Palma, Mallorca, Spain

 When I lived in the UK, I knew a lot of people who went to Mallorca for their holidays. It always sounded so exotic and beachy to me.  With so many amazing places to visit in this world, I wondered if I would ever get the chance to visit. Fast forward, 40 plus years, We took a transatlantic cruise not that long ago, and the last stop before Barcelona departure was Palma, Mallorca. 

We were a little "excursioned" out and wanted to have a low key day wandering Palma. We did take a taxi from the port docks to the city park below the Gaudi "Arc" cathedral. Let's be clear, the cathedral existed onsite for hundreds of years before Gaudi was commissioned to help with the restoration.  Having been to Sagruda Familia a couple of times, I expected so much.  It did not disappoint... but so very different from Sagruda Familia.  He wanted to infuse the worship space with light, and as you can see from the photo below, it was stunning in the early morning that we arrived.  I would recommend buying tickets in advance and getting there at opening.  You only need an hour or so to see the cathedral.  Be sure to check out the huge Gaudi chandelier, it was so unusual and beautiful.  

Photo tip, move way back from the altar and show someone holding the ball of light. See below... 

Next we walked through the city, looking for the Arab baths.  The old town is truly a labyrinth of crooked little streets. Go ahead!  Try to get lost... but it was easy enough to find it using your phone to walk you there.  We had the gardens to ourselves that morning, not bad for a town with a couple cruise ships in port that day.

Beautiful parks everywhere in the city!

Hard to see the beautiful mosaic details on the top floor, but it was amazing.

After two weeks on a cruise ship, you'd think you'd never be hungry again... haha, fat chance of that!  We stopped for a coffee and a pastry and sat outside watching the shoppers on the shopping street, and the pigeons at our feet looking for a handout. 

We continued to walk, running out of the fancy high street and into a more local neighborhood.  So many of the people on the street we're on their way to a low building that looked like some sort of shopping mall.  On a whim, I said "let's go over there"!  I am so glad that we did, it was a wonderful, unexpected surprise with shopping for fruits, veggies, meats, seafood, cheese- - you name it, if it was food, they were selling it!  They even had foods to go and an oyster bar!  Knowing my guy will always say yes to oysters, I suggested we stop and have some with a cold glass of white wine. 

It's not that I look happy, I AM happy!  These guys were so nice and took turns making little bites of goodness for us to try. It was so much fun. 

Paella to go, if you wanted it!

 

As we left the port, we scored the corner hot tub with views of the city.  Great shots of the Cathedral as we sailed away.  I would love to go back to Palma someday.

Puglia, Italy- Stop Two- Valle d'Itria

We arrived to our second stop outside of Martina Franca in the Valle d'Itria. This was my second favorite stop in our trip in Puglia.  I liked it so much because it was very green, very relaxed and so charming with unique scenery.  You can read about stop One in Pogliano di Mare here.  

I've been enamored with these little trulli houses for some time, so when I found a cute and inexpensive one online, I booked it!

We spent under $100 a night for this one bedroom, one bath unit.  It does sleep 4, but I would recommend for two.  If you want the link, look for property 10776012  on VRBO.com   LINK .

We had a small pool too, but it was kind of cold in April, so it wasn't open yet.  We had such a great time relaxing here, we made dinner here every night and usually had great lunches out while we were sight seeing.

The kitchen was super small but had everything we needed.  We also had a welcome table of items for our stay including wine, fresh pasta, sauce, fruit, nuts, fresh basil and tomatoes and cheese!

Our place was off a quiet country road and had a few neighbors.  The neighbors next store arrived to work on their place doing renovation, but were also having a party on Italian holiday of Liberation Day when the Allies liberated Italy.  It is a major big deal in Italy on April 25th.  At first we were dismayed with the pounding music, but when 6 darling kids showed up at the door to invite us to the party, how could we say no?  They were so cute and had been told to bring us over! Only one guy, our host, knew English but he did a great job introducing us and having us try local specialties like the smoked cheese served melted over bread.  We also had some great homemade wine and enjoyed the festivities.

Alberello is a great but very touristy town of over 1,000 trulli homes. The streets are cute cobblestoned and the hills aren't too stepp for strolling and seeing the sites.  Prepare to take a lot of pictures.  My recommendation is to get there very earlier before all the buses.  We arrived about 9:15am and had no issue finding parking, but when we left about 11am, it was packed with cars trying to find parking. I had to jump out of the car to direct traffic so we could even back out of our parking space. I felt a little awkward, but it's nice that arm movements are universally understood and the guy behind the guy blocking our exit, got what I was trying to do. Plus, he was thrilled to get our parking spot.

