Day 3 of my Spain/Portugal trip started with a beautiful sunrise. The view below is from my hotel window in Madrid.

I don’t know much about latitude and longitude, but what I can say is that it sure does stay light quite late in Spain. At 10:00pm there is still some daylight!!

Our day started with checking out and boarding the tour bus. Which, by the way, is a very large bus with room for 40. Since our group is only 23, we are quite comfortable on board. And speaking of our group, we are from many corners of the globe. We are mostly retired couples, as i expected. There are a total of 4 single travelers, two women plus myself and one man. So let’s start there. The two women are from Australia and New Zealand, the gentleman is from the USA (Virginia to be exact.) As for the rest of the group, we have more Australians and Americans (Sydney, Melbourne, Maryland, Boston, Florida, California and New Jersey). Honestly, this is great group of people. Very friendly and mostly outgoing. I guess one would have to be to go on a group tour. Our Tour Director, Patrick is an Australian. He is a young man full of energy, knowledge, kindness, humor and professionalism. He is simply fantastic. More on that later.

Ok, now back to day 3. We drove out to Segovia. An old city outside of Madrid not too far. I really liked this little city. I understand it’s commuting distance to Madrid, but very quaint. A possible future home for me and Lola? Perhaps.The only thing that made me hesitate is that the altitude makes for cold (and snowy) winters.

So, the most significant sight in Segovia is the ancient Roman Acqueduct. It was built around the 1st Century and it was in use until 1973. It is 2,388 feet long and 30 feet tall. We were told by the local tour guide that it was built with over 24,000 stones sourced at the nearby mountains. The most interesting part? It was built by just stacking the stones one on top of the other, using no cement. Wow, huh? An incredible engineering feat.

We stopped for lunch in one of the many restaurants around the Plaza Mayor (Town Square). I had lunch with a fellow traveler. We enjoyed some Sangria and croquettes. After lunch, we boarded the bus for another drive, this time to Salamanca. This is a bit of a larger town, a University City actually. The University of Salamanca was founded in 1218 and is one of the oldest in the world in continuous operation. Very impressive to be sure! We spent the night in Salamanca and had time for dinner at their Plaza Mayor. A small group of us sat outside in the shade and shared a seafood paella. It was good but not great. I’m looking forward to trying Paella in Valencia. Stay tuned. But do let me tell you that the Plaza Mayor was very busy this evening as the European World Cup Soccer semi-final game was on TV, live. And who was playing? Well, Spain vs. France and what a game! The crowd was going wild all night as Spain won.

Day 4 was another early breakfast before departing on the bus for Portugal! Yay! We drove to Porto which is a quaint little town right along the Douro River. So cute and lots of restaurants with a view. We parked the bus and walked along the river where we split up and had lunch. A group of us [6] ate together, We tried the green wine which was highly recommended by our Tour Director. Silly me! I thought green wine would be green. Not so! It’s the same color as white wine albeit perhaps a lighter color? I learned that it’s made with the first wines of the harvest and I rather liked it. This one was sparkling, light. We were also encouraged to try some local specialities among them sardines. Yay! Yes, along with anchovies, I do like sardines. These were grilled and huge! See pic below. They were very tasty, but so many bones made it hard to eat. Nonetheless, I enjoyed them.

After lunch we walked along the river where many, many street vendors were selling everything cork. And I mean everything from glasses cases to wallets, handbags and other items. Interesting, the cork is very soft and thin. A fellow traveler gifted me a glasses case for my sunglasses as an early birthday gift. So kind! Thanks, Soula. In addition, another fellow traveler gifted me a beautiful cork fan. Thank you, Nora. And finally, Maureen gave me a bag of various peanut and nuggat candies. Thank you, amiga!!!

This tour of Porto included a visit to a local Porto winery. I had never tried it so off we went. It was interesting to visit right there in front of the river, the Sandeman Winery established in 1790! Yes, we did get to taste it and to be honest, it was not to my liking. It is very strong with an almost medicine taste, at least to my unsophisticated palate.

From there it was off to the hotel for a quick refresh and free afternoon (well, at least a couple of hours until a group dinner). A couple of us walked just outside of the hotel where there was a lovely street full of shops. These were normal shoe, clothing and other stores, along with souvenir shops. I picked up a couple of gifts, then back to the hotel where I decided to make a quick stop at the hotel bar where I met the bartender Bruno (‘not Mars’, as he told me). HA! We both did break into song, however, ¨We don’t talk about Bruno”. It was then I decided it was time to start celebrating my BIG birthday which was on the following day. I asked him for a lemony Gin drink, and he made me a Gin Sour (yes, with egg whites) and it was quite good.

Dinner at the hotel restaurant rounded up our evening. Afterwards, many of us ended up at the hotel bar where the early birthday celebration continued. Also, on the bar TV was the other semi-final European Cup soccer game, the Netherlands vs. England. As you may know by now, England won. The coming weekend the game will be played Sunday evening in Berlin. As I write this, we are looking forward to a Spain win as we are in Spain, afterall.

Day 3: 14,169 steps —- Day 4: 11,959 steps