10 years of sustainable open source - Read the Docs

This resonates so strongly with me. I feel like I could have written this about Runestone.

Why do they keep turning his mic back on!?!

Just a followup post on the DDoS https://blog.runestone.academy/2024/09/10/distributed_denial_of_service_2024.html Any thoughts on how to be better prepared for the next one are welcome!

Spent the day trying to find ways to fight the DDoS running against Runestone Academy. I think I have a solution for now, but suggestions are certainly welcome. Also learned that Digital Ocean’s claimed protection is useless for a small site.

Man, this USMNT match against Canada is awful! We need Poch!

Had fun visiting friends in Alexandria the last two days. I even got to revisit the site of the Runestone.

Check out Runestone Origins on the Runestone Academy blog.

We have been busy making runestone.academy better. Check out our post on all the new features!

We were just ready to walk out the door to drive to the airport when this happened.

The Delta app said our flight was on time, but our incoming plane was late from Detroit. Flight Aware said our incoming plane was four hours late from Minneapolis. Flighty Pro showed our incoming plane as still sitting on the ground in Minneapolis. Sometimes you get a sense that things are going wrong, and this was one of those times.

Delta rebooked us for the same flight one day later. Thanks Delta. I’m sure there were other options to get us back sooner. I know there were seats on an Iceland air flight this afternoon, but those are gone now. Maybe not gone, but the price adjustment systems didn’t take long to make them go from marginally affordable to completely unaffordable for a group of 8!

We cannot get through to Hertz, so we are just going to keep the van. We found a new AirBnB for tonight, and we’ll take advantage of our extra day as best we can. Looks like a trip to the Perlan museum and maybe a short hike, otherwise more hanging around downtown.

A Day in Reykjavik

We left our beautiful seaside house and headed to Reykjavik for a day of city touring. We were very lucky in that our AirBnB host had our apartment ready for us by 11:30 so we had a base for the day as well as a place for the kids to crash and rest during the afternoon.

Our first stop after dropping our stuff was for an icelandic hotdog at Bæjarins. Its just a hot dog stand, but they are worth the walk and the wait. There were at least 25 people in line when we arrived. The line moves quickly. As there is not a lot to think about. The hot dogs come with fresh diced onions, some cruncy onions fried in the air frier, Icelandic Remolade, ketchup, and pylsusinnep ( sweet brown mustard). As we were standing in line we struck up a conversation with the lady in front of us who was a tour guide. I think she was really just charmed by Maren. She warned us that we really needed to try the regular hot dog. When Bill Clinton visited, she told us, he only had mustard, and we’ve never forgiven him!

After the hot dogs we all went our own way to explore for the afternoon. We saw the Viking ship sculpture and the big Lutheran church.

We also checked out Rainbow Road, and lots of shops and a few bars.

Dinner was at Bastard Brew and Food, just down from our apartment. Delicious delicious stake sandwiches, in a quirky atmosphere.

We arrived at our AirBnB in Grundarfjörður on an amazing evening. We have a beautiful view of the ocean and Kirkjufell mountain right out our window!

After a good nights sleep we spent our saturday in Snaefellsnes peninsula, driving a big loop and taking in lots of sites, stopping for short hikes along the way. The morning began with very sunny weather and the seas outside our window were completely calm.

Our first stop was the town of Hellissandur, the street art capital of Iceland. There are so many different buildings with murals painted on the side. This is probably the most famous of them.

Not too far down the road from is the Saxhóll crater. A small volacano that is easy to climb. Johannes led the way in grand style! The views from the top were great, but it was super windy! One of those winds where you could lean way into it and not fall over.

After an impromptu comfort stop behind one of the many rocks next to the road we continued on our way to Djúpalónssandur Beach We spent a good amount of time here exploring the remains of the Epine GY 7, a British trawler that shipwrecked here in 1948.

We also spent a lot of time getting our feet wet in the North Atlantic, throwing rocks into the ocean, sitting on the beach, and saving many starfish that had washed up on the beach.

It is a great little hike with lots to do. Oh and we all tested our strength by trying to lift a series of rocks, that were part of a test for old sailors. The weight of the rocks ranged from 50 to 340 pounds. You had to be able to lift the 120 pound rock if you wanted to be an oarsman.

