Hammers, hoicking and hills !

 (Still no apostrophes, but am getting used to writing without them now - who knows, maybe they will become redundant? )
We arrived in Porto on a Sunday evening. We thought that the locals had dinner on the streets, wandering about drinking beer from plastic cups, hitting each other on the head with plastic, squeaky hammers,whistling, singing and carousing until the early hours EVERY night. We prided ourselves on how well we must have blended in for them to involve us, especially the hitting on the head with hammers bit and the inviting us to eat grilled sardines with them on the outside tables.  Only when we spoke to our waitress did we understand we had arrived on the biggest day of the year, the Feast of Sao Joao (San Antonio) and the hammers and sardines were the most important things about the festival.  Right then.

 

Lots of great things to do in Porto - port tasting (Richard is already a fan, but after Porto, I could easily become a convert), walking along the Douro River, up and down the VERY steep streets on both banks, enjoying the many parks and gardens and admiring the architecture. We had two lovely days there and then moved on up North to Braga - another wonderful river town with some amazing churches and ancient buildings.  Then the train to Coimbra, a University town where Fado began. The highlight there (and so far in Portugal, actually) was a Fado performance we had booked a while ago in the Fado Centre.

 

We both loved it and will remember it for a long time.  The next night, there was more Fado singing and a brass band performance for free in one of the squares.  Wonderful to sit outside with a squillion other people, enjoying Sangria, free music and beautiful temperatures, surrounded by some of the oldest and most interesting buildings we had ever seen. And this was a bonus day, as there was a general strike so we could not move on to Lisbon - no trains or buses.
Now we are in Lisbon.  We are NOT impressed.  It is extraordinarily dirty and awfully smelly and we prefer the other towns we have visited.  The constant hoicking and spitting and that horrible sniffing unspecified mucal matter back into your system is just awful. We have loved the friendliness of all the Portugese we have met, locals helping us with our map, waiters and shop assistants, but especially the hotel owners and staff, so it has been a huge disappointment to meet rudeness and indifference at this supposed 4 star in Lisbon. (They are so not going to like my booking.com review!!)
We had a great tram ride up and down some of the streets in the older parts of town, a lovely trip out to the river bank at Belem to see the Berardo Museum/Art Gallery (fantastic, right up our alley with Minimalists, Pop Art, Abstract and Dadaists) and a lot of loafing around in the hotel pool (this is the saving grace of this hotel, that and the supermarket next door, which has supplied all our meals and drinks).

Today is our rostered Rest Day. We are heading for the pool soon and will spend the day swimming and snoozing, then packing, preparing for our train trip across the border to Merida in Spain and generally chilling.

So, ciao for now!

Oh, to be in England...etc etc etc!

First - some awful news...There are no apostrophes on this Portugese keyboard, so I have to write without them!  The pain, as some of you can imagine, is almost unbearable, but the alternative is to let a weekend go by without blogging.  This has caused me a sleepless night, but I have decided that communication is more important, so I apologise profusely in advance for what you are about to read.

It would have been lovely if we and our luggage had all arrived together at Heathrow last week. However, this was not to be.  The small blue backpack went on an unplanned trip to Mumbai or Doha and was only found 3 days later, by which time we had had to buy some "essential" items.  Luckily the insurance paid out and we are all fine again, but it was money we did not need to be spending at that point. Apparently, the problem was that it was so small!!  I ask, what is the point of travelling light if they are going to lose the smaller bags; maybe it is better to get one of those ankle-busting plastic/metal cases and heave it all up and down escalators, cobbled streets and unimaginably tiny flights of stairs?! I will get back to you on that one.

So, reunited with Mike, the brother of Richard (no apostrophes, remember!) we were.  Lovely to see him and Chris again after so long - 4 years for Rich and 12 for me.  A niece and nephew turned up for the weekend, which was great - one more to catch up with but she was the one that came to Oz earlier this year and we saw her then.  They are all beautiful young adults with good jobs, lovely manners and not a drug or alcohol problem among them - same as Sarah and Nick.  Chris and I did the right thing, marrying the Hobden brothers, did we not?  Chris was, as ever, very welcoming and we hit the shops and the kitchen together as before and our few days with them slipped by very fast.

