Tag Archives: senior travel

TAVIRA PORTUGAL AND LINDA

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OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThe final train we took into Tavira was not a beauty, but covered in graffiti inside and out.  It lurched  and swayed from side to side . You can just see Alex’s eyebrows raised in question?  It was a far cry from the spiffy trains in Switzerland, that travelled at great speed around curves, with  hardly a sense of movement inside.  He was so impressed.! The landscape in Portugal was dry, dry, dry. I am sure there must have been areas that were producing food, but not that part. It was good to see Linda on the platform after our “out of the way trip up to  northern Spain”.

We walked to the beach, we enjoyed her little apartment , and talked lots, on all sorts of subjects.  We had spent time with Linda and her family in Victoria BC. a few years earlier.  Now, her three children were living in Finland as students and she wanted to be on the same side of the Atlantic as they.

We enjoyed meeting Alex and Karen, her friends.  Alex was originally from Portugal and met Karen in Virginia, and now they were relocating in Portugal.  On Sunday, Alex (not Sandy) took us out into the surrounding countryside and we ate at an outdoor eatery  under a lush grapevine. Large clusters of grapes hung over our table.  We feasted on a pheasant stew. Linda, Karen and I put our taste buds to the test to try to determine what the wonderful flavor was comprised of.  We were quite sure there was wine, garlic, bay leaf.  The bread was so chewy, olives and cheese were there also and red wine. Tourist  Alex  did not resist those luscious  grapes. Image

We felt refreshed after a few days with Linda,  and while there, Linda went on line and found a inexpensive flight from Madrid to Berlin, so we booked that. She set us on a much better way to get back to Spain, by putting us on a bus to Seville,  Here we boarded  a train that was catering to commuters .I have never seen such a concentration of impeccably   dressed business men,  and I must say as we slipped into our first class seats, it was obvious  they wondered where we came from.  We were now speeding through landscape that might have been California with lots of orange groves. ( Now I know where Seville oranges come from)   Dinner was served, a delicious meal of beef in wine sauce, with spinach and potato souffle, rolls, butter, cream cheese, chocolate cake and coffee and of course wine. Very good. Much better than air plane meals.   We missed our flight to Berlin  and made a reservation at the Best Western. We walked a bit that night,but the streets were  so crowded.  We did go into one department store, that made our high end stores in Canada look  a little shabby. In the underground train, Alex was standing holding onto to  a pole, gripping his luggage with this other hand. A pick pocketer took the moment to grab his wallet out of his shorts.   All through  Switzerland and Germany had worn his money belt around his waist, but had obviously relaxed. Gratefully,  we managed to get in touch with the credit card company he was carrying and sure enough someone had tried to get $3,500. worth of jewellery on it. Thankfully,It had not been honoured and of course it was canceled immediately.  Fortunately, I was carrying both passports and another credit card, so we proceeded on our way.

We did arrive in Berlin by air.  There was   a taxi ride to the next train station . Apparently, we were on the Autobahn, where there was no speed limit in Germany, however, as   we were clipping along, all at once our driver exclaimed  “Nay Nay Nay” looking into her rear view mirror.   We had crossed into Netherlands which did have a speed limit.  After taking a short boat ride on  an Amsterdam canal we   made our way back to the Scheifele airport where our flight to Canada was scheduled.

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THE LONG WAY TO PORTUGAL

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OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAthis trip to Europe was in the planning stage, one of the  certain destinations we planned, was to visit my niece Linda, who was living in Tavira, Portugal.   So, as we left our wondrous Vernazza, we travelled north along the Mediterranean passing Genoa following the coastline toward Barcelona Spain.  This route, I would love to do again, not knowing how spectacular the south of France was.

We boarded the train, leaving wondrous Vernazza, travelling north passing Genoa, continuing along the Mediterranean coast, toward Barcelona. As the sun set and the sea was pink we passed Monaco.  Again, I marvelled at the beautiful pines and palms that reminded me of pineapples. We got off the train in Nice, had a buffet dinner that was the closest to Canadian food we had eaten,(Alex was missing the burgers and fries etc.)

Now night was falling and instead of looking for overnight accommodation, we chose to purchase a sleeping compartment to continue on to Spain.  Looking back,  it might have been better to stay and see more of that prime part of the world, but we crawled up into our bunks and slept away the night.  Morning found us in Barcelona.  Now, to get to Tavira, Portugal.  It was probably a “mistake” to ask for a train to Lisbon. Just an example of how the mind works, knowing it’s Portugal’s largest city.  We ended up travelling way north into Spain, “off course”, it would be fair to say.The Spanish train was full, but not with tourists. We had been spoiled in Germany and Switzerland with our own compartment, but not here.

We pulled into Burgos, which is far north in Spain.  I found out later that Burgos is one of  the towns on the El Camino  de Santiago, a well know  800 kilometres pilgrimage that people  have walked for centuries and still  do to this day..  I read  Shirley Maclaine’s book of her trek, when she was well into her 60’s.  I also saw the movie The Way starring Martin Sheen, which I enjoyed. http://www.theway-themovie.com/camino.php

Now, back to Burgos, late evening, the sun was gone,  a beautiful cool breeze and agreeable temperatures were a tremendous relief for me (my son Jon once said that I would love to live in a wind tunnel!). We checked our rolling backpacks, but pulled out our jeans and runners, and headed out into the dark streets. Not knowing anything about the town we landed in, it was truly a night adventure.   Hauntingly beautiful  music  surrounded us, as we walked a tree lined avenue. We couldn’t tell weather it was a live choir or recorded  but it created  mystery and anticipation.   Little did we know this town was famous for the cathedral  Our Lady Burgos from the 13th century.  We found it, but it was too late in the evening to see inside. Instead, near the cathedral  we found a little eating place and Alex ordered suckling roast pig.  Our train left at 2:30 am, so we joined others who were eating, Europeans eat late into the night, but our schedule was conducive to this odd practice.    Eventually, we boarded the train, and once again climbed into bunks with clean sheets and slept soundly.  Next stop was Lisbon.

Was that long round about trip a mistake?  One could say that it was, it certainly wasn’t the most direct or scenic route, but I am willing to say those few hours in Burgos Spain were good, it was memorable, not even knowing where we were, but we were together and we experienced that music in the cool air. Another moment to remember and enjoy.

Alex often said  “even my mistakes turn out right”. Another way to say “all things work together for good” or  “its all good” if we have the faith to believe it.