10th and 11th: Update

This is getting a little out of hand. These entries are all Fatty-McFat-Fats. And since I'm smashing two months into one entry, this post is not going to be any better. However, I am limiting myself. I only get to write about THREE things.

[Preparatory Breath]

Okay, here we go.

#1. Dinant, Belgium

A horde of Americans ganged up on Belgium one Saturday morning for a visit to Dinant. We rode the gondola up to the fort, played on the playground, drank Belgian hot chocolate, and visited the cathedral. Belgium continues to be a dark horse in my favorite European country competition.

#2. THANKSGIVING

We pulled it off. Tasha had to special order the turkey at a restaurant supply store and then find a way to wrestle the enormous freshly killed bird into her itty-bitty Luxem-fridge. Megan bravely hosted all six families, including Dusty, and we potlucked an impressive feast: mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, rolls, stuffing, pie, pie, pie, pie! I am thankful for our ragtag troop of Americans. My biggest personal fear about moving to Europe was the potential loneliness. These people are answers to my prayers.

Martha's artistic panorama

#3. DUSTIN ALBERT HULET vs. LUXEMBOURG

As mentioned above, my brother Dusty came to visit. Here's some of the things that went down while he was here:

A. Burg Hohenzollern, Germany:

Looks like Dracula's Castle, doesn't it?

We arrived in time to take the last tour of the day. Although the architecture was amazing, the place hinted at the eerie, the effect heightened by the growing darkness and the way the wind threw itself against the windows. It was so cold inside that my fingers hurt. I half expected our tour guide to be a shuffling hunchback, leading us around by lantern light. Nope. We were assigned a knowledgeable gentleman in an official Burg Hohenzollern blazer. At least, I assume he was knowledgeable. The tour was in German. There were only two other people on the tour, so it was a little conspicuous when we stopped prentending to listen.

We made it back to Lux the next day just in time to pick my mother up at the airport.

B. Luxembourg's Christmas Market

When Russ and I came house hunting last December, we attended Luxembourg's Christmas Market. It was fun, a year later, to have Mom and Dusty there too.

My favorite thing at the Fair: fire-roasted salmon sandwiches!

C. A Week in PORTUGAL

You: Wait, wait. An entire week in Portugal?! Shouldn't that be it's own post?

Me: ...

You: It's not like you're fooling anyone, anyway. The section for Dusty's visit is already massive. This is WAY more than the three things you promised.

Me: ...

You: Are you even listening?

Me: The first thing you ought to know about Portugal is that they cover their buildings in amazing multicolored tile. I'd never seen anything like it. Sample collection:

The second thing is that Porto is underrated. The guide books may give it the brush off, but I thought it was a beautiful city.

Carmo and Carmelitas Church; Porto, Portugal

Igreja de São Francisco

Sunset @ Vila Nova de Gaia

I think it's safe to say that I love pizza more than the average adult. When we tried to order two large pizzas at a beachside pizzeria, the waiter looked at us incredulously and then burst out laughing. When he brought out our dinner later, we were glad he'd talked us down to one...

This is where we slept that night. Seriously. Our Airbnb host, a charming, talkative Porto local, had Frank Sinatra playing on board when we arrived.

It was a little tight in there, but hey, you don't say no to sleeping on a sailboat!

We struck out for Lisbon the next morning and made a couple of stops along the way. My favorite was Obidos. Highlights: medieval curtain wall that reaches all the way around the village, flowers in December, an old church that had been turned into a bookstore, the bright-colored trim on the white houses.

Did I mention it was awesome?

Then we took a little detour out to the seaside for sunset at Peniche's beautiful old fort.

Fortaleza de Peniche

Oooooh!

Aaaaaaaaah!

We arrived in Lisbon, ate Bacalhau for dinner (I got scolded by the mournful restaurant owner for not eating enough; this would become a recurring event), and went to pick Russell up at the airport.

The next morning, we walked down the hill and hit up Lisbon's most famous bakery for the national specialty: Pastel de nata.

Holy. Rusted Metal. Batman.

This stuff was full-scale ridiculous. I wanted to eat the entire store and die of happiness.

Luckily, cooler heads prevailed, and we went across the street to see Jerónimos Monastery instead.

These may be the first non-selfie, no-sunglasses pictures of Russell and me taken THIS YEAR. Thanks, Dusty.

Then we crossed the park and visited this:

Padrão dos Descobrimentos

It's a monument for Portugal's sailors and explorers. It was kind of the random tourist (above) to stand next to the monument to give you a sense of scale.

Then we walked along the promenade until we reached:

Torre de Belém

That was a lot of magic for one morning, so we took a break, took a cab, and went downtown to eat at Cervejaria Ramiro--super impressive, no frills seafood, where everyone is eating giant piles of crustaceans.

We had tiger prawns the size of our plates and an enormous rock lobster.

Not bad, Lisbon!

That night, Dusty's good pals Nathan and Courtnee arrived from Spain, and the next morning we all set out for my favorite town of the whole trip: SINTRA.

Sintra has a LOT to see:

Palácio Nacional de Sintra

Um, yes. John the Baptist...in a nightie... with a sheep-weasel.

Quinta da Regaleira

The explanation for this place seriously goes something like this: A family of rich Portuguese barons sold some land to António Augusto Carvalho Monteiro. He wanted to build a mysterious estate where he could display the symbolism of his various beliefs. So he hired some architects and built a palace, towers, gardens, tunnels, lakes, fountains, you name it. You have to see this place to believe it. It's like Disneyland meets the Knights Templar meets the Secret Garden. True example: you hop across a waterfall pond on stones (see above), enter an underground passage behind the falls, climb a beautiful spiral staircase up through a "well," and then exit a stone circle that can be closed off if you push really hard on the correct stone slabs. Unbelievable. Unreal. I want to spend a week there and then write an adventure novel. No, scratch that. I want to MOVE there and LIVE an adventure novel.

Pictures just don't do it justice.

Queen Mom

If you look really closely, you can see a different castle under each arch.

This is the "unfinished" well. The "finished" one was ringed in Grecian columns.

Unfortunately, I had not been invited to live in the gardens, so we went to go see Sintra's two hilltop castles instead.

Castelo dos Mouros

And lastly:

Palácio Nacional da Pena

I loved their paint job!

Okay, picking up the pace. The next day we were back in Lisbon for church, their castle, strolling Alfama, and dropping Russell off at the airport.

Castelo de São Jorge and Afalma Neighborhood

Then we drove south to LAGOS and spent the next couple of days exploring the beaches:

Ponta da Piedade

Lagoa

Sea Cave

Sunset at Fortaleza de Sagres

Mom on our last night in Portugal

So, dear readers, if anyone ever offers you a trip to Portugal, the correct response is to yell, "YES, YES, a thousand times YES!" and then throw yourself into their arms and kiss them on both cheeks.

You're welcome.

The End.

#star #castles #update #visitors #travel