There's a couple different parts of the town, and you should stroll up both sides as each has its merits. The side less traveled has the best panoramic views of the town. 

Trulli are often adorned with a painted symbol. Their origin is unknown but they usually have a religious or astrological meaning. Symbols may include astrological signs, the evil eye, the cross, a heart, a star, and others. 

Here's a little sign of some of the local symbols, a couple of them make sense to me and others leave me mystified.

This picture is from the less traveled part of Alberello. Watch for signs that say 'belvedre', which means view point! It was a great little garden park with different trails and areas to take pictures. 

Our trulli host recommended that we visit the walled town of Cisternino. It was a great day trip on our anniversary for a lunch in one of the highest rated local restaurants.

No Italian post would be right without showing some food, so here's the best pasta I ate in Puglia. We had a great lunch in Cisternino for our anniversary.  This  pasta was fantastic. 

T a g l i o l i n o b u rr o , p a r m i g i a n o , t a rt u f o * n e r o 

Fresh pasta cooked and thrown into a heated wheel of cheese and stirred until the cheese is incorporated into a sauce.  Topped with fresh truffles.  Link to the restaurant is here, Osteria Piatti Chiari. The truffles are priced separately, what's shown in the picture is about 4.50 euros.  They weigh the truffle before and after slicing it on your pasta so they know how much you were served.  You can see the girl has the basket with the truffle and the scale too.

We wandered around Cisternino and enjoyed the labyrinth of streets. 

Go ahead and try to get lost!  It's worth it.

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Puglia tomato friselle rusk bread - Traditional breakfast

I've always loved sliced tomatoes on toast, it was my pandemic breakfast of choice. Simply toast, a smear of mayo, sliced tomatoes with salt and pepper.... absolutely my favorite. Sort of a design of my own making, but maybe I saw it somewhere???

Getting to Puglia and waking up to the hotel breakfast on Day 1 was terrific.... cheese, meats, fruits (including one I've never seen, nespole- more on that later) and these yummy tomato toasts. 

Our host,  Elena, was telling us our choices for breakfasts.  She offered frisselle and described as tomato toast,  then said "5, maybe 6 would be right.... I think 6". I was a bit worried, then delighted, when I saw the plate and that they were small. In the photo,  you can see that there are 5... that's because I already put one on my plate and was tucking into a yummy bite. 

Here's my attempt at making it myself for the breakfast when we got to our VRBO a couple days later.

Our host had left us so many things as a welcome gift; fresh orecchiette pasta, jarred pomodoro tomato sauce, the frise (bread rusks), tomatoes, local olive oil, a fresh basil plant, fresh cheese and an assortment of fresh fruit.... oh, and local wine!

The top picture has small frise rusks and the second picture is the larger size. Both are great, but maybe the big ones take a bit more time to soften a bit.

Here's all we did:

12-16 large cherry tomatoes, cut into quarters or eighths

A bit of good olive oil, 2-3 tsp

A big bit of salt

Fresh basil, cut into slivers

A bit of pepper, if you like (and I do)

A couple teaspoons of water

*Some Frise Maltagliate... (dry, light "bagels, AKA "rusks" or bruschetta)

In a medium bowl, cut the tomatoes, drizzle with oil olive and salt. Add slivered basil and pepper.  Give a nice stir and get the 'rusks' ready to go on a plate. 

So our host, through interpretation through his 14 year old niece, told us to make the breakfast,  adding a sprinkle of water. My hubby heard that I should sprinkle the dry bread with water, but I interpreted it to mean that I would add a bit of water to my tomato mixture. I actually think my hubby was right, but honestly, drizzling the rusks with a bit of watery tomato oil also works deliciously too.

Let the rusk sit and absorb the mixture while you get the rest of the breakfast ready to go.  We drank quite a lot of espresso in tiny cups while we prepared our breakfast.

The rusks are in the package behind the bottle of olive oil.  There were more gifts from our host in the fridge: cheese and orecchiette. What a nice gift to leave, everything you need to make yourself a dinner, a snack and a breakfast.

*to make these at home it would be easy to use bruschetta toasts, or leftover French bread toasted/ dried in the oven.  It's supposed to be hard and dry,  hence the sprinkle of water. 

On day one,  here's a photo of our view as we ate breakfast. Not a bad place to start your day. 

