Spain’s Saint James Cathedral
by rakeeter

Misc

Our guide lead us down steep stone steps to see the remains of Saint James.  Like a carnival sideshow promising a three-headed chicken, the attraction didn’t live up to the hype.  Instead of bones and gore, all we saw was a large silver box about the size of a small trunk.  If Saint James was in it, he must have been folded in half.  The rest of the cathedral was impressive, I guess.  There was a gypsy sitting on a step on either side of the entrance and they had their pathetic beggar’s pose down.  They didn’t move or make a sound.  They just held their little cups with a few shekels in the bottom.  They were pretty young, a male and a female.  Later when we were assembled out in the square in front of the cathedral I had an opportunity to observe them from a distance when there were no tourists going in or out.  I saw the girl say something to the boy and give him a quick smile as she reached under her rags for her bottled water.  They probably make a pretty good living but I wonder how they managed to get their location.  The competition must be fierce.  Maybe they had to work up to it.

Spain is usually thought of in terms of its Mediterainian coast but it has a considerable Atlantic coast as well.  I was impressed with the green country and mild temperature of northern Spain, the region referred to as Galicia.  It was rural, lots of farms, and not densely settled like the part of Portugal we saw.  There are demonstrations in Madrid over the state of the economy but all was calm where we were, at least on the surface.  I was accosted several times by girls wanting me to sign what looked like a petition.  I tried to read what it was they wanted me to sign but being in Spanish I couldn’t make it out very well.  The girls were sincere but I had to disappoint them and decline to sign.

The cruise director said we can eat 17 times a day, if we want.  We can board as guests and leave as cargo.  The food is excellent and plentiful.  There is also a great deal of liquor available.  They even have daily AA meetings, I’m told.  I try to pace myself.

Douro Valley Famous For Port Wine
by rakeeter

A couple more of Lisbon

There’s a winery in the Douro Valley of Portugal named the Quinta da Pacheca Winery.  A tour bus loaded its elderly cargo after this floating assisted living center docked early this morning and we drove about an hour and a half to get there.  The scenery is nice.  It’s hilly and nearly every backyard is a garden and/or vineyard.  Our guide said most of the vineyards produce what they refer to as green wine, that is young wine.  If she said why they don’t age it a little I missed it.  The Douro Valley is famous for its port wine and the winery we visited produces about 200,000 liters a year, I think the proprietor said.  His grandfather bought the winery and this guy had quite a few miles on him so I guess it’s been in the family a while.  We got to sample their white and red wine as well as their port over lunch.  So far, the lunch was the tastiest meal I’ve had.  Supposedly it was typical Portuguese fair but our guide also went to some length to tell us that the Portuguese eat a lot of cod.  Cod for Sunday dinners, cod for Christmas, cod, cod, cod.  We had the cod and weren’t impressed.  This lunch of cheeses, tortillas, some kind of fried bread and some fresh salad was much better.

They threw an old couple off the ship before we got underway yesterday evening.  They hold an emergency training session before embarking and all passengers are required to participate.  If you don’t show up, they  throw you off the ship.  That’s what apparently happened to this man and woman.  After the alarm for the practice drill was sounded, we assembled in one of the large restaurant areas where roll was called.  There were several people that had to be rounded up but I guess these folks had too many black marks and they and their luggage were escorted off the ship.

Tonight is a formal night.  That means I have to wear a suit to dinner.  Last night I wore a sport coat.  I guess the food and company is good enough to make it all worthwhile.

It took a little to get used to the roll of the ship once we sailed.  Joyce had a little spell of sea sickness when we got back to our cabin after dinner but I think she got over it pretty soon.  I could have slept later this morning but we  had an 8 o’clock pickup for today’s excursion.  I think we’ll have another one tomorrow morning.

A Texan Looks At Lisbon
by rakeeter

Lisbon

Joyce is sawing logs.  She slept well last night but had not for several nights prior and was pretty tuckered out when we finally crashed after dinner last night.  I started out watching Portuguese TV but passed out.  The flights were all uneventful but we did spend some time on the tarmac in Madrid because the Portuguese air traffic controllers are on strike.

After napping a few hours at the hotel, we set off on foot for the tour bus depot where we caught an open air vehicle that whisked us around parts of Lisbon.  It was interesting.  Sort of.  Fatigue makes me less appreciative of most things and graffiti-coated cities look like, well, graffiti-coated cities.  We visited St George’s castle, which was more of a fort.  The accompanying literature said the king didn’t stay in the castle unless he was hiding from invaders.  It had a good view of the surrounding area, as any well-thought out fort would.  One had to step carefully to keep from tripping over the cobblestones.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped at a sidewalk cafe, one of many, for dinner.  Joyce, Betsy and I had the cod.  We don’t know about Betsy but Joyce and I had entre remorse when we saw the nice steak Bryant ordered.  The cod tasted OK but was a bit rubbery.

