Short trip report

[StephN]

Hello everyone -
I have checked the posts and feel I am back in the swing of what is going on here. Some sad news and some good news. Cancer is always like that.

Got home last evening from Portugal and went for my tri-weekly Herceptin today. Glad to report that my port was cooperative today after having had to give it the "clot buster" TPA the last time prior to my trip. (Wouldn't you know THAT would be the day that it would clog up!)

Weather was good while we were there and only had one day of rain of any consequence. When there is some good breeze Lisbon is as clear and blue-skyed as Seattle. And they have such GREAT COFFEE over there that I finally broke my no caffeine rule and had some each morning instead of the herbal teas that I brought. When I smelled the coffee on the plane yesterday I almost gagged - there really is NO comparison.

We ate a lot of seafood, but they are a little short on the vegetables so we learned how to order in restaurants so we had a better balanced meal. They also give BOTH potatoes AND rice with many of the dishes. The bread is very good and they automatically bring a plate with cheese and some cured meat plus olives right away as you are seated. So, Starch City - and I have brought home another 3 or so pounds all right around my middle.

This despite all the walking - mainly on cobblestones. The country is granite in large part and they use small pieces to pave the streets and sidewalks everywhere. There is not much asphalt except on the main roads and motorways. I lived in my new Merrill shoes which gave me enough protection from walking on those hard stones and uneven sidewalks.
The third day in Lisbon my legs gave out and I had to take a break and stay close to our lodging and do a little laundry. By the next day I was better and we got a car that day and started out into the countryside to explore around for 10 days. There are plenty of castles, roman ruins, impressive monestaries, etc to climb around in. Forgot to mention that Lisbon has numerous great museums and we only hit a few of the better ones. Curiosity kept me going!

Don't want to bore you with all this, but all in all it was a wonderful getaway and change of mind. We did not run into very many Americans and were actually the first from here to use some of the wonderful country manor house inns that are available. This is a good way to meet good families who have also traveled some and are well educated and speak languages in addition to Portuguese, which is unlike any other language I know except it sounds a little like Russian! These people were so helpful and told about things not in the guide books to go and hunt down.

Even though we had a long trip back and our luggage missed our connection to Seattle after going through customs in New Jersey, I feel pretty rested and mellow. Hope everyone can find some way to achieve some change of scene and take in some new surroundings that help you forget all about this crappy disease.

P.S. We did not forget to try a lot of the different wines and drive through some of the vineyard regions. Really picturesque countryside that is fairly built up, being that it is not a very large country. The worst thing was driving through miles and miles of area where they had those fires the past couple of years.