After our hike we ate a picnic lunch at one of the picnic tables near the parking lot.

Next up was Arnastapi and statue of Bárdur Snaefellsás, the giant troll man. By this time the youngest ones had had enough touring and were in need of some play time, luckily there was a small playground that was perfect for the situation.

Although there was a real need for some nap time, and yes, by this time it was way past nap time. We had one last stop for the day at Ytri Tunga Beach The main attraction here was to see some seals.

The weather at the beach was really windy, but we did see some seals, so mission accomplished! We had just under an hour to drive back home and it was very quiet in the van.

Dinner this evening was a smorgasbord of what we had leftover for groceries, Icelandic hotdogs, French friends from the fish and chips a few nights ago, and even a few pieces of fish, not to mention the Mac and Cheese that Nana brought with.

Next stop, a short night in Reykjavík and an early morning flight back to Minneapolis.

Today was a pretty easy day, we wanted to give the grandkids a bit of a break and let everyone else have an easy morning. So we had our breakfast, and headed off in the van to Gulfoss. These are some serious waterfalls! The Icelanders compare them to Niagara Falls. 1200 cubic meters per second!

The geysir was just a short drive from the falls. The term Geyser originates from the Icelandic Geysir. They don’t tell you that at Yellowstone.

We ate our traditional lunch of turkey and pepperoni sandwiches in the parking lot of the geyser center, and then headed back to the house. Maren, Kaia, and Tanner had nap time and Johannes had some quiet screen time. Jane, Josh, and Rachel went back to see more waterfalls, and I got the lamb braising for our evening meal of curry. Considering it wasn’t my kitchen, and I guessed at spice amounts before even leaving home, it turned out great.

Tomorrow we are on the move again to a new house in a new part of Iceland namely Grundarfjor. We will be there two nights before spending our last night in Reykjavik.

Today we moved from Vik to our country house on the golden circle. It was a little shorter day with a couple of waterfalls, a trip to the farmers bistro, and a stop at the secret lagoon. We awoke to heavy fog and rain. You have to love dreary weather to live in Iceland! I must say that we have been quite lucky to have a mix of weather including some beautiful sun!

Our first stop of the day was at the Skógafoss waterfall. It is the largest waterfall we have seen so far. There are 500 stairs leading to the top if you want to see the falls from two angles.

There was another falls, called hidden falls very near Skógafoss which turned out to be a real highlight! We were there early and when we got to the falls nobody else was there. These are also falls where you can walk behind them, kind of magical!

One of the few reservations we made on this trip was for our lunch at the farmers bistro. The bistro is part of a mushroom farm, so of course mushrooms feature pretty prominently in the menu. It was a tough call between the mushroom burger and the buffet which featured mushroom soup. But I went with the burger. It was a totally unexpected presentation!

The buns for the “burger” were two portobello mushrooms, the actual bun was a kind of fried crouton like mixture, and then there was meat which was probably a blend that included lamb. Plus some aioli… The desert menu listed “mushroom ice cream” I just could not turn down the chance to try that! It also listed Carrot ice cream which would have been fine to skip, but it actually tasted a little like sherbet. Still, I really did like the Mushroom with honey topping.

After lunch we waited an hour, (because you have to right!??) and then went swimming at the secret lagoon. Well, it wasn’t very secret, as there were a lot of people there. It is the oldest pool around dating back to the early 1900’s. The water was a very comfortable

The grandkids were very tired but we went to a nearby wine bar anyway, after that we got fish and chips takeaway from a nearby restaurant, which was delicious!! The only thing that would have made it better would have been to eat it right there!

By the time we got to our AirBnB, everyone was tired, especially Johannes and Maren who had only been napping between stops. The rest of us were ready to explore the wine bar nearby, and we thought that the fish and chips would be a good takeout option to avoid staying out too late. Even so, we learned that it is probably not a great idea to be out after 6:30 with a 4 and 2 year old!!

That is enough for today!

