The Johnslingtons

After Spain, Fiona spent about 12 days in Portugal, Spain’s next-door neighbor. We practiced a few words in Portuguese while we were there, including “bom dia” (good morning) and “obrigada” (thank you). Fun fact: How you thank someone in Portuguese changes based on your gender; girls are supposed to say “obrigada” with an “a,” while… Continue reading Where in the World is Fiona? Portugal!

The time I made a whole chicken in a backyard brick oven in Sande. When I say “whole chicken” I’m not kidding. I hacked off the head and the feet, spatchcocked it, and kinda figured out how to make the oven/grill work. Full disclosure – without a meat thermometer, it was underdone, but the done-parts… Continue reading Portugal – The Best Stuff We Ate

I had it in my head that we were staying in a different kind of place. Our accommodation in Guimaraes – a half hour or so outside of Porto – was a farmhouse-turned-vacation-rental with a pool and (I thought) several different apartments. I figured that, given the pool and the advertised farm animals, we had… Continue reading Gambling on Guimaraes

After a much-needed jolt of social interaction and city energy in Porto, we went a little ways south for a two-night stay at the beach in Gafanha da Encarnacao. The stop was a last minute addition that Dan magicked in Sande, when we decided we needed a little more oomph in our itinerary—we accomplished it… Continue reading Striped Houses and Ribboned Bridges: Bright Spots in a Blue Stay

At this point in the trip we have figured out what our basic Place to Stay rhythm looks like: hotels for short stays (mostly in cities), vacation rentals for longer ones (mostly outside of cities) and staying with friends (whenever and wherever we can!). Hotels have less space, but tend to be easier for short-term… Continue reading Porto – A Great Place To Be Aimless

After a perplexing decision-making process, we finally figured out where to spend our first five nights in Portugal: at an Airbnb in Sande, right alongside the Douro River. River views, hammocks, beautiful outdoor space… what could go wrong? Well, first off, the travel day from Ortigueira was a doozy, made extra complicated by the fact… Continue reading Cry Me a (Douro) River

Portugal was a tough nut to crack. After (largely) confidently and extremely successfully scheduling travel and accommodations for our first two months, master planner Dan was kinda stumped. Here were the challenges posed by this leg of the journey: Timing: We had about 10 days to play with between wrapping up our Spanish adventures and… Continue reading Perplexed by Portugal

Q: Where is Celtigos? A: Really, really far from pretty much everywhere else. We went to Celtigos mainly because it seemed like our best shot at staying right on a very quiet beach during our time in Spain. About that, we were not wrong. Northern Spain in mid-May isn’t crowded at the best of times.… Continue reading Stupendous Northern Spain Part 4: Celtigos

Starting in late April, Fiona spent three weeks in Spain, the first country on the European portion of our trip. Building on the numbers and songs she’d practiced at school with Teacher Maria, Fiona learned to speak a bit more Spanish, mostly remembering to say “hola” (hello), “adios” (goodbye), “por favor” (please), “gracias” (thank you)… Continue reading Where in the World is Fiona? Spain!

Chuleton at a basque restaurant in San Sebastian. What an experience. We liked how they bring out a huge raw T-bone steak and leave it at your table for a few minutes, so you can hang out with your beef and really get to know it. Ham. All of the ham. We get iberico ham… Continue reading Spain – The Best Stuff We Ate