Show Off Your Homeland

[Jenny A]

Dammit, Vic!
Show us your home region!!

Me..well... I've done it so many times on this forum, I don't feel it would be fair...

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We got that same sunset as San Diego, but this one is over the Atlantic.
Just the other day, I did a test of my new phone's HDR on that...
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Imagine the quality if I had used a proper camera!

You know those palaces that the Germans have?
We had a king who came from northern Europe, so he had one built here:

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Also, we have real castles - the medieval kind!

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This one is in Lisbon! Land at the Airport, take a taxi to the castle! We also have real canons, there:

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Then... well, beaches bring in a lot of people

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Food.... food... food!!!
There are a few special dishes which require you acquire the taste for them, but everything else is just plain old GOOD!
Here are a few ways Bacalhau gets served (a kind of cod fish, salted right after fishing for old-timey style conservation and it seems only the portuguese are allowed to eat this fish, for it is listed as endangered):

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A nice whole piece of fish with boiled and then slightly roasted potatoes - the skin gets crackly and you're supposed to open it by punching the potato (try not to make a mess, it's impolite). Olive oil, everywhere!


Bacalhau with chickpeas. I could do without potatoes, rice or pasta, if only I could have chickpeas every day!

The kids favorite - very thin potato chips, onion, egg and bacalhau... some parsley sprinkled on top. Olives!

My mouth is watering!

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Of course, we also eat meat... beef, pork, poultry... the usual. Here's a sample called bitoque:

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Finally, the north of Portugal dedicates a large area to wine production... the famous Port wine. But almost everywhere we have people producing it.

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each region on this map produces a different kind of wine:

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The people are friendly, most can speak some english... and the weather is usually great. (after an almost clear July, August and September, October began with clouds and now it's pouring, as it should in the fall).[/hide]

It looks beautiful, but I'm already sold on Portugal--just not next year when we can only travel in June and July.

If I had just one or two weeks in Portugal, and we were coming in by train from Spain, where do you think we should go? Assume we are using public transport rather than a rental car. We like to walk in town and out. We often rent bikes. We aren't great fans of spending a day sunbathing on the beach though we like to walk ocean cliffs.