Every country seems to have its own unique kind of natural disasters to worry about. Whether it’s hurricanes, sandstorms, typhooons, tornadoes, whatever. In Iceland one of those things is glacial flooding. It happens fairly frequently when water builds up and suddenly explodes out of the glacier. This happened the day before we flew to Iceland, and it closed a section of the ring road. The ring road is a pretty important road around the island, and in fact in many cases the only way to get from point A to point B. For us this closure could have meant two days of our trip needed to be rescheduled. For others who were not so lucky, they needed to drive more than 14 or more hours out of their way to get to the airport or to get to their hotel! Yes, if you haven’t seen a map of Iceland, the middle part of the island has no roads. Our map from Hertz explicitly forbids us from driving anywhere near the middle of the island.

Thankfully the Icelandic people know how to deal with all of this, and quickly got the road opened, at least one lane, as you can see in the picture above. OK, all that sounds very dramatic for something that ended up barely impacting us. Once through the one lane stoppage we had smooth sailing, but along the way we saw many signs of past breaches of the road just like ours. It’s very interesting to note that eruptions and ice melt have actually increased the size of Iceland rather dramatically! The ice melt decreases the mass of the island and causes it to rise up out of the sea! The lava flows and glacial flooding have added more than 5km of distance to the coast in many places! Yep, visiting Iceland is a good geology lesson.

Our first big stop of the day was at Fjaðrárgljúfur Canyon. This was such a beautiful hike up a river gorge, and several of us said it was one of our favorites of the trip so far.

After the hike we had a nice picnic around the back of our van! Turkey and pepperoni sandwiches, Pringles, weird Icelandic Doritos, and delicious Icelandic butter cookies with chocolate! It’s a hoot traveling with a 4 and 2 year old, as they love picnics! Eat pringles first, chocolate second, set the sandwich down on the gravel… Get upset when the tiniest crumb of Pringle falls on the ground and you are not allowed to eat it. Yes, parents, we have all been there! I’m just so happy to be the grandparent!

With Lunch behind us it was time to move on to the Fjallsarlon Glacier Lagoon, this was not a small commitment as it was another 1.5 hours drive away from our house through lots of flat land. Ocean on one side, sheer cliffs on the other but we were in the flat glacial runoff area. In the end it was a good stop for all! You just know that when you get to water the 4 year old grandson is going to end up with shoes off and pants wet!

It was just after 6 when we arrived back in Vik. So we stopped at the Black Crust pizzeria, the line was really long for getting a table, much less for 8 so we grabbed a to go menu and went back to the house and called. Jane and Josh dropped us off and then headed to the Brewery for some beers! Conveniently, the pizzeria and the gas station share a parking lot, so while one filled up the other picked up the pizzas. We were sitting at our kitchen table eating delicious pizza around seven. We had a black crust Langostine with truffle cream cheese and Rucola, a marinated duck pizza with orange syrup and nuts, and a pretty traditional salami and cheese! Each was the favorite of at least one person!

Everyone had strict instructions that we needed to be out the door by 8 or there would be no time for a coffee stop! So the after dinner activities were largely packing and getting organized to get out the door in the morning. Incentives do work!

The weather today was super promising! Small chance of rain, medium chance of sunlight, and big chance for adventure! Our first stop was the home of the Puffins!

Boy do they look awkward when they try to fly! From every angle and every view, take off or landing! But they are very colorful and cute!

Our next stop was one of the many black sand beaches. This beach has a warning system, green — explore with caution, yellow — don’t get too close, red — stay in the parking lot. Never turn your back on the ocean and watch closely for rogue waves.

The plan for the afternoon included the Katla ice cave tour, a lava show, or chilling at the house with the grandkids. The ice cave tour is on the Mýrdalsjökull glacier which is on top of the Katla volcano, currently well overdue for an eruption! No need to worry it is very closely monitored and the guides all have an evacuation plan should an unexpected eruption occur.

It is quite a ride just to get to the glacier, and our guide definitely subscribed to the theory that you can minimize the impact of potholes in the road by driving as fast as possible over them! The glacier itself isn’t like other glaciers as it is covered in ash, and the ice itself has many layers of ice with ash in between the different layers.

As part of our hike we also got to help maintain the trail for those coming after us. Just a little work with an ice pick.

After returning to the house I started the spaghetti for supper and Tanner and Johannes headed to the lava show. We also tried it the sauna and hot tub on the deck. This house is so amazing views of the ocean out one window glaciers and horses out the other!