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Colmar, France- Easy trip from Germany

I have always wanted to go to Colmar, a small quaint city near the border of Germany.  The Rhine river separates the two countries, and a quick trip over the bridge, you know in France.  The Alsace region of France, is a bit more like Germany in its cuisine and the looks of the buildings. Colmar is also known for a very important sculptor, Auguste Bartholdi, best known to us Americans for the creator of the statue of Liberty! 

 

Called the "Little Venice" of France, which I imagine is very annoying to the real Venetians, the only real thing in common to Venice is that it has a couple canals. It is nothing like Venice in real life.  However, I don't let the mere semantics of what people call it change what I liked about it.  It was quaint, it was fun, it was beautiful!  Remarkably, Colmar escaped any bombing damage from WW2.  To the right is a picture from my February visit on a sunny but cool day. It was perfect for catching the reflections of the buildings in the perfectly still waters of the canals. 

Going in the winter has its merits... it still had many visitors except nothing like it must look like in the middle of summer with busloads of tourists arriving from all points of the globe.  Many river cruised come down the Rhine, and Colmar is a very easy stop to access from the cruise ship.

At first, I thought that the city was very small and dare say it, a bit anti-climatic, but I kept meandering down seemingly deserted lanes to see what else I might discover.  The lanes kept opening up to bigger areas filled with more and more cuteness. 

So many beautiful metal scrollwork signs.  Here's one of the "Two brothers charcuterie" shop.   Below is one of the high streets, filled with tourist shops but also many local shops for people who obviously lived here.

I needed to get some lunch, so Googled "restaurants around me" to see what was recommended.  That's my usual trick for finding places that are enjoyed by tourists and locals alike.  I found a couple of great option, from a cute tea house to an expensive restaurant that might be offering more than I really wanted for lunch.  I had walked by this place a couple of times and it was so darn CUTE, and it had enough stars to reassure me that I would get a decent lunch.

My lunch was basic but exactly what sounded good!  The two table on either side of me seemed to have ordered the same thing, so I really like I chose well. It was basically a French flatbread 'pizza' with a white sauce, cheese, onions and ham!  A green salad (always weird in Europe with beets and corn...) was fresh and nice. Order a pichet (small pitcher) of local rose wine to add to your meal.  I thoroughly enjoyed my lunch.

I needed to drive back to Lake Constance in Germany (also called the Bodensee) where I was visiting for a business trip.  Coming back from France, I could easily have retraced my trip back to the East side of the lake, but decided instead on driving through Switzerland, visiting Lichtenstein for the first time, Austria and coming back to Germany (and the lake) from the south.  It took me five hours altogether, but I did visit 5 countries in 5 hours... not sure where else in Europe you are able to do that. I added Lichtenstein to my list of visited countries, so I'm now at 51 countries! Woo hoo.

I visited the castle below in Vaduz, which happens to be the home of the reigning prince of Lichtenstein.  You are not allowed to get close to this palace, as the guards are a bit aggressive to keep you away. It was fun to see the view though, with the Swiss mountains in the background. The castle from the below shows just how massive it is, it does look a bit smaller here.

It was an easy drive to Austria, and I had a great lunch in the city of Bergenz in Austria and truly had one of the best burgers of my life in a well regarded place called Weiss restaurant. A radler beer, pictured below, is a local German beer that it usually mixed with either Sprite or soda water for a low alcohol choice. Perfect for lunch when I still had some sightseeing and driving to do.

I highly recommend getting out and seeing the local area, even when you're traveling for business. I did go by myself, which is a different experience, but still a lot of fun. Get out there and do it!

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Portugal Itinerary and Travel Tips

PICTURE- Seven Hanging Valleys hike, Algarve

Planning a trip to a foreign country can be intimidating... you may never have been, you want everything to be just great, you don't know where to go and you're not 100% sure what you really want. Sound familiar?

Portugal had been on our list for a variety of reasons as we had friends who retired there and we knew that the wine, natural beauty and culture was something we wanted to experience. 

My advice is to rent a car and take advantage of as much of the country as you can.  The roads are great and the drivers are nice! 

