Solipsism Gradient

Spent one more day in Bremen – the old town is a fascinating place. Then it was on to Osnabrück, which was also well worth the visit, and now we’ll be spending the weekend at a friend’s place near Siegen. Weather has been holding up well.

Hi Mariana!
mari wrote:

What was that piglet with oranges thing??? I got really interested.

…Anyway, that´s just a tiny bit of what is going on…Show me the pictures!

“Leitãozinho com laranjas”, a specialty of the region just north of Coimbra, if I’m not mistaken. At any rate, it was great. Pictures will be posted as soon as I find a place with a reliable no-limit upload connection; might take a week or two, not sure.

Posted by mari:
Hey, hi there!!!

I´m very glad to see you are having fun, or maybe more than that!

What was that piglet with oranges thing??? I got really interested.

Well, I´m a bit down (bad sore throat) but making progress with my Spanish.

Anyway, that´s just a tiny bit of what is going on…Show me the pictures!

Love,

Mariana

Made it to Hamburg OK. Impressive town. Later in the afternoon, rented a car; larger than I expected, a Hyunday 4×4 with GPS , and drove to Bremen where we visited the old town today, then met family. Will stay in Bremen at least one more day, then it’s southwards.

Southwards from Viana do Castelo, visited Barcelos (beautiful), visited Tibães near Braga (unfortunately closed for lunch), then stopped at Mealhada for one of the local specialties: roast piglet with oranges. Delicious!

After lunch, visited Batalha which was one of the highlights of the trip. Then stayed overnight near the sea, in Colares. Afterwards visited the “Boca do Inferno” (Hellmouth) in Mafra and arrived in Lisboa again around noon… time for a last afternoon visit into the city, and now we’re resting and packing. Tomorrow very early it’s on to Hamburg (Germany). Stay tuned…

Off early into Spain, to Santiago de Compostela, where we arrived just before noon. The weather was extremely unstable but – thanks to a suggestion from a helpful local – we found a convenient parking spot just behind the cathedral. It’s really worth an extended visit. The rest of Compostela isn’t too easy – the usual winding little roads, all alike, and very few parking spaces.

Then later in the afternoon the weather cleared up, and we had a very nice drive southwards back into Portugal. We’re now staying overnight at Viana do Castelo and tomorrow we’re going slowly downwards to Lisboa, where we have to arrive Sunday morning.

Whew, 3 tiring but excellent days in Lisbon. Tomorrow we rent a car and go off into Northern Portugal. On the list are Sintra, Mafra, Óbidos, Santarém, Fátima (maybe), Coimbra, Porto, hopefully a fast look at Salamanca and Compostela, and Marvão on the way back down.

We’ll be back in Lisboa on the afternoon of May 25th and the next day it’s off to Hamburg, Germany.

Progress. Had two very nice days driving northwards in Portugal. Cascais, Sintra, Mafra and Óbidos on the first one and we slept in Leiria. Then very early today we went to Fátima where we managed to get in ahead – and leave – of the first major wave of pilgrims in for the Pentecost holidays.

We then drove northwards through Coimbra and Porto and are now ensconced in Valença, just off the Spanish border. Unfortunately the weather decided to go bad and we mostly just drove, getting some snapshots during brief pauses in the rain.

Tomorrow it’s about 100Km to Santiago de Compostela and then we’ll leave in the afternoon to do a more leisurely drive back down.