Our Iceland adventure started nearly 10 months ago. We told Kaia, Tanner, Josh, and Rachel that we wanted to bring the whole family on a vacation. Their assignment for Christmas was to make a PowerPoint presentation on where we should go. Then we would discuss the options and vote, if necessary. The presentations were all amazing, and we could see the personalities of each infused into their ideas and presentations!

By the end of lunch, the clear family favorite was Banff Canada! Iceland wasn’t even on the list. So why are we in Iceland? Incomprehensible yield management software at Delta airlines. The price to fly the family from Minneapolis to Calgary was crazy! When Jane started looking around it was clear that Iceland was way cheaper, the best value, and the flight time was not terrible for the two youngest among our group aged 4 and 2. Nobody had presented Iceland, but everyone thought that someone else would. So it was an easy decision.

We arrived in Iceland only a few minutes late, despite our late departure. I don’t know if it was lasting effects of the CrowdStrike problem effecting Delta’s transfer this plane from the hanger to the gate software or what. But neither did the staff at the gate or the pilot for that matter, everyone was mystified by the fact that our plane arrived at MSP many hours early and then sat in the hanger until just minutes before were supposed to depart.

Whatever the ultimate explanation, the flight was fine and we arrived in Iceland at 7:30 AM local time 2:30AM according to our sleep systems. That affected the youngest the worst, but all of us still had some jet lag.

Getting through customs was easy, and although rental cars are always so frustratingly slow, we got some sweet upgrades on our Rental van! A slightly larger van, plus free WiFi hotspot! That is a nearly $600 savings for all of us to have WiFi in transit without paying for a Verizon travel pass. Our first stop between the airport and Reykjavik was at a bakery for some snacks and coffee.

This was a great stop for everyone to get the wiggles out after hours on an airplane and then sitting in the van.

Next up was grocery shopping in a foreign country where no one speaks the language! Pretty good, and sometimes amusing, what is “semi-skim milk?” Is this block of stuff called Smjör really butter? Why yes it is if you put your glasses on and read the small translation. Do we want to buy onions and then figure out how to get the self checkout to recognize what we are weighing? No we do not.

Part of our plan for this trip was to buy stuff to make lunch sandwiches in the van while we are out hiking and enjoying the scenery. So we made some lunch!

The next stop was an unscheduled gas station stop when our low pressure light suddenly went off. None of the tires were under pressure so we continued on to our first waterfall. This is a very famous waterfall as Justin Bieber made a music video from behind the water! We were able to go behind the waterfall as well!

It was raining like crazy, and we were all wet from the waterfalls so we were very glad to have a text from our AirBnB host that our house was ready ahead of schedule! The house is beautiful and the views of the ocean, mountains, glaciers, and nearby horses are spectacular!

Dinner ended up being at Smidjan Brugghus, the brewery right near our house. The burgers and fries and beer was great. We then worked at keeping everyone awake until just after 8:00 when we gave in and went to bed. Our night was extremely abbreviated when just after nine, our roommate started asking for her mommy! This happened a couple more times before she finally slept through until the morning.

My thoughts and prayers are with …

Whisk on son!!

Great father’s day weekend. Family wedding yesterday and then a flight to Seattle today. I get to do work I love and spend my 38th anniversary with my sweetie where we spent our honeymoon!

Well, it’s been a great trip, but it is time to head home. We have a night in Lisbon and then an 11AM flight to Philadelphia tomorrow morning.

This post is a bit of a mishmash of the last day, and some summary thoughts about random stuff. Maybe more about our Polestar EV than is really necessary LOL.

After driving toward Lisbon for a while we stopped about 45km from the airport to have lunch, which looked like it was in the middle of a field. Well, not a field but a vineyard. We had a really nice Tapas lunch. Calamari, Squid, steak a couple of different ways, and some nice wine in a very nice setting. One of the dishes was called Pica-Pau which I have the recipe for and will definitely try to make this summer!

Drop off at the airport was chaotic, but the metro to our apartment was fine. Although we learned on the ride that we didn’t have hot water in one of the bathrooms or the kitchen. After being ghosted by our first AirBnB host here in Lisbon this was a bit much, but this host did offer us the use of BOTH of her apartments. We don’t need hot water in the kitchen and we can do showers in one bathroom, so we’ll be fine.

