supersabbatical2024

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6/7/24: What an amazing time away over the last 6 weeks, and how cool that we got to meet up with our daughter for the last bit of each trip. But also happy to be back home in New Jersey with our whole pod: David Mari Claude Sara. Thanks for following along ❤️ !

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More random pics from last few days in Portugal with our AWESOME daughter Mari!

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More Niepoort wine barrels, which are procured from around the world, and very highly valued as they age. The winery uses them forever! We drove back home through the glorious Douro countryside, and stopped at a dam with endless views down the river. And of course, our daughter is so stinking cute…!

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We had lunch at Niepoort with our guide and the winery production team. We tasted 5 or 6 wines, including a "tawny" port and a white port. We bought one white and one red wine to drag home on the plane with us. Lovely guide, lovely laid back team and a very cool vibe at this estate. We generally are not much for wine tasting, but this was really a fun time. I noticed that the guy would refill your glass if you finished your first "taste" quickly enough, so that was fun too, and by the end of lunch, everyone was a bit more chatty despite the language barrier. Lunch was risotto with (delicious not chewy) squid, fresh grown salad, and a tasty orange cake type of thing. So much fun having Mari with us, tasting the wines and the food, and hanging with the winery's official doggy-in-residence.

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At Niepoort Winery, we learned about the winemaking process. Let's see what details I can remember 2 weeks later:

They age the wines in ancient barrels some of which are more than 100 yrs old. Some wine is aged 6-12 months, others sit for 18+ months before getting bottled and shipped out. One room had stacks and stacks of 500 liter barrels. There was also a massive barrel that held 11,000 liters! Another area had what looked like a colorfully decorated giant Box O'Wine that also held thousands of liters of wine. Parrrrtyyyyy!!!���🍾🍷

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6/6/24: Drove an hour and half to Douro Valley to tour a winery called Niepoort. Some people were tired. GORGEOUS area -- could not stop taking pics of landscape. Had to literally drive under a mountain for a very long way I thought (tunnels make me claustrophobic, and this one felt unending, like multiple miles)

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6/5/24: Mari and I took a walk through our neighborhood in Valongo to the pastry cafe. Then we found a pottery shop called Tuwaterra, and could not resist taking a few pieces home with us (for inspiration when I return to my hometown pottery studio, Indigo Road Clay Studio!). More tiles and more graffiti. Found a cute restaurant in our neighborhood where we met a dad and his daughter, locals who knew the restaurant owner for 20+ years. We also met a young American couple who were rock climbing all over the country. Good food, but mostly just sweet and fun to chat with others and hear their stories. Daughter had just passed some important exams for her university pre med studies. Dad has an uncle in the states (maybe it was NJ? Can't remember). We told him we look forward to seeing him whenever he passes through NJ. Another type of travel that I love…just wandering around, chatting with all kinds of folks…!

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6/4/24: Spent our last few days puttering in and around Porto. Tasted lots of pastry and cake. Planned to ride bikes in the beachy area, Foz do Douro (the Douro River runs from Porto through Douro Valley and meets at Atlantic Ocean). We couldn't find the bike place, so we ambled down the rocky pier and lost ourselves in the fog...

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Love love love all the pretty tiles on the OUTSIDE of the buildings. Loved the Continente mall near our house, and I'm pretty sure RENDE means SHOP because we went there numerous times to do just that...Some of the graffiti was pretty cute. Passed this table of guys at a street cafe singing at the top of their lungs in some language, I have NO idea which one. Shame that I missed the beginning, which was actually kind of a beautiful tune. Then the one guy kept singing louder and louder and it fizzled...

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Guys singing at a street cafe

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6/3/24: Monday night we had dinner at a snazzy nouveau restaurant. I noticed a dinner recommendation in the Sunday NYTimes "36 Hours in...Porto" Ha, what are the chances?! We happened to be IN Porto! Clicked through and got right in. Very serious open kitchen concept place, yet pretty low key and fun. Just for kicks, ordered a crazy looking Goat Cheese whiskey drink called a "Misshapen" which was served in an odd shallow bowl with one big block of ice. See Claude taking a sip. The goat cheese was just an essence, not a hunk of cheese. It tasted like a whiskey drink (an Old Fashioned?)

