[BehrItAll]

Part 2:
The main square.



My dad having an espresso.


Many of the buildings are decorated with beautiful tiles.


On our way back to Vigo, Spain we made a stop at El Castro Mount where we enjoyed a panoramic view of Vigo Bay...


El Castro Mount's extensive green parkland.


Monument to the Horses. Juan José Oliveira Viéitez. (1991). Plaza de España. It represents a group of five horses climbing up a waterfall. The whole work weighs 40 tonnes and is 18 meters high. At the base there is a fountain which measures 10m in diameter.

It is a tribute to the wild horses that once inhabited the Monte de O Castro (now the Castro Park) and which can still be seen in some of the hills around Vigo.

It was a short tour and when we got back to the ship we played Bingo. We play several times on every ship we go on but this time we only played this once. Being that about 90% of the passengers were British on this voyage they had a British version of Bingo. There were no rows for B-I-N-G-O, some spaces were missing (I thought they gave us Soduku at first lol), and then numbers go higher than usual - like up to the 90s. It's supposed to be a faster game. Bo0-who. And no number appears more than once on the card.

[FreedomsBullets]

Pretty city.

That horse statue is gorgeous.

[BehrItAll]

I want to make NYC buildings look more like the ones in Spain and Portugal.

It was pretty impressive to look at. I am amazed by how it can stand. It's like a spiral staircase.

[FreedomsBullets]

I was thinking the same thing. He looks like it should tip. Do you know how old it is?

[Cryostar]

That fountain looks nice. Great shots.

Yes, Juli, it's a requirement, you go to Siberia, you have to take at least 1 kid home.


Steph, yes, my cousins adopted 4 from Tomsk and 1 from Kiev. They are the best bunch of kids in the whole world.

[FreedomsBullets]

Ah, did they keep their Russian names?

[BehrItAll]

Aww that's great that they did that.

Thanks Jerry,
and here are more.

Tuesday, September 29th, in Lisbon

The ship entered the Tagus River from the Atlantic Ocean, passing under the 25th April Bridge. It was built in the 1960's and is the third longest suspension bridge in the world. On the far side is statue of "Christ the King," a gift to the Portuguese people from Brazil.


Our tour was called <i>Arrabida</i> and actually took outside of Lisbon. We drove over the Tagus River...


to the town of Azeitao where we went to a wine lodge called Jose Maria da Fonseca.


The main building.
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These are so cute, they're on the doors to the restrooms:



Up through the gardens...


to where they store and age the Moscatel de Setubal wine. It was so dark! This was a good flash.

Dusty! eww. They stored one barrel of Moscatel de Setubal wine for each of the years listed behind a gate. The family who owns Jose Maria da Fonseca has been in business for 7 generations. The years replaced by a "-" means that year there was a bad harvest due to either war or a plague.

[BehrItAll]

Part 2
Now the wine tasting! I liked the lighter colored Moscatel. It was sweeter.


We then went to Sesimbra to visit a Moorish castle that was restored in the 18th century when a church and small flower-filled cemetery were added inside it's walls.

The church

The beautiful artwork inside


The Moorish castle


From the site we also had a panoramic view over Arrabida range and Sesimbra port.



We the proceeded towards the Natural Park of Arrabida that covers the small range of Limestone Mountains, which stretch along the coast between Sesimbra and Setubal. The road snakes across the top of the ridge and affords views of Seubal and Trioa. The Natural Park was established to protect the landscape and wildlife. Arrabida comes from Arabic meaning a place of prayer, and the wooded hillsides are indeed a peaceful and secluded retreat.

[Cryostar]

The winery looks wonderful. Did you get a lot of samples?

Juli, they did not, though 3 of them were under 2 years, so they wouldn't even know their names. The twins dont' remember much of it either.

Thankfully, the 4 from siberia are all blood related, they all had the same mom. The one from the ukraine has to be one of the most beautiful kids I've seen in a while. She's right up there with my girls.

[FreedomsBullets]

Jerry, the people they adopted them from didn't name them? I don't mean to pry, but I don't know anyone who has adopted kids outside of the US so i don't really know how it works.

Steph, I love sweet wine, so I'd probably agree with you. That castle looks really cool, and the church was beautiful.

[BehrItAll]

There were two samples of Moscatel, a darker one and a lighter. By dad bought some wine from there.

Yea, I don't like dry wine.

Glad you liked the pics. I'll have more soon. Sometime next week. Expect: Seville, Spain; Sardaina; and a ice show!

She's right up there with my girls.

Wow. Not many parents say that.

[Cryostar]

Oh, I love a good dry wine. I'm assume that they were red's. I know most Med wineries don't do roses and whites.

Juli, they had names, but there weren't kept, and the orphanages they were in threw them out. Apparently the lady that had given these children up had made a profession out of it, as she received state money to have the kids and give them up for adoption. She had 8 kids by 7 different men, had given 6 up.

And Steph, yes, Erica is that pretty. If I could find a picture of her, i would. But suffice to say, she reminds me a lot of Mila Jovovich.

[FreedomsBullets]

Ah, that's awful.

[BehrItAll]

I'm assume that they were red's.

Yes, red wines.

That is so sad.

Oh yes, you love Mila.

[Cryostar]

Yes it is, but that's the way of life up there, as sad as it is. Still, i'm glad, otherwise the kids would have never come over. They're a great bunch of kids.

I love red wines.

And yes, i love Mila too....though I meant more that Mila looks very Ukrainian.