Portugal

I visited some lovely villages in Portugal yesterday. One was the seaside village of Cascais. It’s most interesting claim to fame was the amount of German and American spies that stayed there during WWII. Portugal remained neutral throughout the war yet booked all the hotel rooms to spies. And it just so happens that Ian Fleming was staying at one of the hotels during this time and inspired his creation of 007.

On the way to Cacais we also passed by the fort where the Portuguese dictator, Salazar, died by falling off a chair. I didn’t realize Portugal was under a dictator for so long, but apparently the Spanish wanted to borrow the chair for Franco to sit on (the tour guide had a great sense of humor!). After Cascais we went to the mountain resort, Sintra. It was a quaint little village with an interesting castle that had 2 chimney stacks. I sampled a few of the local pastries. One was called a Quesada which consists of sweet cheese with a little cinnamon in a little crust – quite tasty. I also had a custard pastry that was basically like crème brule in a pie crust – yum!! Afterwards I tried some Port which was delicious and wanted to buy a bottle, but they would only sell the one bottle I wanted in a package with another bottle. So instead of getting a “partial” sale from me, they lost all of my business. The guide said Portugal remains about 70 years behind the rest of the world, so I guess they’re not up to speed with sales yet.

Speaking of being behind, the guide also told us about a local village that until a few years ago had an interesting wedding tradition. The villagers would only marry within the village and the groom was allowed one night with the bride to decide if he wanted to keep her. If he didn’t like her after the first night, he could simply bring her back to her parents the next morning. Of course no longer being a virgin, her chances of getting married again were completely eliminated. Another Portuguese tradition is their belief that roosters bring good luck. They have ceramic roosters everywhere, and according to the guide, “the larger the cock, the luckier you’ll be”.

The French fisherman are still striking over fuel costs and more European countries are joining in, so we’re still waiting to see if we’ll be able to dock in Cannes. If the Italian fisherman shut down the docks, I could be floating at sea for quite some time.

My new cabin situation has vastly improved my life on the ship. It’s amazing how a normal roommate who actually speaks and has social norms will change the entire atmosphere of the ship. Anyway, I’ll close the random post now as I’m suffering a bit from last night’s festivities!