Adventure of the month

Another day.  Another island.  From the balmy breezes of the Caribbean to the "is it ever going to stop raining?" of the mid-Atlantic. Goodbye sunscreen, hello umbrella.  Adios, Mojitos. Bom dia, caipirinhas. What I'm trying to say is that this was a pretty dramatic island hop..an island long jump, really. I had just gotten off a tropical southern Caribbean cruise and was now flying to Terceira. Located in the Azores, a remote Portuguese archipelago, miles and miles from anything,  this was certain to provide an interesting contrast to everything I'd just seen. For starters, when I looked up the 5 day forecast, every single day showed an angry rain cloud. I appealed to the 10 day forecast and got double the pissy cumuli.  This was going to be a wet one.

Last post, I bragged about reaching the 60 country milestone. A scant 9 days later I got a chance to visit Lisbon, Portugal (a charter member of the "been there but don't really remember a thing" club of countries and now a proud #61). As with Switzerland, it was a short visit, but learning from my mistakes, I did things a bit differently. For one, I did one of my favorite things to do in a new city. I joined an organized walking tour, led by a guide from Inside Lisbon Walks , who not only was able to share with us the history of this lovely city, but who also possessed a truly enviable sense of direction. It's amazing how much time you can save when you do not have to stop every couple of blocks to pull out a map, argue about who is holding said map upside down or grumble in frustration as you try to refold the infernal thing. Having an actual live guide, as opposed to a book tour, also comes in handy when you have any questions about what you are seeing, hearing o...