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Continue reading →: Braga: Small but MightyBy Melissa As we approached Braga, I was nervous. Our tour of Central and Northern Portugal has been very fast paced for us. We like to meander, but have spent the past week in a near constant state of movement, the routine being: wake up, eat bread, ham and cheese…
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Continue reading →: 20 Years On, Never ForgetTwenty years ago this week, the United States laid witness to and victim of a horrific terror attack on its soil. Nearly all of the world united in outrage and brotherhood in its anguish for the victims and anger towards the cowards who piloted airplanes into office buildings killing thousands…
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Continue reading →: Casting Amidst the GrapesIt began as an ordinary Saturday evening at a wine hotel in Portugal. You know, average, gorgeous wine hotel on a beautiful former estate. Pretty and all but ho hum… boring but pleasant. Just food, wine, sunsets and stars to entertain. The sun setting over the meticulously manicured rows of…
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Continue reading →: Um almoço estranhoIt was a very warm Saturday afternoon. Not hot by global standards this summer, but warmer than we’d experienced for a while. We had a reservation for two at two at a sushi restaurant we’d wanted to check out for a while. Maybe it was the heat. Maybe the perseid…
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Continue reading →: Spoons and BeersBy Melissa We’re back! After 18 long Covid-induced months of absence, we returned to our new home in Cascais, Portugal. We bought our apartment in May of 2019. We were still working full time so were not able to return until November. We spent two months getting settled then headed…
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Continue reading →: Quiet in AlfamaLast week, we ventured into Lisbon proper (aside from being at the airport, we’ve only skirted through the outskirts since returning) to meet a friend for lunch and to check out some tile for a remodel project we have underway. We went to the Alfama neighborhood for both. And it…
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Continue reading →: Fala inglês? Desculpe não.After a 13 month delay, we returned to Portugal a couple of weeks ago and hit the ground running using the Portuguese we’ve worked so hard at over the past 18 months or so. While we aren’t nearly fluent and still have a hard time with words out of context…
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Continue reading →: Flying back to Europe in COVID timesLast weekend, we returned to Europe. We left a country where, at least in places, things really seem back to normal to arrive in one where COVID cases are surging and lockdowns are being imposed – in certain areas like Lisbon and the Algarve: no restaurants open after 3pm, curfews…
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Continue reading →: Backing awayAfter a couple of stops on the eastern seaboard to visit family and friends for the first time in a long, long while, we prepare to both physically and mentally back away. Physically, from the US and our familiar pandemic routines and what we know to be expectations of what…
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Continue reading →: So long RockiesAs we prepare to head across the pond, return to Portugal and meet our annual visa requirements, I took a break from work to ascend into the Rocky Mountains one last time before departing. I got lucky with a break in the unusually hot weather in the mountains choosing a…
The Traveling Ridleys
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The Traveling Ridleys: Sunday Journal 