Portugal (with Parents)
You can handle just about anything that comes at you out on the road with a believable grin, common sense and whiskey.
– Bill Murray
Summer Vacation
I’m back! Back to blogging, back to traveling, and back to treating unemployment like the job I know it can be.
Since I last wrote to you all, I spent three weeks in the US. In true vagabond style I spread that time between DC, LA, Minnesota, and back to DC again. Coast to coast. Why do I have so many friends and family in so many places? Why does the US have to be such a huge country?? These questions may never be answered. But I spent a lot of time on planes and only three days in my actual house.
When I first headed back stateside following 3+ months in South America I didn’t feel ready to take a break from traveling. I felt more like I was just getting the hang of it. My Spanish was getting…I’m not going to say ‘good’ but how about ‘preschool equivalent’. Whatever. I was making progress! Other things were getting easier. My backpack had gotten lighter as I learned, sometimes painfully, what essentials are worth the weight (extra underwear) and what is not (all fashionable clothing of any kind).
There is one thing, however, that I was happy to take a break from. And that’s blogging. It is damn exhausting.
As I’m sure holds true for many people, writing is a process for me. And like any good process, it takes me awhile. Sometimes I really enjoy writing. And sometimes I dread it like I’m procrastinating a homework assignment. How can I go to the next city when I still haven’t finished editing the blog post from three cities ago?? How did I get so behind?!?
Every sentence I write here involves a full blown process of procrastination, snacking, more procrastination, more snacking, and finally writing. This is followed by copious amounts of coffee (and snacks) needed for editing. If I end up fat at the end of this trip its because of this blog. Ok, not just the blog. This blog and the availability of ice cream in cities across the globe. If you all start seeing only pictures of me from the neck up, please intervene.
Actually don’t. I’m probably just living my best life.
At the end of this year, I know I’ll be happy to have this blog for my own selfish reasons. Reading the early posts, I’m already grateful to remember details from early in the trip that I had already forgotten. But I’m a math nerd by nature, not a writer. If I could skip a post and upload a new spreadsheet instead, I would. Pivot table and all. Something tells me if I did this, my readership might go down.
So, anyway. The point. I should get to the point.
The POINT is that I spent three weeks in the US, and for once, I’m not going to chronicle it. I was on blog summer vacation. I will say it was really nice to catch up with a lot of people. And wear different clothes. I almost forgot I owned so many clothes. My entire wardrobe is currently sitting in a disorganized pile in a home-office-turned-storage-space/hoarders-episode-waiting-to-be-filmed in my house. I couldn’t find anything when I was home. It took me forever to re-pack. There’s still that one shirt I can’t find. But everything I did find, I almost forgot I owned. It’s like shopping without the credit card. Who needs to shop when you can hide your own clothes from yourself for a few months.
Also – why do I own so much stuff?
Meeting the Padres
My first stop next leg of this world tour after leaving DC (again) – Lisbon! This leg of my travels is even more momentous because I’m meeting my parents there. Since I have more than two of those – for clarification, that’s my mom Phyllis and step-dad Ron. This is the family trip abroad that my mom has been craving for years now. It’s finally happening. This is a big deal.
Portugal started a bit rocky. My flight from DC was initially canceled and rebooked not once, but several times. After some fits and starts and a trip to the airport bar I finally arrived in Lisbon a few hours late but no worse for the wear. My luggage even showed up with me, which I had doubts about given the multiple flight changes and newly introduced 7 hour layover in London. So things weren’t so bad.
My step dad picked me up from the airport on arrival in a rental car. This was a nice change from solo traveling and my first sign that this week with my parents would be a change in travel experience for me. I didn’t have to figure out an airport bus or the cost of a taxi, or if Uber was legal in this country. Ron was patiently waiting for me at arrivals and helped carry my bag to the car outside.
Traveling with my parents would be a much different travel experience indeed.
The other travel hiccup involved our Airbnb apartment in Alfama, the oldest district in Lisbon. The space and specifically the bathroom were on the disappointing side, and involved several flights of darkly lit stairs. Not the best for a couple of retirees and their daughter sharing a space. We stayed one night, cancelled the following two, and I used hilton points (thanks work travel!) so we could switch hotels. This meant that we moved away from the old part of Lisbon into a less touristy, more commercial part of town. But we stayed long enough to have a gratifying meal at a cute nearby restaurant, and share the first of many bottles of wine together as a family.
Once we got the hotel situation squared, we took an overpriced but pleasantly sleepy tuk tuk tour around Lisbon. It required absolutely zero planning or action on my part beyond saying yes to the idea. Coming off of three months of solo travel, this was quite nice.
Stops on the Tuk Tuk Tour
Our next day in Lisbon we did what most people have to do if touristing in Lisbon. We visited the castle in the middle of the city. I missed this site on the first time around when visiting Lisbon and wasn’t going to let it escape me again.
Beyond Lisbon
The plan for this trip was to slowly travel up the coast. From Lisbon we drove to a sleepy surfers beach town a few hours away called Peniche. Peniche is right on the water with beautiful ocean views, and a respectable but unmemorable downtown. It was a pretty place to stay, but it didn’t make anyone’s favorite’s list. Almost to prove that point, I didn’t take any pictures of it.
After Peniche, we kept driving north up the coast and stopped for a few nights in Figueira de Foz. Figueira is a good amount larger than Peniche and as a result has a few more things to offer. For example, it has several miles of beachfront boardwalk and paved pedestrian trails right next to the ocean. During our visit, I went running on TWO separate days before breakfast. My running routine has fallen off a cliff since I started traveling, so it felt good to get some miles in. Even if they were noticeably slower miles. But that definitely has nothing to do with a lowering of my fitness level or increase in wine and dessert intake lately. I blame the humidity.