Sunday was the 23rd so we were due in Portugal.  Onwards!

Noo Yawk - Mythbusters version!

Myth # 1 - New Yorkers are unfriendly and unhelpful

We have nothing but positive things to say about the N Y ers with whom we came into contact.  They were really quick to ask us if we needed help when they saw us hesitating with a map; one even paid for Richard to go through the subway gate when I had gone through and he was struggling with an expired ticket.  Servers in cafes were friendly and retail assistants went out of their way to ask where we were from and what we were doing in NY etc.

Myth # 2 - Central Park is where you should go for a breath of fresh air in amongst all the buildings

Central Park is dirty, full of rubbish and smells like urine. Enuff said.

Myth # 3 - Harlem is nothing but drug dealers and is very unsafe, especially at night

We stayed in an apartment there and felt secure and not at all anxious, mostly because there were tons of people on the streets ALL the time.

Myth # 4 - New York is vibrant and exciting

New York is very busy, awfully dirty and extremely tiring because of the constant noise wherever you are.

That having been said, we had a great time seeing NY, although we didn't like being there, if that makes sense.  We won't go again but are very glad we took the chance to go this time. We enjoyed the Staten Island Ferry, seeing the Statue of Liberty, Battery Park, Broadway, Times Square, Macy's, Wall St, 42nd St, Harlem, the subway, the NY diners, drinking bottomless coffees for less than $2, eating Mexican food, staying in a 100 yr old brownstone and most of all, the Ballet.  For $61 US,(that was for TWO tickets, by the way!) we were able to see the most stunning Swan Lake in a spectacular venue (the Metropolitan Opera Theatre at the Lincoln Centre) with a fabulous orchestra and very professional and experienced dancers, who took more than a dozen curtain calls from an extremely appreciative audience.  That was really something and was the highlight, as you can probably guess.

Life Among The Amurrkins

*Fabulous
*Amazing
*Wonderful
*Marvellous
*Lovely
*Gorgeous
*Spectacular
*Magnificent
*Awe-inspiring

And my absolute favourite ...

*Cool !

You can take all of those adjectives and use them to describe The Grand Canyon.  Most of them apply to San Francisco and Las Vegas and we haven't even seen any of New York yet!

San Francisco is a beautiful city with some outstanding scenery; it's well laid-out and is great to walk around.  We were delighted to find that our almost-daily walks at home had more than prepared us for trekking up and down the steep streets of Chinatown, North Beach, the waterfront area and the dreaded Lombard Street.  We covered a lot of ground - nice temperatures for walking even though the clouds didn't make for such great pictures.  We were still mightily relieved when our friend Bill from Berkeley (over on the other side of SF Bay) said he would come and pick us up from our hotel.

So, off to Bill and Don's for a very short, but sweet visit.  I met these two in Italy back in the 80s. We hadn't seen the guys since we were in SF twelve years ago , but we slipped back together as if it had been twelve days. (A few weeks after our visit, these two got married, after 34 years together - loads of love and congratulations!). We enjoyed some local shopping and food tasting at Costco and Trader Joe's (yay, been wanting to go there for EVER!) as well as a wonderful dinner at a middle Eastern eatery - delish!

Off to Oakland airport then for the next leg - Sin City!  Now we were in new territory. After briefly feeling as if we had walked into a wall of heat upon arrival, we both fell madly in love with Vegas - the people, the lights. the hotel, the pool, the food, everything! AND our son Shawn (well, HE thinks he's our son and we haven't the heart to tell him otherwise!) flew down from Canada to spend the time with us and to act as our Las Vegas guide.  We couldn't believe the hotel - totally fabulous!  And so reasonably priced - well done, Hilton chain for making such a wonderful refuge in the midst of all the madness.  We loved the pool and spa area and spent some nice time there before heading out into the lights.  We weren't remotely interested in gambling; seeing the glazed looks and fixed smiles inside the casinos turned us off even more. We had a quick look inside the casino areas of Treasure Island and Caesar's Palace, took a few photos, stroked the walls of the Colosseum (attached to CP) where Celine Dion was singing her heart out and left to wander around open-mouthed at the complete over-the-top-ness of it all! We loved the fountains at the Bellagio Hotel and the Grand Canal at the Venetian.  Some of the other Hotels were just so outrageous that we just shook our heads, laughed and moved on to the next one to do exactly the same! We fell into our emperor-sized bed well after 1 am, which is not that late in Vegas - we met a lot of people just heading out for their entertainment!

