Portugal-Amsterdam 2022 - #22 - Post Trip Analysis

 It is once again time for us to evaluate all that took place on our trip with the all knowing, all seeing eye of discrimination. Navel gazing as the beloved #3 calls it.

• Can the value of the whole be less than the sum of the parts? Yes evidently.

There was so much when taken individually that I liked in Portugal. The wine was phenomenal. Seriously it was nearly impossible to not get a bad pour. And they were generous with the pours. Even in the supermarket, the most expensive wines were hardly above U.S. low to moderate prices. 

 

Driving was easy. There was a clear set of rules that pretty much all drivers followed. The major highways were well marked making navigation easy. Our GPS generally worked quite well. The houses and apartments we rented were nice. The bread was great. Even supermarket bread. The food we bought at the markets was high quality. Prices in general were not expensive. English is widely understood.

 

What was not great? The food! Eating out was a big disappointment. Even the best we had was just okay. That was a major downer for me. Plus most of the areas we went to where extremely oriented toward the tourist market. It was hard for Wife and I imagining ourselves staying in any of them for very long.

• We still love to travel 
  

Why? It is the whole experience. The finding, exploring, figuring out, making something unknown your own. Every time we find a spot that was not on the list of major sites but turns out to be cool, is a reward. Just figuring out over 3 to 5 days how get around a place is stimulating

• However!....

 …The limitations of age continue their relentless reduction of what we can do – like the steady erosion of the water on the earth. This was so very evident when we were confronted with dealing with the hilly nature of Porto.

• We are done with mountains, hills, inclines…Give me Flat! And Water!

For the vast majority of my life, I have loved the mountains. Early on I ached to be in them. When we moved to New Mexico, they became part of our daily live with hiking a mainstay. When we travel, I looked for having the mountain experience. But as our capabilities have diminished, driving, walking and getting around these environments has become a bigger and bigger challenge. 

Now we crave a different experience. We want to be close to the water. We want flat. Yes we want challenge but challenge that our age depleted bodies can handle.

• Still showing signs of our ADD tendencies.

At each of our stays during this trip, we found the places we wanted to visit, went out, did our exploring, our photographing. And then it was, 'we're done'. Time to move on?

• So can we change?
  

We have a big experiment coming up. We have (in our minds anyway) that we would like to live somewhere other than the United States. So we are going back to Cefalú Sicily for two months this fall. Will the Cefalú experiment leave us finding a new path or will we be bored out of our minds? We will find out.

• Farewell to Frites
  

Daughter #3 is leaving Amsterdam after 16 years moving to Copenhagen, Denmark. The Netherlands in general had great Frites, what we call French Fries. But there was one place at the end of a large open air market called the Albert Cuypt that had, what we believed were the best we ever had in our life...period! Every time we visited, we would go there. So for this last visit to Amsterdam, we went three times! Eating these most wonderful frites probably for the last time. Smothered in Dutch mayonnaise of course!