It also has a cool old mansion that we toured called the Sotto Maior Palace. It only looks like the Disney Haunted Mansion on the outside.
Figueira de Foz is also a town that my step-dad visited once upon a time when he was a European. Ron lived in England for 17 years in his 20’s and 30’s. He visited Figueira forty-eight years ago, in 1970. I know this because he told me (and several strangers) this fact. Several times. Yes, it was a very long time ago. I know, quite a bit has changed. Yes, he’s probably going to read this blog and notice my sarcasm here. Someone has to keep him in line.
The family travel time ended with three days in Porto. Home of port wine. How fitting for this side of my family.
Retirement Traveling
You can’t go too wrong traveling with Phyll and Ron. My most difficult daily decision involved taking an afternoon nap like mom, or going for afternoon cocktails with Ron. But there are a few things different about traveling with my parents instead of traveling alone. First of all, there’s a lot more car time. Mom and Ron love a good drive. It’s no sooner that we check into a new hotel in a new city than they’ve already found some other town 30 km away they want to explore. We don’t even have to stop there, we can just drive through. Or stop for a meal. Or coffee. They’re always up for a coffee stop.
This travel style works for them. My mom has some health issues relating to an old car accident and several surgeries and can only physically walk so much in a day. And Ron doesn’t mind a good drive. He gets to reminisce about the time he drove through this town or that town when he was a young American living in the UK and traveling through Europe. He’ll wonder at the gas mileage of European diesel engines. They’ll both talk about how the olive oil is better here and gush over the scenery. It’s retirement traveling at its best.
The downside here is technology related. My step dad has possibly shaved months off his life dreading the word ‘re-calculating’ from the car GPS. He really took the bullet by being the only driver registered on the rental car this trip. And once we found the town we’re looking for, it inevitably had zero street parking without requiring a two mile walk to the town center. My mom can’t do that.
This brings up an interesting dynamic. Because after 20-30 minutes of circling some Portuguese town, my step-dad’s blood pressure will begin to rise in frustration. And then my ever-positive mom will put her hand on his arm and say…. ‘you know, we don’t need to get lost wandering around looking for parking. We’ve pretty much seen all there is to see. Let’s leave and go to the next town.”
And off we go. Half the time, we never even got out of the car.
This is how you stay married for 30 years and is a summary of just about every day in Portugal with my parents. I’m not complaining.
However.
I’m not well-adjusted to driving travel. In my prior blog posts I’ve talked about how I like to stay active when traveling. Almost too active to the point of borderline exhaustion at times. Some of this is just, well, it’s just me. I like to stay busy and moving. Some of this is my poor attempt to adjust to life without a job or schedule and creating one for myself. After traveling with my parents, I also learned I do this to stay un-cranky, and avoid a routine of wine drinking and sleeping all day. Which, as it turns out, is what my body prefers to do in its natural state. Don’t get me wrong, this makes for a nice week with the parents. But if I do this too long, it’s a slow lethargic path to obesity.
I’m also a bad car traveler. I’m basically a small child in the car. After fifteen minutes my stomach feels queasy, and my eyelids are heavy. After twenty minutes, I’m down for the count and drooling in the backseat. Forty-five later, when we actually stopped somewhere to get out and do something, I’m the cranky toddler who’s not ready to get up from naptime. Where are we? Can’t I just stay in the car and keep sleeping?? Obviously no Cass, because we’re in Portugal and everyone flew out here to spend time together.
For real, my parents have a lot of patience with me. We drove through some really beautiful Portugese towns. In places like Coimbra, we all got out and spent a lovely few hours shopping the streets and touring the town sites. But in others, my parents got out and explored. I got out and ate. And that’s all I could manage. In my defense, I got better as the trip wore on, but it took me a few days to physically adjust.
Coimbra, Portugal 
Noticeably awake in Coimbra
Ending in Porto
Ah, Porto. My favorite of the Portugese cities visited on this trip. And why? Well there’s the pretty riverside views. The now familiar, steeply slanted, uneven stone streets equally full of history and tourists. The beautiful old buildings and giant clocktowers with decorative facades that you barely notice until you awe in amazement upon looking up.
And then, there’s the Port. I love a good Port. It’s wine and brandy-like alcohol blended together. A drink that’s equal parts ‘night out with the girlfriends’ and ‘irritable old man in a smokey bar’. This is the perfect drink for me.
The three of us did the typical things that tourists do in Porto. We did a hop on and hop off tour to see the nearby castles and beaches of the city. We walked along the waterfront, and ate a lot of good meals.
The streets of Porto
We also took a ride on the Teleférico so we could enjoy a view of the city and it’s picture-worth bridge.
On one of our afternoon walks, Ron and I watched a couple of teenage kids jump off a bridge for money. Really, it’s a thing there. Ron paid at least a Euro for it.
And of course, we visited a few wineries and we did a Port tasting or two. This was all Ron and Phyll’s idea.
And to top it all off, we stayed in a really great apartment with a view of the river. It doesn’t get much better than this.
So thanks to my mom and step dad for a relaxing and fun start to the next chapter in my travels. I genuinely had a good time traveling with them, even if the pace was a little bit slower and the wine stops a little more frequent. Don’t tell them, but I might miss them some already.
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