Here's our recent itinerary for 16 days in Portugal:

•   Cascais/Sintra- 3 nights
•   Nazare- 1 night
•   Porto/Duoro Valley- 3 nights
•   Tomar- 1 night
•   Algarve- 5 nights
•   Evora- 1 night
•   Lisbon- 2 nights

We planned our itinerary like this for a couple reasons.  We had been to Lisbon before once on a cruise stop, and we knew there was lots that we wanted to see in this vibrant and bustling city! However... flying a red eye flight from the West Coast and arriving late at night, we thought we might like to start our vacation at a more relaxed location like Cascais with its beautiful beaches and good location for other key sites.  We rented our car at the airport and drove straight to Cascais.  Our flights had been delayed and we had missed a connection, arriving 6 hours later than planned. Luckily we were able to pick up our rental car about 20 minutes before they closed at midnight! Whew!  Navigating roads while you are tired and jet lagged is always a challenge, however, having great Portuguese roads and no traffic made it a lot easier!  NOTE- most rental cars in Europe are manual "stick" transmissions, so if you can't/don't want to drive a stock, you will need to reserve an automatic and pay a little more.  DO reserve a small car... you do not want a big vehicle on some of the smaller roads that you will travel.  We had a Toyota Yaris and all our bags were easy to stash out of sight in the covered hatchback.  

PICTURE (above)- a cute street in Porto

Waking early the next morning, we were thrilled to have this morning view! We stayed at Hotel Albatroz, not knowing that it was a 5 star hotel and one of Conde Nast's Top 100 hotels. We were close into the old city sites of Cascais with plenty of local beaches and beachside promenade on the seawall.

PICTURE- view from our hotel balcony in Cascais, Hotel Albaroz

We hired a guide for the day to show us the sites of Sintra. There is so much to see in Sintra, I knew we might need more than one day, but having a guide was a relaxed carefree way to see things! We elected to concentrate on the Quinta da Regaleria instead of Pena Palace and the Moorish Castle. My thoughts are, you have to keep things on your list to come back and visit, right?  We did do Cabo da Roca (western most point of Europe) and also the nearby national park which we loved!  

In Sintra, the picture below is take at the Quinta da Regaleria in the Templar "cave".

About guides, while it can be expensive if you are only a couple of people, it is so nice to have a guide to pick you up and take you to all the key sites.  Expect to pay between 300-400 euros for a full day, while that may seem like a lot, it ensures that you will have a great day without the stress of trying to figure out everything on your own.

We hired a guide named Daniel Ponce (on Facebook) that was a wonderful guide and kept us busy all day seeing and experiencing so much.

PICTURE- Sintra, Quinta da Regaleria, Templar Cave

Next, we drove on our way North to visit Porto, with a one night stop in Nazare! We also spent the afternoon in Obidos, a cute walled town, perfect for a quick visit.  Nazare was very beautiful with a big beach and sparkling water. Known for the 100 foot waves in the winter months, it was much tamer in April when we visited.  Next time, we might not spend the night in this town, and instead make it a day visit.  

PICTURE- Nazare beach with boats (biggest waves in the world)

On our way to Porto the next day, we stopped in Coimbra and Averio on the way.  Coimbra was definitely a big city, known for their old universities and lots of sites. Might need to come back and spend a couple of days. People complain that Averio is a nothing but a tourist trap, but with the fun canals, cute buildings and colorful boats, we loved it anyway.

PICTURE- Averio Canal boats, on the road to Porto from Cascais

We were super excited to visit Porto and the Douro Valley! We hired a guide that picked us up in Porto and drove us to the Duoro Wine Valley. It was so incredibly beautiful... even the highways from Porto to Duoro were amazing to us. Those are some NICE highways with some amazing overpasses from hill to hill. It's not often that I admire highways, but when I do, I have to say they are spectacular! The Duoro Valley is a big place and there's a lot of roads and wineries to experience, having a guide will ensure you have a great time and that you can see and do a lot safely.  Drinking and driving is never a good idea, so why not have someone do the hard part for you?

PICTURE- Duoro Valley, day trip from Porto

Tomar

Tomar was one of our favorite places in all of Portugal. We chose Tomar as it was a good stop as we drove from Porto to the Algarve.  We could have driven it in one day, but as this was our vacation and we wanted to see all sorts of cities and towns we chose Tomar.  The city is inland from the coast, but it is an amazing UNESCO site for its Convento de Cristo (Convent of Christ) on the hill above the city. There is a walled castle remains on the hill, with the convent as its immediate neighbor.  The convent was one of the most beautiful sites of all the we visited in Portugal.  I have only shared the picture below, but this was a HUGE site that went on and on in the most spectacular way.  Tomar is a place I would like to visit again, and heck... we both thought we could be happy living in such a great little town.