We did get out and do a bit of walking around Lisbon, although we are all mostly tired of being tourists so our hearts were not entirely in it. We found a nice rooftop bar that had a view of the city and then a more non-touristy Italian place where the risotto was very good, and the tortellini with bolognese was ok.

Back to our apartment by way of a gelateria, a pastry shop, and a supermarket for a beer to watch the UCL final! On our way home tomorrow! Not happy that Real Madrid won. Boo.

As a postscript to this post, I’ll just recall a few of the highlights. I’m writing this from 40,000 feet as we approach the Atlantic coast of the United States.

1. The hiking in Madeira, especially along the Levada at the beginning of the 25 Fontes hike. Also the lunch we had by the sea after that hike was amazing.
2. Loved our meal in Porto at Taberna dos Mercadores. Delicious and fun.
3. The wine tasting stop on the Douro was a beautiful spot to enjoy some good wine. The hike down the hill was not everyone’s favorite, but it will be a lasting memory!
4. Chilling out in the Algarve, and the morning light on the cliffs along the seven hanging valleys hike.
5. The unexpected lunch stop in the middle of a vineyard on the drive to Lisbon. The steak sandwich and the Pica-Pau were worth the stop!

Renting the electric car turned out to be a fun experience. It was a bit nerve wracking a couple of times, but I think that was more to do with being in a foreign country and not having a backup way to pay for the power if the app wasn’t communicating with the pump. It was really nice to have the nav system show you the expected battery level at your next stop. For a long trip, like a drive to California, it would definitely make the drive longer, and require planning! Having a vehicle that was connected to the internet and had charging station locations integrated into the nav system would be great. Our rented Polestar had that feature, but the rental company didn’t have the car set up for internet access. So we ended up using the phone for finding charging, and the car for navigating. A bit frustrating.

I would certainly recommend time in Portugal if you are looking for a vacation option! We did a lot in a relatively short time. You could easily spend a week in Madeira all by itself. We didn’t get to see much of Lisbon, but that was OK for us as I’d rather be away from the city enjoying the green spaces.

Posting this from Minneapolis. Up way too early this morning. Going east to west always disrupts my sleep a lot more than west to east. But at 4am my body was saying that it was 10am in Portugal and that I was being very lazy for sleeping in!

This morning we were up early and out the door to do the seven hanging valleys hike. It is about 4.5 miles along the coast in Algarve. Each of the “hanging valleys” is really a cove so we have to navigate around or down and up each of them. Along the way are many chimneys where the limestone has eroded all the way down to a sea cave. We would have seen many of these caves if we had been able to do the sea kayaking the other day. Instead we will see them from above.

Jane drove us to the beginning and did the first mile with us before turning back and driving the car back to the hotel. Brian and I carried on.

Here are a few highlight photos.

GUILTY by a jury of his peers!! 🇺🇸 What a day!

The plan for our first full day in Carvoeiro (pronounced curve-way-go) was to go sea kayaking through the amazing Benagil sea caves! When we arrived on the corner where we supposed to meet our guide we were a bit early, and nobody else was there yet. Eventually our guide came, long hair, rings on every finger, tanned, very suave. “You are going to have a great day” he said! “I just know as soon as I walk out the door what the sea is going to be like, and today is a very good day.” Another guide heading up the hill asked him, “have you had a look?” We were on the side of the second guide having driven by the landing area. He walked around the corner and returned a few minutes later, with a smile on his face and a new question for us. “Are you ready to get wet?”

Personally, I’m not a huge fan of “getting wet” in the cold Atlantic waters. But I’m willing to be a good sport from time to time. This was one of those times. The next problem was my shoes. Sir, do you have sandals or flip-flops? Nope these are the only pair I brought, well you can walk barefoot down the hill and back then.

