It was time to drive south. We decided to break up the drive to Lisbon by stopping in Aveiro.

Aveiro, also known as the “Venice of Portugal,” is a popular tourist destination located along Portugal’s Silver Coast. It is famed for its canals, Nouveau architecture and colorfully painted Moliceiros boats. Of course we took a boat ride through the canals! We had a tour guide, but I had trouble hearing him, so I just enjoyed the views.

The first thing we saw when crossing the pedestrian bridge into town were the tour boats.

Then what we would call “main street.”

We made a reservation and were assigned to this pretty boat:

And we’re off!

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After our fantastic visit to Porto, we were now looking forward to a seeing the scenic interior. We followed a route recommended by several folks in blogs or on travel sites. The round trip was under four hours, so we figured we would have plenty of time to stop along the way. (Little did we know that there were hardly any pull-offs/scenic overlooks – or even shoulders – on this entire route! I cannot count the number of times I wanted to stop and take a picture and/or enjoy the view, but was prevented from doing so because it would have meant stopping in the middle of the winding road.)

Our route:

Okay, now that I’ve vented about the lack of scenic overlooks or shoulders, I will tell you that this was a beautiful drive. We can’t show you just how beautiful it was due to said issue and rant, but we have several pictures to share. We’ll start with Peso de Régua.

The two pictures below were taken at Régua Dam, which is a concrete gravity dam on the Douro, where the river forms the border line between the districts of Vila Real and Viseu. It is also a lock.

The picture on the left below is of one “cruise ship” entering the lock while the other waits.

The picture on the left below is of the actual town of Pinhão. It is a lovely town in the heart of Port wine country at the confluence of the Douro and Pinhão rivers.

That was pretty much if for August 1st.

We chilled a bit the morning of the 2nd. I went to the coffee shop I’d found the day before. Our only “organized” plan for this day was to take a “Luxury Yacht Tour of the 6 Bridges and Douro Estuary.” Yes, by boat. I know, we live on a boat, but still. We thought it would be fun to see Porto and Gaia and such from the water. This is a description of the tour:

“Enjoy a memorable experience on a glamorous yacht, calmly navigating the Douro River while contemplating the main sights of the cities of Porto and Vila Nova de Gaia. Navigation is always carried out smoothly, with short breaks, so that you can contemplate the main sights and take photo sessions to later remember your trip. You can listen to your favorite music playlist on board by connecting your mobile phone via Bluetooth to our Marshall speaker. After viewing the six iconic bridges that connect the cities of Porto and Vila Nova de Gaia, it’s time to sail towards the mouth of the Douro River and observe the beautiful natural landscape of the Douro Estuary.”

The six bridges to which this refers are:
— Arrábida Bridge
— D. Luís I Bridge
— Infante Bridge
— Maria Pia Bridge
— São João Bridge
— Freixo Bridge

I’d neglected to take a picture of this church – Igreja de Santo Ildefonso, or Church of Saint Ildefonso – located across the street from our hotel before, so here it is.  This granite church built in Baroque style is decorated with over 11,000 classic blue and white azulejos. The tiles are painted depicting the life of Saint Ildefonso and stories from the Gospels.

Here are some pictures of our walk to the marina where the boat was waiting for us.

The huge building pictured on the right below is the Alfandega Congress Center. In other words, a conference center. It is a former-customs house.

We were the only ones who’d made it to the boat. Another group had reservations but were held up due to some transportation issues. So it was just the couple who owned the yacht, their dog, and us! We got comfy, Michael with a glass of wine and I with a tonic water. It was a nice yacht and the couple who owned it were delightful. The music coming out of the speakers was really nice. All good!

And we’re off!

You will recognize the picture on the left-hand side below as the D. Luís I Bridge. You can see one of the cable cars we referenced in a previous post in the right-hand picture below. We saw these before, but now from the water.

Pictured on the left-hand side below, are the old city walls and the end of the D. Luis I Bridge.

The next two bridges are very close together. They are the Maria Pia Bridge and the São João Bridge.

We are approaching the sixth bridge, Freixo Bridge. Now it was time to turn around and enjoy the same views on the return trip.

Pictured below on the left is the Pestana Palácio do Freixo. It is a 5-star hotel located in an 18th century palace. I would love to stay there! Given the good prices one can get in Portugal, we could afford to stay for one night if we counted it as a splurge.

We enjoyed our two-hour sail.

We saw the Porto Duck out of the water on our walk to the hotel. 🙂

This is a good article if you are interested in the history of the bridges of Porto:
https://www.portobay.com/en/in-portobay-blog/history-of-the-bridges-of-porto

We left Porto for Lisbon with a stop along the way in Aveiro the next day.

It was time for our next road trip. Seahike would again stay behind at the marina and wait patiently for our return.

We spent most of the 30th driving to Porto. When we arrived, we did our level best to follow Google Map’s directions to the hotel’s parking garage. Maps told us to take a particular road, but we never saw that particular road so we had to take a circular drive around a few blocks to get back to that area in an attempt to find it on the next go-round.

We could have walked the route in 10 minutes tops. It took 40 minutes of driving time. This is why the title of this post indicates that Porto is not a fun place to drive.

Long story short, we found the road on the second pass. Everything we visited in Porto on the 31st was within walking distance so the car stayed happily in the garage.

The first stop the next day was the Chapel of the Souls (Capela das Almas in Spanish), a.k.a. Saint Catarina Catholic Church.

