Without our annual trip to Oregon, it feels as if summer simply didn't happen--like an entire season went missing. Yet, in retrospect, it turns out we have even more travels to share than in most years, and so the bimonthly blog has returned.
Most of those travels (the first 12 postings) stemmed from an unusually long road trip across southern Portugal and southwestern Spain this past May--because spring did happen! After flying from Luxembourg to Lisbon, our first day on the road brought us past orchards of cork oak trees spreading above meadows dotted with wildflowers.
Our first touristic stop allowed us to walk a 2000 year-old Roman road through the ruins of a provincial town in what was briefly (~400 years--history is relative) Lusitania.
Naturally, the enduring foundations of Roman structures (e.g., of the forum below) were built upon the site of an Iron Age town (Miróbriga) thought to have had Celtic origins.
Other remaining Roman walls bear frescoes
or show the layout of the omnipresent thermal baths. As a typical American, I am always unduly awed by ancient engineering (after all, it remains to be seen if our country will even make it to 250).
As we continued our journey south, we were at first amazed to still see eucalyptus forests--given their contribution to the catastrophic fires of recent years--but of course the darn things re-sprout very quickly and are extremely hard to eradicate.
We seemed to have timed the trip right, as most of the succulent coastal plants were in bloom!
We failed to dip our toes into the Atlantic Ocean, however, as the cliffs supporting the lighthouse are well over 100' above the water.
After years of being reminded who was to blame for failing to visit the southernmost point of the African continent in 2009, I made damn sure we walked about the southwestern-most tip of Europe.
And got a good look toward both the horizon of the Atlantic to the southwest and inland Portugal to the northeast.
At one point we swerved west to visit the Atlantic coast, strolling on the sandy expanses around the barely century-old Cabo Sardao lighthouse.
Our final stops of the day were along the Algarve on the southern Atlantic coastline, a mecca for tourists streaming in to fry on the beaches and gawk at lovely rock formations.
The small, white villages encroaching on the coast are now known as party hubs.
So we skipped them to instead enjoy sunset over limestone and sandstone cliffs and caves.
One day, spent entirely in Portugal, down!
No wonder I've never heard of Portuguese cheese! Beautiful photos. Thank you for sharing.
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