A day at the zoo

lUsually we are not big zoo fans unless it was taking our children when they were small but we are staying here in Lisbon where the weather has been fantastic and we were looking for something new to do today. We are staying in Lisbon until the end of July because we actually get this last week of July free since we paid the "monthly" rate and being on a boaters budget, every little bit helps.

First stop as you are walking into the zoo...another McDonalds. Now, I usually don't focus on McDonalds...in fact I only eat there a couple of times a year...but this one was definitely different. The first thing that caught our eye as we were walking past was the bright red "hand with crocodile" sign. Then you see it...yes, there are crocs trying to get into McDonalds. Check out the photo!!!! We stopped in after our zoo tour and there were pigeons everywhere because people feed them fries. What would the United States Health Inspectors think of that????

Next, were the birds. Greg and Carla, this photo is for you and Moses and Jessi.

Then onto the monkeys, always a huge attraction. We watched them for over an hour because there are no walls between you and them, only a small electric fence...the kind that is holding Obie, our dachschund, inside a fence...kind of makes you go hmmmmm. Check out the baby monkeys, there were a lot of those in every breed.

Another thing we found very interesting was they have a "pet cemetary" in the zoo. Some pets have more formal monuments than others, some have the painted tiles, others do not. I would love to have a cemetary for my pets. You could go visit them sometimes, they are always a part of you.

The giraffes...check out the photos...one of them fell in love with John. The flamingos...always beautiful.

They have two shows, one is the "Sea Lion" Show and the second, the "Dolphin" Show. Both of them are very entertaining even though you can't understand a word that is said over the speakers (it is in Portuguese). Again, they take this huge sea lion through the crowds (see the Photo)...something they could never do in the USA for liability reasons. The dolphins were awesome!!!

The Douro River Cruise

Here are some photos of the beautiful Douro River and our cruise boat. The cruise included all meals for two days. For breakfast we had rolls and cafe or orange juice. For lunch you got soup and a bacalau (salt cod) with water and wine. Dinner was then more soup, a salad and a bacalau casserole with more water and wine. You always got a roll or two with every meal. Their rolls are very good, hard to resist. It also included the hotel for one night in Regua. Because we booked our tour online and they spelled my name wrong for my email, we never received documents and they were closed on Sunday and our tour started at 8am Monday. We got online and figured out the dock to go to and got onboard but from there on out, we knew nothing....no schedule for stops or meals or what hotel we were going to, etc. So the tour guide told us to stay onboard the ship when everyone else was getting off to the hotel. When they were pulling in the ramp to continue the boat ride (different tour package) we knew something was wrong and found another tour guide who said we were supposed to have gotten off the boat so they had to reload the ramps and off we went to find our hotel. Also, we didn't know what time or where dinner was to be or what time the to be at the boat the next morning...What a disaster (especially when the tour guides don't speak English) but we made it to all stops. The boat went all the way to the Spanish border town of Barca D'Alva. It was so windy there they were having a very hard time docking the ship. They only stayed there for about 10 minutes and then turned around going back the way we came. We finally disembarked in Pinhau and got on a bus to the train station. It was a very cool train ride back riding along the river banks. Since we didn't know what time the train was arriving in Porto, we went ahead and booked a hotel (thank God for our Vodafone internet pen). That worked out great since we arrived about 15 minutes after the last train left for Lisbon. All in all a great trip!

The middle section of this river is almost all vineyards and is definitely a much drier climate than Porto...must be good for grape growing. They didn't say one thing about the vineyards on the cruise which we thought was very peculiar. When they did come across the loud speaker it was to tell us about the architecture of the bridges and to inform us about the locks. We went through five locks altogether. One of them was over 100 feet high and was very intimidating to be enclosed in such high concrete walls all around you and knowing the pressure that was being put on the walls. I have included the photo of John a bit worried about that...

We headed North to Porto

Our friend from Portugal, Margarita, had told us about a cool trip that included going fromPorto, up the Douro river on a riverboat and then coming back by train to Porto. So we booked a tour and packed our bags for the two night trip. The tour was to include an overnight in Regua which is half way up the river. We got to Porto around two in the afternoon, checked into our hotel in Porto and headed out to see the city sites. There are many Port Winery tours in the city. We walked around town a bit, got our bearings, and headed for the first tour since it was about closing time. The first one over the bridge was Calem. It was very interesting to learn about harvesting and bottling Port. You get to taste a few different kinds after the tour and then you can buy your choice if you please. Port is always very sweet so I like most of it, John doesn't care for it much. We did purchase a good Vintage Port from the year 2000 which was a very good year for Port according to the Port Wine Industry that grades every kind of port from that years harvest. We figure if we keep it for our 50th wedding anniversary, it will be a good investment (some Vintage ports go for $1500 or more) or a lot of fun drinking it. They are supposed to last in the bottle for over 100 years. We walked through town some more and found a great Indian restaurant and enjoyed the sauces (see photo) and John had HOT CURRY so he was happy.

When we returned from the cruise, we had to spend another night in Porto because the last train to Lisbon had already departed. We found a hotel near the Sao Benton train station. This train station is famous for the tiles covering the walls inside of it. The next day as we were touring the city some more we found a church with the tiles covering the whole outside (I have included photos of both locations). It is very beautiful how they use tiles on the outside of their homes and buildings. The first rain we've had in two weeks came today so we went "shopping" for umbrellas because being new at leaving the boat behind, we also left our umbrellas and rain slickers behind. We didn't let the rain stop us though and we muddled through but the umbrellas didn't last the whole day...the wind got the best of them. They have the cool Trolleys here in Porto as well as Lisbon, must be a Portuguese thing.

We also had to visit the Imperial McDonalds. Apparently, the old Imperial restaurant was located here and McDonalds hasn't remodeled to the usual McDonalds standard so there are crystal chandeliers and modern furniture, etc ., quite the site.

Finally...Oriente

John has been trying to get me to Oriente since I've arrived but we have just been too busy. He came with "the guys" after they sailed in. He wanted me to come mostly for the huge grocery store, as close as it comes to Walmart here. See, they even have hot dogs in a jar (no hot dogs in a package). We just love wandering around in the grocery stores...I know, we are odd that way. Then off to the rest of the mall(The Vasco De Gama Mall)...look how awesome it is!

This city hosted the World Expo 1998 so there is a lot of awesome architecture. We rode the gondolas and got a great view from above. Apparently, there was a marina planned for this side of the city but it kept silting in so they gave up. Then we walked around the park and watched the kids playing soccer. After that it was off to the Oceanarium...Europe's largest aquarium. Check out the SeaDragon (looks like a mix between a dragon and a Sea Horse). Last but not least it was back to the grocery store to pick up the needed items and hop onto the bus for the ride back to the marina. A very exhausting day!