Getting Ready To Go

Here we go.  We're off to Portugal.

Last year we took two summer trips - one to Iceland and one to Ireland with Otis and Eydie, these two trips were so incredible Rebecca and I decided to plan another adventure.  As with last year's choice of Iceland, Rebecca randomly pulled Portugal out of the hat in her mind.  Plane tickets were bought and away we're going.

Originally I had thought we would do as we did in Ireland and Iceland and sort of ring the country.  After a few days of research it occurred to me that this trip would be a little different.  Ultimately it seemed like there was too much to see in Portugal's two main cities of Porto and Lisbon to give the short shrift.  Meanwhile, we both love vinho verde and wine in general and so it seemed natural that we might spend some time in the Douro Valley where the vineyards are.  Besides that, there is a road beside the Douro river which has been named the worlds most beautiful drive so that seemed hard to pass up.

Below is the general route we're following once we get there.  Getting there at all will be a bit of rigmarole.  There is no simple way to get from Minneapolis to Porto so we fly Minneapolis - Philadelphia, Philadelphia - Madrid, Madrid - Porto.  The lay overs (lays over?) are all reasonable and we still get in to Porto by 10:30 AM so it shouldn't be too bad.