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More pics from Porto over next few days...lots of steep cobblestone streets...vistas...one of last remaining red cast iron buildings...bought some art...ceramics...more pasta de nata...

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6/1/24: The BEST thing we did today was PICK UP MARI from the airport at 4pm!!! We have had a blast since then. Took her through our favorite grocery store at the Continente that first day, and Clause made a pasta primavera dinner at home (That Claude, sO lovely, right???). Walked around Porto next day, saw the Livraria Lello, “the most beautiful bookstore in the world.” I got the Little Prince in French with my free credit, and maybe someday I will actually read it. Walked through some pretty parks, like Jardim do Palacio de Cristal, and another park that was having a children’s festival. Claude and Mari happened upon one of the activities, and they understood the assignment--managed to walk in tune on two wooden slats together. We went into the Super Bock Arena (I can NOT get enough SUPER BOCK pics, love that name!), and it turned out they were having early voting on a Sunday for the EU government body. Apparently, they actually WANT people to vote here, and put on festivals so the whole family can come together! Smart. We slipped into the voting line, but only to slither into the bathroom inside the arena. You can even buy a Super Bock beer while you’re waiting to vote! Tried the classic cheese encased meat-sausage-meat sandwich, a Francesinha at Casa Guedes.

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5/31/24: Friday. Drive to Rua da Savinha 220, Valongo, Porto 4440-572, VRBO Reservation ID HA-3WQ16F, host Teresa Maria Moreira Moutinho.

We arrived at our final stop on our Portugal trip to a really lovely house, and we were met by Teresa’s teen daughter Mafalda and her little brother Joaquim. They were so sweet, and showed us around the house. Mafalda’s English was great, of course, and she explained that their family used to live in this house years ago, but now it is used just for friends and rentals. I love how the kids help out with the family biz. We met a number of kids during our travels through Portugal, young people working with their parents, in a restaurant, at a candy store, or checking in the renters. The kids seem so poised and competent, it’s like family apprenticeship, and it seems like a nice way for young people to learn about the real world…of course you need to have the family business first.

Anyway, the house was fabulous, and first things first — one of our favorite travel activities — the supermercado. The Continente around the corner from us had everything: groceries, a Papelaria (a stationery store - another favorite travel activity of mine). I have popped in to many a papeleria throughout Portugal, some more than once, and have bought a bunch of art supplies, as well as some cute pens.

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5/30/24: Visited ruins of Conimbriga, a whole village, where people really existed, walked on these very mosaic floors! It’s one thing to see it in pics, and even to walk through it for real. But when I really take a moment to concentrate and imagine people actually living on these very spots that I now walk across, teens running around, toddlers, everyone just living their lives…it’s sort of mind-blowing. And then to think, that in ANOTHER 2000 years, someone else will we walking around my neighborhood and wondering how I must have lived…whoooooa. Also visited the Universidade in town, and more…art. I found the whole long explanation on the wall very amusing, because it was kind of dancing around and around, on an on, when it seemed obvious to me (and would have been obvious to Georgia O’Keefe as well), what this is…

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5/29/24: Left Pousada in Arrraiolos, and drove to our next hotel near Coimbra, in a town called Condeixa a Nova. Not a pousada, but Conimbriga Hotel do Paco is run by a large non-profit “fundacion” that seems to run all sorts of programs for disadvantaged folks. Then they also run businesses to make money that then provide more funding for programs. They have a natural cosmetics company (I bought two lip balms made with olive oil), restaurants, a nature preserve, as well as several hotels. I thank goodness for the beautiful patio, and the pool, since Claude still felt awful and slept for much of the time we were there!

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Pousada chapel was completely covered in blue and white tile. Beautiful old Bibliotheca staircase.