So, down the hill we went, and when we got to the landing area the waves were just crashing in, coming in fairly large curls of blackish water! Our guide was undaunted, “If you trust me a little, I can get you out past the breakers and into the calmer water. We probably can’t go into any caves, but it will be fine!” Given his track record so far none of us were inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt, but nevertheless we noted a couple of kayaks going out in between the really bad waves. Suddenly the guides were all huddled around a phone staring intently, I heard the word “suspended.” And finally the guide admitted defeat. The maritime authorities have declared that all kayaking trips are cancelled this morning. I could still get you there, but you would all be breaking the law. LOL.

So our day of kayaking was a bust. Even worse, none of us took a picture of the waves!!

With kayaking out of the picture we headed to Carvoeiro to do the boardwalk. It was very scenic and considerably drier than the kayaks.

After doing the boardwalk we came back and made ourselves sandwiches, and hung out at the pool, reading, dozing, and whatnot.

For dinner we headed back in to Carvoeiro for dinner at an Indian restaurant called Gurkha Kitchen. It’s a Nepalese and Indian place that was very good. We / I was definitely in the mood for something a bit different than we had been eating for the last week, and this fit the bill perfectly. Papadams, some dumplings, some Nepal curry, it was great. We could have gone higher on the spice levels but we all enjoyed the food very much.

This morning we woke up, took our time with coffee etc, and then headed for Sagras, it is the farthest southwest point Europe. You know this because there is a bratwurst stand that says Last Brat before America!

Unfortunately when we arrived a massive cloud bank was rolling in, and we couldn’t see anything! Also the fort was not open because the workers were on a one day strike! So it was kind of a bust. Here you see our selfie at Sagras and then another selfie just 30 miles away less then an hour later!

The second picture was taken in Lagos on Ponte do Piedade, it was so beautiful that after taking pics from above, we ended up driving into town, finding a charge point, eating lunch, and then booking a boat to take us out to see it from the water!

By the time we finished the boat trip and walked back to the car it was nearly 5:00, so we still had a very full day despite the challenges of the morning. We headed back to the hotel, showered, rested for a bit then had a light dinner at a nearby pizza place called Mona Lisa. It was kind of funny because it was just right around the corner, but then Jane discovered that they only took cash. We were nearly out, so it was kind of like college. Well, we have some euros, you have some euros, and if we turn in our towels at the front desk we can get our 40 euro deposit back and have enough money to eat! It sure beat jumping in the car and driving a mile to find an ATM!

After dinner Jane and I went to the end of the lane to enjoy a bit of sunset!

Just as we were about to go to bed we got the news alert. The jury was in! Would they convict Trump? We waited as the pundits did their punditry and then finally the verdicts were read. One by one, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty on all counts! A small celebration broke out and a chant of “Lock him up!” Of course, soon enough the convicted felon emerged to tell us that “it was rigged” LOL!! This is a good day for America, the system worked and finally we are holding Trump accountable. In any other decade in our history, for any other political party, the nominee would bow out of the race, or the party would demand the presumptive nominee give way. Sadly that will not be the case here.

Tomorrow some hiking and then just relaxing before head into Lisbon on Saturday. It’s hard to believe that we are heading back in just a couple of days.

After our busy day in the Douro Valley it was time to head south! Our first stop of the day was the Europcar desk to pick up our electric ID3. But wait… we were upgraded to a Polestar 2! We had looked at all of the charging stations and decided this would be a great chance to try an electric vehicle! All was well until we arrived in Nazare - If you haven’t watched 100 foot wave you really need to watch a couple episodes! In Nazare it was time to recharge. Using the MIIO app, it was no problem finding a station, but getting the car to charge was like a clown show! Rookies! Two young American college students were trying to do the same thing, and it was pretty funny that we could not quite get it. We had all foolishly assumed that we could swipe our credit card and charge away! (Pun intended.) Instead we had to create an account on the app and preload it with some $.

With the car finally charging, we headed out for lunch and some sightseeing! We found a great burger stand, which was just what we needed after a week of enjoying mostly native Portuguese food. From there we walked to the lighthouse and enjoyed the views of the beach. There are no 100 foot waves this time of year, but it was fun to see the sights from the show in person.

From Nazare we went to Obidos, this is a cool old walled town, supposedly the birthplace of Ginja. For me it also brings back memories of the early days of the internet and working with Amazon where the URL always contained obidos. Obidos was their original page rendering engine, named after a town in Brazil which is the swiftest part of the Amazon river. The town in Brazil was named after Obidos in Portugal. We walked the walls and enjoyed the sights from this little hill town.