PICTURE- Convent de Cristo, in Tomar. Words can't describe how beautiful

Algarve

We spent the most days in the Algarve, in Praia de Luz (near Lagos) and just spent some time relaxing in the sunshine after so many days of travel. We had very little on our list besides taking a hike, visiting friends and a little sightseeing.  We took the Seven Hanging Valleys hike, which is recommended to start very early in the morning, as it gets very sunny and little shade. Bring water and a hat. The view is like nothing I have seen before (pic below and also at the very top of the blog post.

PICTURE- Seven Hanging Valleys hike, Algarve

PICTURE- Praia de Luz beach, a great small community in the Algarve. 

We stayed in a nice VRBO condo in Baia de Luz about 5 minutes to this beach.

PICTURE- Sagres, the very SW tip of the coast in the Algarve

Evora

After 5 lovely and relaxing days, we jumped back in our rental car and headed north.  Evora was about 2 hours drive from the Algarve, and we took mostly 2 lane country roads, passing vineyards, groves of olive trees, cork trees and lots of storks nesting in high power line towers. Evora is an ancient walled city that is so old that it has a Roman temple (and aqueduct) still standing and very beautiful.  We found a little kiosk beverage cafe and had a glass of wine while we watched the "traffic" around the ruins and the park. A lovely way to relax and take in the surroundings.

Lots of one way winding streets through the old made driving a challenge when we missed the small turn off to our hotel, Hotel Albergaria do Calvario. We had a darling suite at a great price in this 4 star hotel!  We also met a couple from Bellevue, Washington in the breakfast room! Small world!

Also visited the chapel of bones, a very creepy small church next door to a very large ostentatious church.  The monks built it to remind you of your looming mortality.

Lisbon

By the time we got to Lisbon, we were a bit tired but excited to be back in the city.  Our hotel was near the waterfront which mean that everything we wanted to see was UP HILL.  I used a tuk tuk private guide to a do a 7 Hills tour of the city, it was a great way to see all the viewpoints and have a personal photographer who knew all the best stops! 

There's so many different things to do in Lisbon, pick a few and do those. Don't try to do everything, you will be exhausted. We left enough that we still want to come back. Isn't that the way that the best trips end?

Our 4 star hotel, As Janelas Verde, was a gem with a roof top lounge and an honor bar. What a great place to go at the end of the day to watch the harbor and enjoy a beverage.

Our tuk tuk driver suggested we take a ferry across the bay from Lisbon and do the river walk to some of the restaurants.  We ate at Ponto Final restaurant, featured in the show Someone Feed Phil. It was lovely with a view of the 25th of April Bridge (same as the Golden Gate architect).  We had a bit of a wait, but since it was in the sunshine with some wine, we were happy to do so. I would recommend you get reservations if you can.

General Notes:

-Uber and Bolt are great options for cheap fares to wherever you want to go.  We used Uber in the Algarve (even though we had a car) and also in Lisbon (where we returned our car before heading into the city).  Our Uber from downtown Lisbon to the airport in the early morning was under $20 and was cheap to call at a moment's notice at 6am.

-Restaurants- don't be afraid to get off the beaten "tourist" path. Some of the best meals we had cost us under 15 euros a person with plenty of wine and all the great courses that you could want (bread/cheese/olives, salad, main course with sides, dessert, coffee and wine).

-Rental Cars- if you're comfortable driving, do it!  Understand you will have to pay tolls and taxes for driving these GREAT roads, but its still a good deal and so convenient! We are Avis preferred and our rate with all rental prices, taxes and tolls was about $800 for 16 days. I was fine with that.  Drivers are polite and people keep RIGHT to ensure traffic flows. OBEY the traffic laws and speeds.... they have sneaky ways of ensuring you do.  Watching the scenery change from Porto to the Algarve was really cool and changed hourly. Mountains, Valleys, orchards, forests, castles on the hills, flocks of cows and sheep--- it's all there!

-Tipping-  Round up or tip about 10%.  Don't over do it, just be appreciative and polite and recognize good behavior. I kept all my euro coins (1 and 2 euro denominations) and my 5 euro bills in a special pocket of my purse for quick access.

-Patience- This is a different culture... be calm and relaxed, there is no need to rush. If you are in a hurry, let them know that when they deliver your food, or pick up your plate. Otherwise, use the "international sign" of using your hand to fake sign a bill in the air when you catch the server's eye. If all else fails, get up and go to the bar or the front of the restaurant to pay. We loved the relaxed attitude of dining out in Portugal, no one will rush you.

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