May 12
Well today is the last day of our trip. We spent a couple of hours this morning looking at more Roman ruins in Merida. We then drove back to Lisbon. We checked in at our hotel and then got our paperwork together to return our rental car. Our travel agent was supposed to include rental car insurance with our travel insurance. We called the company to find out as a stone hit our windshield and cracked it. The travel insurance company said w did not have rental car insurance on the policy. Ok- time to pray! We got to the Avis office and told them what had happened and that we thought we had coverage with our travel insurance policy as we had told them when we picked up the car but we don't. We said we would have to check to see if we had insurance any where else. The car agent said don't worry, I didn't tell you but in included the windshield damage waver as part of your rental car agreement so you are covered. If I had not it would have been 300 euros or somewhere around $500. We said thank you- I said I love you and he smiled and said I guess you owe me lunch. We said yes we do. We thanked him again and slipped him 15 euros and said here's  lunch. God is good- all the time. I immediately thanked Him for so graciously answering my prayer.
Here are some pictures of our trip. I hope you have enjoyed the blog. We fly to Madrid tomorrow and then after a 3 1/2 hr, layover we get a flight to Miami. We get in around 8:30 PM and will spend the night in Miami before driving home on Wed.

Alcazaba Roman and Moorish ruins in Merida

Temple of Diana in Merida

More Roman ruins in Merida

Plaza Mayor in Merida

Plaza Mayor in Merida

Roman Aqueduct  in Merida

 

May 10
Today was another beautiful day. Emilio's parents picked us up at our hotel this morning to spend the day with us in Salamanca. We had a delightful visit and saw many beautiful buildings. We took a tour of the huge cathedral and saw the Casa de las Conches which is a building covered on the outside with sculptures of conch shells- It was commissioned in 1493 by a knight of  Santiago. The over 300 shells commemorate his expeditions to Santiago. We also saw the Clerecia, The palacio Anaya and the Plaza Mayor. Salamanca is a large university town with many beautiful and ornate buildings in shades of sienna. Lourdes and I did a little shopping while George and Emilio visited a reciprocal club to the one he belongs to in Salamanca. Here are some pictures from today.

 

Casa de las Conches

Inside the casa de las Conches

Main façade of the university

Court yard in the university

The Cathedral of Salamanca

Inside the cathedral of Salamanca

Anaya College & Palace

The cathedral of Salamanca

the Plaza Mayor

The Plaza Mayor



May 9th.
Today we will be going to Burgos to meet our former exchange student and his parents for lunch. After lunch Emilio will take the train back to his home in Pamplona because he has to study for exams. His parents will follow us back to Salamanca where we will stay for two nights. Emilio's parents will spend tonight in Salamanca and I'm not sure what the rest of there plans are.
Later... We had a nice visit with Emilio and then his parents took us to the cathedral in Burgos. George was able to communicate with Emilio's parents so we had a very nice time together. The Cathedral is huge and complex and very interesting having been built over the centuries beginning in the 12th century. Here are some photos from today

A large plaza in Burgos

Burgos Cathedral

Inside Burgos  cathedral

Inside Burgos cathedral

Inside Burgos Cathedral

The courtyard around the cloister in the Burgos cathedral

 

May 8th.
Today was yet another beautiful day. I put another memory card in my camera so I'm back in business. Today we left Portugal and went  to Ciudad Rodrigo Spain. This is another walled city with another opportunity to walk the city walls. This wall was more pedestrian friendly than the other two we walked. Their are very few tourists in this town so it was an opportunity to take pictures without a lot of people in them. After walking the wall and then around the town  we took a tour of the cathedral. Unfortunately photos were not allowed in the cathedral. It was quite lovely inside. We were allowed to take photos in the cloisters however. Here are some photos from today.

 

The Cathedral in Ciudad Rodrigo

There were quite a few stork nests in the town. Possibly a baby boom soon.

Ciudad Rodrigo from the town wall

Another stork nest

The Cathedral

Plaza Mayor

The town hall. I guess they have the canons just in case those town hall meetings get out of hand.

The cloisters in the cathedral

The cloister court yard in the cathedral

 

 



May 7th.
Well todays post almost didn't happen. My photography teachers always said back up your photos every day because sooner or later your memory card will become corrupted. Well that never happened to me- until today. I got a write and read error and lost all my photos on the card. Fortunately I listened to my teacher and so I only lost today's pictures. All photos on today's blog are George's pictures. We went to Guimaraes first today. We saw the castle and the dukes palace which were both together. Then we went to Mateus Palace. This is the same Mateus where Mateus wines come from. After that we went back to Porto and went on  tour of the Sandeman Port caves. We would have had to wait for an hour and a half for an English tour but the French tour was starting in 5 minutes. Fortunately George speaks French so we took that tour and George told me all about at after words. We then had dinner at an outdoor café along the river front then finally hiked back up to the hotel. Here are some of George's pictures from today.

 

Castle in Guimaraes

Dukes Palace in Guimaraes

Mateus Palace

Mateus Palace

Mateus Palace

Porto by the river

Sandeman  Port Wine Cave Porto



 

May 6
 Today was a bit cooler but beautiful. It was a busy day.We left Tomar and drove first to the city of Coimbra, This was a place where we could have spent at a day. It was graduation day all over Portugal today. We stopped at the large university with many celebrating students. We stopped at the botanical gardens and some interesting churches. We then drove to Aveiro. This is called the Venice of Portugal. There are many canals in the town which lead to the ocean. What used to be uniquely shaped fishing boats now carry tourists around the town. After Aveiro we drove to our hotel in Porto where we will spend 2 nights. It was a mob scene in Porto with thousands and thousands of graduating students parading through the streets with costumes and floats. We did manage to see some of the things we wanted to see. The Cathedral with it's many good views of the city. The church of Saint Francisco. The tower dos Clerigos and a few other places. We came back exhausted as we walked around the town which is all steep hills. Here are some pictures from today.

University at Coimbra

Coimbra

Church of Santa Cruz Coimbra

Fishing boat for tourists in Aveiro

Aveiro

 

Tour fishing boat in Aveiro

Tower Dos Clerigos in Porto

Train station Porto

Train Station Porto

Cathedral Porto

Porto from the Cathedral

Porto from the cathedral

The Port wine houses on the other side of the river from the Cathedral