Next day, Grand Canyon.  The three of us had booked a Grand Canyon Sunset Tour highly recommended by Trip Advisor and we were not disappointed.  We left Vegas at 9.30 and were soon travelling on Route 66, which was fascinating and passing many miles of desert-y scrub, which was not. We arrived at the Canyon around 5. I am not bad with words, says she modestly, but I can't find the right ones to describe it. I think it was because you are so completely overwhelmed at the first sight of it, you can't actually feel anything at all or understand what you are seeing.  It goes for over 250 miles,  is totally different around every corner and its vastness is incomprehensible. I just know we haven't captured anything like its beauty and magnificence in our photos, but it is unforgettable.

 

 

 

 

Now, on to New York !

Ready As We Can Be

                                                

Our bags are packed and we're ready to go, as the song says.  With the clever use of compression bags and gleanings from many years of watching Dr Who travelling in the Tardis (which is SO much bigger on the inside!), we have stuffed 4 1/2 months worth of clothes, shoes and other necessities into these two.  Not too heavy for carrying around on our backs and small enough to hold on our laps on board public transport, they appear to be ideal...for now!  No room for duty-free booze or presents, unfortunately, so seeing us is going to have to be pleasure enough.
We leave our Gisborne Gaff at 6.00 am tomorrow, pick up our chauffeur and head to the airport for our flight to Auckland at 7.05.  The weather is forecast to be horrid, so we are planning to spend quite a bit of our day's wait in a Day Room near the airport and visiting with Sarah, Richard's daughter.
Then at 7.30 pm, we are off to San Francisco, wearing the flowers in our hair that have been cunningly concealed inside the above packs! 
Years of watching Dr Who and Star Trek and we still haven't learnt the answer to this: How come we leave NZ at dinner time on Saturday and arrive in the USA at lunchtime on Saturday and, more to the point, how can you fit two lunches and two dinners in the same size stomach?  Maybe it expands when you do Time Travel, although the Doctor has never discussed this ...

The Big Plan

Before we even start, it is important to acknowledge the fact that, without the lovely Katy H, this Blog would not exist, a couple of laptops would have been sent soaring through assorted windows and we would have been divorced.  She has managed to start us off so that we can hopefully write a bit and add a couple of pictures every few days !  (Mwah, mwah, Katy!)


As most of you know, we are great planners.  We are also, however, great changers of plans!  So far, though, our plans haven't altered substantially since we decided late last year that we would go on a "Big Trip".  We have made several arrangements which are now fixed in concrete, many more that are half-organised and we also have lots to see and do on our "wish list", which remains fluid and changes daily, sometimes more than once a day!

So far, this is "the haps":

We leave on June 8th for San Francisco, Vegas, New York
Surrey (bosom of Richard's family), Portugal, Spain, France
Surrey, Narrowboat visit with Sandra and Barry, Yorkshire
Norfolk (house sitting for Suzi and Mike in South Walsham), Verona, Venice
London weekend, Narrowboat sitting for S & B
Friends and Family visits over much of the South of England
Istria (Croatia) with Elke and Gotti, then back to their place near Munich
Home from Munich via Moscow and Hong Kong
Back to our little Gisborne Gaff on October 15th

Now you know what we know.

There are, naturally, some gaps and these will no doubt be filled with as much as we can possibly cram in to what seems a long time, but will inevitably be too short.  We will no doubt come home bemoaning the fact that we didn't get to see so and so or spend any time at all with what's his name.  However, we also expect to come home filled with lovely memories of the people and places we came to know for the first time and joyful reminiscences of time spent with dear friends in some gorgeous and very familiar old haunts.

And now, as Doctor Who frequently says,  "Allons - y !"