We’re going to transfer to the ship in a couple of hours.  I’m looking forward to staying put for a few days.  That is, not having to tote my bags and dig through them for my clothes.  I packed the Samsonite suitcase Dad gave me when I was a teenager (was he trying to give me a hint?) since I had to pack a suit and a sport coat so as to be properly dressed for dinner on our yacht.  It makes it obvious why they started putting rollers on suitcases.

Double-feature In The Man-Cave
by rakeeter

A,R&I watched a double-feature in the cave Friday night. The first one, Beethoven, had a dog as the protagonist and the second had a lizard, an animated chameleon I think. Not long ago we watched another dog show, this one about a Chihuahua. It was OK but I really got a kick out of the iguana and packrat duo for comic relief. The show wasn’t animated but the iguana and packrat obviously were. I say obviously, they were quite realistically drawn and their movements were reptile and rodent compliant. Only their heavy Mexican accent and their slapstick comedy gave them away. Computer-generated animation is getting very life-like.

Chris got his bees last week. He was in Austin when they arrived and they sat in their garage making an ominous buzzing. Saturday he “hived” them while Kari and the girls watched them from the island. He built the hive a year or so ago and put it on a former candy shop marble slab in the enclosure. He was hoping a passing band of gypsy bees would take up residence but when that didn’t happen he decided to shell out for queen and court. I’m told nobody got stung and Chris says he’s supposed to leave them alone for five days. What he’s supposed to do after the five days he didn’t say. I’d be inclined to leave them alone more or less indefinitely. It will be interesting to see how they get on.

Our grapevines are doing well. The bunches of grape buds started blooming yesterday. Even the young table grapes we put down east of the orchard are progressing. They are probably a couple years away from producing. We want their engergy channeled into developing the vines so we remove any fruit they try to produce. There are a couple of wine vines I planted two or three year’s ago to replace ones that had died and we’re doing the same with them. The older vines are producing new growth nicely and I spend time daily training the canes. There appears to be a least as much fruit as last year and I’m trying to do a better job of controlling the position and number of bunches for maximum grape development. I learned a lot last year and I hope that knowledge results in a better harvest, not to mention more competent wine making. I won’t be able to tend the vines for the next three weeks and I hope the growth doesn’t get too crazy in that time. Likely it will, though, but maybe I’ll be able to get it sorted out OK.

The Merry Month Of May (April)
by rakeeter

First of all, this has been just about the nicest May in a while. We did nearly hit 100 one day last week but it cooled back down the next day. It gave us a chance to run the A/C to make sure it hadn’t expired over the winter. We even got 3/8s of an inch of rain Thursday evening. It really came down and the creek bed in the front actually ran with water. Unfortunately it seemed by yesterday as though it hadn’t rained at all. When it isn’t raining, our humidity is very low and things dry out quickly. We decided to go ahead and get a load of granite Friday, the 19th and last for the current project, in spite of the previous evening’s rain. It was a good thing we did. Saturday morning I was able to finish covering the xeriscaped front yard and I don’t think it looks too bad. Last night we got 5/8s so things are looking up, moisture-wise. There is more forecast, along with large hail and damaging winds.

I’ve been over the entire place with the mower and weedeater. It looks pretty good, considering the drought, but the first parts I did are beginning to look shaggy again. The moisture we’re getting should fire up the grass, which really needs to happen. In places, especially high-traffic places, the grass is threadbare. It wouldn’t take much more to be looking at bare dirt. Besides finishing up the mowing yesterday, I went down the lane and collected a load of fallen limbs which I hauled off to the chipper site. I collected just big stuff and didn’t attempt to rake the small stuff. When I had finished that and cleaned up, I went down to the cave for a snooze. The ladies joined me and watched Garfield cartoons while I dozed. Friday night was ladies night in the man-cave and we watched Space Jam. It was fairly entertaining. We had had dinner on the neighbors patio and it was fairly late when we finished the movie. Rebecca stayed awake but needed a piggyback ride home.

Last weekend, Chris put up chicken wire around the garden and yesterday Joyce and Rebecca planted tomatoes. She wasn’t going to have a garden this year because we’ll be otherwise occupied for most of May, but Kari urged her to plant a few things and promised that they would look after them. The first step was to protect them from the fowl. They’ve enjoyed getting in those beds and scratching away, thus the chicken wire.

The grapes are doing marvelously. The fruit is so abundant I need to thin it out some. Yesterday Joyce pointed out the little apples on the tree we planted just last year and I’ve noticed peaches and cheeries in the orchard. The pecan trees had an abundance of tassles on them this spring. It seems as though it isn’t just the weeds that have come roaring back from last year’s drought. I wonder if these trees anticipate or even indicate a more normal rainfall this summer? Hope so.