The day was perfectly lovely yesterday though still a bit cold. Today is the same. The breeze is slight but it keeps the temperature at 43° despite the sun. The cat and dog are jockeying for position in the sun on the rug by the front door. I’m thinking I should join the fray.

I did it. Yesterday I found my flight to Ghana and booked it. I leave on August 27th and return on September 11th. With the two back surgeries and the length of the flight, I went business class. I decided comfort was more important than money. On the way back, I go first class-that’s just the way the routing worked, but I’m not complaining. I figure I’ll load up my iPad with books and be all set. I’m already excited and it’s months away.

Last night was trivia night though trivia is hardly the word for the questions which had answers such as ziggurat and a bonus round of match columns of words and definitions which none of us had ever seen before but we managed to get all 10 right by looking at the prefixes and other hints. We don’t do well on music as most of it is current and we are all stuck in the classical or 60’s mode.  It is always a wonderful night out with dinner and good friends. Did I mention we won?

Next week is April vacation around here. When I taught, I’d always go to Europe that week. I’d choose one country, rent a car and drive all over. Several of the trips were with my parents and my sister joined us once. They were always great trips. My dad kept us laughing with some of his comments though that was never his intention. Portugal is still my favorite of our trips. We traveled to the north as far as we could go. From my window, I could see the lights of the Spanish border station. The roads were so narrow that in some villages a light gave us the go ahead to go through the town while the cars at the other end waited for their green light. We saw Roman ruins and iron age ruins. I had kid for Easter dinner. My favorite stop was Miranda do Douro with wisteria growing all over its walls, a beautiful old cathedral and an old section with dirt streets. My parents and I wandered through the small town and stayed at a wonderful posada right on the river. On some of the roads we had to pass wagons pulled by horses and a few by donkeys. It felt as if we had gone back in time.

The weekend is open ended-no plans except for my usual Sunday breakfast out. I do have to go and buy dog treats at Agway as Gracie would never forgive me if I had none, and we’re close to that now. I just started a book and I want to work on my Ghana slide show so I do have stuff to keep me busy. That’s seldom a problem. Did I mention an afternoon nap?

This entry was posted on April 15, 2011 at 11:17 am and is filed under Musings. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

Tags: Miranda do Douro, Portugal, travel, trivia night