Portugal

Pre-COVID, we planned a multifamily vacation to the Algarve for July 2020, which was postponed. We decided to go for it in 2021, and we lucked out in our timing. The Delta variant had just started to spur travel restrictions from within Europe to Portugal, but not from the US, where Delta's arrival was delayed. As a result, the Algarve was completely empty of tourists. It was like being on Cape Cod in August and finding only locals. During our entire stay, we didn't run into any other Americans in restaurants or on the streets. 

A negative COVID test was required to fly, and once again Massachusetts's free program Project Beacon helped us

Here's a view of the Iberian peninsula, reminding us that Portugal is located outside of the Mediterranean Sea. The Algarve is Portugal's southern province and Faro is its biggest city.

The dark line midway between Faro and Huelva is the Guadiana River that is the border between Spain and Portugal

Our beach house was in Monte Gordo, about 5 miles west of the river border

We flew into Lisbon and drove 2:45 through the hot, dry interior where it was 108 outside. In Monte Gordo it was in the 80s and sunny for our whole trip. 

The beach turned out to be pretty spectacular, too. Just sand and surf, with no rocks, jellies, rip currents, or biting flies that plague American Atlantic beaches. It was lifeguarded and for a few Euros one could rent chairs with umbrellas. Even Caroline, our beach basher, was won over and spent hours riding waves.

For a rental, the beach house was set up well. Bidets in every bathroom and it had a kitchen knife that effectively sliced tomatoes. Need I say more?

The kids played together, especially the younger 5

All the fruit was fantastic in the Algarve, especially berries, oranges, and passion fruits. The liqueur was OK, too.

And the pastries were soo good. Every morning Jon headed out to the bakery in our town and brought home a box of goodies.

Our outings were increasing successful as the week progressed. We started with biking from beach town to beach town.

Then we hiked through the cork "forests". Our route getting there required some serious off-roading that almost left one car stranded in a rocky gully.

Harvesting cork entails taking off a cylinder of bark from the lower section of the tree. One would think that this would doom the tree, but if the tree is old enough and with the proper technique, these oak trees can live hundreds of years.

Portugal is the world's top cork producer

After our hike we visited a winery and enjoyed some local vino. We unleashed our creativity and brainstormed titles for Alex and Bevil's upcoming book collaboration

One night we dressed up to go out for a family meal in town

The Portuguese took their mask wearing seriously and even at the outdoor carnival everyone was covered

The next day we visited Castro Marim, an old fortified city from the days of the Moorish occupation

Stray cats were everywhere and even a few stray kittens

There was a medieval goods store and we may have purchased a dress for costume parties

Salt has been evaporatively harvested here since ancient times

We hopped over the border to Spain for lunch

This place was a stone's throw from the docks and packed with locals

Clams were on the menu

and the food was delicious, both the seafood and the not-so-secret pork

I made dinner reservations for the adults at Vistas, a fancy restaurant up in the hills above our villa. It was an all-seafood menu with all-Portugal wine pairings with many appointments.

These are the Carabiniero and Caldeirada,

the red mullet and langoustine

Next morning we were out early to go boating from Portimao

All along the karst coast there are sea caves

Some have holes in their tops

and this is the biggest, most famous one, Benagil Cave

Afterwards the kids played among the holes in the coastline

On our last day we headed back to Lisbon with Jon and Heather

That sandwich was too much for Caroline

European gelato

We shared breakfast in our airport hotel with the Portuguese Olympic handball team. Due to a baggage handlers strike, they were worried that they'd miss their flight to Tokyo. (They made it to Tokyo to compete, but didn't medal)

Our itinerary from Lisbon had us connecting in Newark with a 90 minute layover, arriving home around 4 PM. Due to the strike, our plane left late and we were booked on a later connection, arriving in Boston around 9. The H-T's were on our flight to Newark, bound for Chicago. Due to heavy storms in Newark, we circled for a while before being diverted to Boston. Our cheers turned to boos when we were told that as an international flight, those with Boston as their final destination could not deplane. So we sat on the tarmac in Boston and waited until we could fly to Newark and then back to Boston. After 3.5 hours of in-flight entertainment, the crew timed out and they had to let us off. Yea! But the baggage handlers in Boston were overwhelmed by all the diverted flights and our bags took over 2 hours to come out. Boo! Stuck in the foodless no-mans land before customs, the kids passed out. How is it possible to land at your home airport but require 5.5 hours until you can exit with your bags? Now you know. The H-T's couldn't get a flight home until 36 hours later and spent an unexpected extra day with us at Chez Ehmann-Losey.

The H-T's like puzzles and physical challenges and so a few hours at Boda Borg were arranged. Unfortunately even with them we couldn't crack Superbanan

A portrait of the scientist as a middle-aged man