While we were in Portugal, we took a few side trips, including Fatima, Coimbra and Tomar. Fatima is, of course, where Mary appeared to the three school children (Lucia dos Santos, Francisco Marto and Jacinta Marto) on May 13, 1917 while WW1 was raging. Fatima is one of the most important pilgrimage sites in the […]
Read More »Or Lisboa, as they call it in Portugal. After we finished sailing along the Douro River in northern Portugal, we headed down to Lisbon. A little perspective would be useful here. Portugal is a small country. The population is estimated at somewhere between 10.5 and 11 million people. And last year the tourist industry estimated […]
Read More »When we finally arrived, we began our trip to Portugal with a Road Scholar led cruise on the Douro River. The cruise was truly magnificent, as was the Road Scholar guide, Lucia Gomez. We got lucky with the weather which was extravagantly good, and the scenery which was stunningly beautiful along the riverbank. In our […]
Read More »All good things come to an end, and so has our cruise. We enjoyed several months of seeing interesting new places, learning a lot, and even enjoying lots of gelato. Our ship docked in Barcelona yesterday, and we spent the afternoon at the Picasso museum. Today we tackled Park Güell (lots of Gaudi) and got […]
Read More »Our ship anchored today in the Mediterranean and we came ashore at Villefranche, France. We took a drive through Nice and neighboring towns, on our way to the village of Saint Paul de Vence. On our drive we passed the Hotel Negresco, where we stayed for vacation about 40 years ago. Today is the 80th […]
Read More »Our ship stopped in Livorno, Italy and many passengers opted to head into Florence or other areas of Tuscany—we decided to take a walking tour of Pisa. Pisa is another medieval walled town, which today houses approximately 90,000 residents, and an additional 50,000 students at the three universities in Pisa. The town has huge […]
Read More »Today was very special—we went to see the summer palace for Popes—Castelo Gandolfo. Opened to visitors in 2016, it has served as the summer palace for Popes since the Seventeenth Century. Castelo Gandolfo is about 28 kilometers outside of Rome. Pope Francis never spent a single night there, which is probably why it was opened […]
Read More »Rome is a bit busy these days, so when our ship docked at the port, we decided to go to a nearby medieval town, Tarquinia. The town dates back to the ninth century BC, and sits on top of a very steep hill overlooking the Tyrrhenian sea. The town is enclosed by medieval walls and […]
Read More »When our ship docked in Naples, we had the opportunity to visit the ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Pompeii was instantly buried beneath 30 feet of volcanic ash and cinder when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 A.D. People living in the city perished instantly when the volcanic ash poured down on the city. We had […]
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