?)
to instead build a huge mansion for himself.  democracy prevailed and his
fancy pants house was taken away from him by an unaccepting proletariat.
they burned it to the ground.]
actually, the 24th (yesterday) was a visit to castillo mateus.
this is the image on mateus wine, but it's pronounced
"mat-te-oosh".  it was all very beautiful but they served terrible
cappuccino.  the castle itself was very ornate and beautiful.
we went through the usual tourist circumambulation.  they had
a walkway under cedars that was like a tunnel to magical gardens.
their personal vineyard was medium sized and the grapes were
getting ripe.  the trip back was on winding mountain roads
again.  so wishing i could go off on a personal tour with infinite time
and all.  they have many fun little shops here in portugal.
strangely enough, most every farmacia has an electrically lit
green cross outside on the wall (kind of like our barber shops
here with the spinning barber pole).  so overall, it was a great trip,
with very few inconveniences.
hopefully the flight back will be reasonable and as quick as
can be expected.

8/25/07 part 2
back again.  the day was miserable with travelling.  now lying
on my nephew's bed in his old room at my sister's house,
after just finishing stephen king's "lisey's story".
soon to pass out hard.  can't wait to get back to the island
again, where it's cool.  it's nasty hot and sweaty here.
also more provisions are at the island, because things are
very scant here.  [ed: apparently the author requires a great
quantity of food]  zero changes of clothes are left.  ugh.
brought back one _tiny_ bottle of port, but now i feel
equipped to shop for the good stuff.  snooze on, mighty spaceman.

8/27/07
back to island yesterday (8/26).  much fooding beforehand, eating
brunch at moody's and buying food at shaw's.  walked the rows
looking for good port and found none.  back at island this
afternoon and took a lovely nap.  today, almost first thing
was a visit to the island PA (doc) to check on supposed
spider bite on my ass.  he thinks it's shingles, which is
fine with me.  gone in two or three weeks, probably won't
come back, essentially it's a resurgence of chicken pox.
hopefully he's right.  spent some time just now at the library
getting caught up on the internet.  right hand is tired from
writing, now using left.
[ed: the quality of the writing gets dramatically worse at this
point, and it was never very good to begin with]
sprint pcs support web site is so poor it boggles the mind.
have snagged a couple more gifts--pens from the library.
thinking about a nap, but i should finish burning these
dvds of photos for people.  dad's providing blanks to ensure
he gets a full set from everyone.  [ed: the author's
family is trying to get all the digital photos together from the trip;
most of the pictures are blurry shots of people's shoes]
now can practically taste my house and feel my cats,
homeward bound time is so close.  had a little private
meditational time last night with the small bottle of tawny port i got
to bring back...  port at midnight, and it was the delicious
real stuff.  urf, now thinking about snoozing a bit...  zzzz end.

[posted 11/16/2007]