Northern Portugal/Santiago de Compostela

Churches galore! This statement could be used to summarize much of Europe, but it seemed especially true for northern Portugal and Galicia, Spain. The Thanksgiving weekend satisfied Ericka's dream of visiting Santiago de Compostela, and my longing to take a hike among the granite boulders of Peneda-Geres, Portugal's only national park. We dined on fish fillets and octopus for Thanksgiving Dinner in Braga, Portugal. Tapas in Spain were a good reminder that we prefer the variety and spice of Spanish food to that of Portugal. That being said, Northern Portugal is a beautiful place.

Bom Jesus, outside of Braga.

Santiago de Compostela

Peneda-Geres National Park

A church in Peneda, Portugal that happens to be a miniature version of the Bom Jesus church in Braga.

We stayed in a farmhouse from the 15th century in Soajo, Portugal. It was perfect, except for the fact that the owner locked up the kitchen and refused to let us use it. We had packed groceries for the night, so ended up using a water boiler we had along with us to heat a can of beans.


David and Anand made their own twin day at school.

The endless summer continues. Well, sort of. We have to go to work, but it hasn’t rained in months and the highs have been in the 80s and 90s every day. It makes for a strange yet pleasant October.

During August and September we had a series of visitors. It was great to have close friends in town and to show them the sites. After Stephanie’s visit at the beginning of August, Sam and Amie flew down from Ireland. A few weeks after that, Andrew and Marseile traveled from Portland to Europe for the first time and made Cascais their home base.

Our 250 Euro car continues to run well. Today I had a student help me unload some potting soil from the back of our car. He commented that it was the worst car in the parking lot. I told him not to judge a book by its cover. It may look rusty, but it’s quite reliable.

In addition to lounging on the beach, Ericka and I have discovered that running and cycling races are really cheap in Portugal. I particpated in a mountain bike race last weekend and thoroughly enjoyed getting back into competition mode. Ericka is quickly building her collection of Portuguese 10K running race shirts.

Summer Travels - Sand, not Snow

David and I started our summer travels (part 2) together visiting family near Barcelona. We were in the town of Mataro during the week of their week-long town celebration, so got to see giants, dragons, and human castles.






We parted ways - David went to France to climb Mt. Blanc, and I traveled through Cinque Terre in northern Italy, then onto Rome.



Happy to meet up with Stephanie and Jeff on the Spanish Steps!




From Rome, Stephanie and I made our way to Hydra, Greece. It was a really beautiful island with donkeys instead of cars, warm ocean water, and more cats around at any moment than pigeons in most cities.



Finally, we wandered around Athens for three days. . .






After eating our fill of Greek salad and ouzo, we returned to Portugal. We drove south to Evora and saw a chapel made of monks' bones. It was great to have such a great travel companion and visitor!