After Obidos we headed to Ericeira for a two night stay on the ocean. We had a two bedroom apartment booked, which was upgraded to a four bedroom. Even better was that the parking ramp for the hotel had parking with free charging for electric vehicles! The hotel was lovely and we were too tired to do much more for dinner than eat at the restaurant in the hotel. The food was good.

The plan for the next day was a day trip to the hilltop castle in Sintra, the Peña Palace. As we get older we get smarter, so rather than hike up the hill we used the Bolt app (Uber competitor) to get a ride to the top! Eight euros later and we were there! We walked down, but more about that later. The Peña palace is a huge sprawling complex with miles of hiking paths, castle walls, and a tour of the inside of the castle (which we skipped). There are other palaces and castles very close by including the Moorish castle. We enjoyed the hiking and sites of the castles.

Then it was time to see what we missed on the hike up! Boy are we glad we took the bolt instead of walking! As we were headed down a particularly steep section we met a couple coming up, breathing heavy and sweating. He asked “how much further?” I responded, “where are you going?” Expecting either Peña Palace or Moorish castle, the reply instead was, “to the nearest Uber!!” I laugh every time I think about that!

Holly had several options picked out for lunch and we ended up with a really nice one. Then back to Ericeira and some restful time by the pool.

Tomorrow we head off to Algarve for the relaxing part of the vacation!

The train ride started peacefully enough. However when the conductor came to check our tickets the guy across the aisle was unresponsive. Like does he have a pulse? Unresponsive! A couple of stops later the EMTs got on the train and managed to get him awake. Soon after he was off the train. As usual the paperwork took longer than anything and we were soon 20 minutes behind.

We had thought that the train ride would be fun, with four seats facing each other, maybe a table to play Euchre or Qwertle. But the train was a “historic” train. No tables, no electricity to recharge devices. But the scenery was very nice. We got off the train in Pinhão to visit the Quinto Do Jollata winery, high above the city. We needed to either Uber or take a taxi. The Uber was advertising the ride for 5 euros, but no drivers were taking us up. There was a taxi with a feisty Portuguese woman driver. She told us 15 euros. When we said we were told that it would be 5 she slammed the car door shut in a huff. Then probably swore at us. We agreed to her 15 and got in for the ride. By the time we arrived we all thought that 15 was probably appropriate! The views from the winery were spectacular!

The tasting area was also beautiful.

There was a trail from the winery down to the city, and we had decided ahead of time to walk down. The host at the winery said to follow the dirt road to the end of their property then to climb over the fence to their neighbors, and continue to walk toward the bridge. By the time we got to the fence, one of us had had it! LOL.

Once back in the city we boarded a boat for a ride to Tua. More beauty but this time from the river!

In Tua we had a bit of an adventure finding the train station. We didn’t have a lot of time, and in our haste ended up away from the station, but deciding that the most expedient way forward was to simply walk the tracks, listening carefully for an approaching train!

We arrived safely! As it turned out the train to Porto was at the station but the train to Pocinho was not there yet. We looked for a conductor to see if we could just hop on and go back to Porto, and I finally found one, but just as I was asking him the question the train to Pocinho pulled in and he said if we wanted to go to Porto we had to get on right now. We dithered for a second to long and thus were committed to riding to the end of the line. In the end we all agreed we should have jumped on the train back when we had the chance.

The ride back to Porto was fine, but long, and at times VERY crowded. Speaking of crowded that is the only way to describe Time Out! Finding a place to sit took a couple of trips up and back, but we did eventually find a place for the four of us to sit. Jane and Holly saved our spots while Brian and I braved the ravenous hoards to gather our dinner. Jane had the duck rice which was kind of like a layer of rice with duck over the top covered in a thick layer of cheese. It was delicious. I had the Sea bass over Quinoa with Crayfish sauce. Also wonderful, but it turned out to be a starter! I wish I had ordered two!

To say we were exhausted after 12 hours on the train, and hiking and wine tasting is an understatement. Tomorrow is an easier day with just a bit of walking around town, and maybe visiting a port house.

Chillin in Algarve