From https://www.locationscout.net/portugal/42353-church-capela-das-almas-porto:
“The chapel is often referred to as the most beautiful in Portugal. This is because of the elaborate blue tiles of the church. Usually only individual strips and facade parts are designed in this way. In the case of the Almas chapel, however, it is the entire facade. There are 15,947 of them in total, all of which depict scenes of various saints. The most common are scenes from the life and death of Francis of Assisi and the Virgin Catherine.

Although the church was built in the 18th century, these elaborate wall tiles were added much later, in 1929. It was the artist Eduardo Leite who accomplished this feat and painted the tiles in the original 18th century style.”

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We decided to spend a couple of weeks on Seahike in La Línea de la Concepción, often referred to simply as La Línea. I don’t know if I explained what it is before, so I will now. It is a municipality of Spain belonging to the province of Cádiz, Andalusia. The city lies on the sandy isthmus which is part of the eastern flank of the Bay of Gibraltar, and abuts the Gibraltar–Spain border to the south. That is why we can easily walk to Gibraltar from Spain and back again. 🙂

We decided to take two weeks off for a few reasons. One is that we planned to take a cruise with ports of call in Norway. (We’d hoped to sail to Norway, but we knew it was super unlikely. And as you’ve seen, we didn’t even get Seahike to the UK!) Two of Michael’s sisters decided to join us on the cruise (yay!), so we had to find a date that would work for all of us. We landed on August 15-25. This left us with a big gap of time.

Michael and I also wanted to take a road trip to Portugal before the cruise. And we wanted some down time in La Línea after our long trip to the UK and Ireland.

Thus, we ended up with two weeks to rest and recuperate. And take some pictures of La Línea and the Rock on my runs.

But wait, we don’t need two whole weeks to rest! Let’s take a two-day trip to Ceuta!

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We started the day as dietitians around the world recommend: we ate breakfast. We arrived about a minute after the establishment stopped serving breakfast, but they said they’d make it for us anyway. How nice! The food was good and it was such a cute place!

We had a few hours to ourselves before we had to return the car and catch the plane, so we decided to walk the Londonderry Derry Walls. Derry-Londonderry has the most complete circuit of historic walls of any town or city in Ireland. They stand up to 26 feet (8 meters) high, measure almost one mile around and were constructed between 1613 and 1618.

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We have almost completed our loop of the island and are back in Northern Ireland.

Giant’s Causeway
Little did we know just how amazing (did I see “spectacular” and “dramatic” in the title of this post?) today was going to be! These aren’t just beautiful cliffs, the Giant’s Causeway and Causeway Coast is a spectacular area of global geological importance on the sea coast at the edge of the Antrim plateau in Northern Ireland. More from the source (https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/369/) that provided the previous sentence:

“The most characteristic and unique feature of the site is the exposure of some 40,000 large, regularly shaped polygonal columns of basalt in perfect horizontal sections, forming a pavement. This dramatic sight has inspired legends of giants striding over the sea to Scotland. Celebrated in the arts and in science, it has been a visitor attraction for at least 300 years and has come to be regarded as a symbol for Northern Ireland.

The property’s accessible array of curious geological exposures and polygonal columnar formations formed around 60 million years ago make it a ‘classic locality’ for the study of basaltic volcanism. The features of the Giant’s Causeway and Causeway Coast site and in particular the strata exposed in the cliff faces, have been key to shaping the understanding of the sequences of activity in the Earth’s geological history.”

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The cliffs just keep on coming! We thoroughly enjoyed our visit and were overwhelmed with the beauty of the Cliffs of Moher. It is definitely a “don’t miss” site in Ireland! Here’s a bit of information about the cliffs.

At the center of the Wild Atlantic Way in County Clare are the stunning Cliffs of Moher. Stretching out into the mist along the North Clare coastline, the Cliffs of Moher are jaw-droppingly beautiful. Their sheer drop into the heaving Atlantic ocean is a well known haven for seabirds. Waves crash below, seabirds whirl above and paths wind along the cliff-edge between villages with photo opportunities all the way.

The Cliffs of Moher are one of the most outstanding coastal features of Ireland. Rising slowly from Doolin village they ascend to over 700 feet (213 meters) boasting some of the most breathtaking scenery in Ireland. They have become one of Ireland’s premier tourist attractions and a must see for many people visiting Ireland.

They run for about 9 miles (14 kilometers). At their southern end, they rise 390 feet (120 meters) above the Atlantic Ocean at Hag’s Head, and, 5 miles (8 kilometers) to the north, they reach their maximum height of 702 feet (214 meters) just north of O’Brien’s Tower, a round stone tower near the midpoint of the cliffs, built in 1835 by Sir Cornelius O’Brien, then continue at lower heights. 

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This, my friends, is The Ring of Kerry (the white route):

We started and ended the Ring of Kerry in Killarney, driving in a clockwise direction. We’d read that it can take 3.5 hours to drive the Ring of Kerry without stopping. We stopped quite a bit, walked around, took pictures, and ate lunch. It took us about eight hours.

The main points of interest for us were:
— Torc Waterfall
— Kenmare Stone Circle
— Kerry Cliffs
As such, these are the focus of the pictures of today’s post.

Torc Waterfall
There was a short hike to the waterfall. I went a bit beyond it, which was pretty much a steep climb. There wasn’t much to see due to the heavy foliage, so I turned around after about 10 minutes. The hike was pretty and uber green, as per the UK and Ireland’s usual look. The waterfall wasn’t big, but we still enjoyed it.

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We got to Cork in mid-afternoon on the 1st and went to a pub planning to have a pint. We ended up enjoying the company of the bartender and patrons so much that we stayed for another pint and dinner. That was our first day in Cork! It was nice to have a relaxing afternoon. We’d been traveling for about three weeks by this time and kind of needed it.

Our hotel in Cork:

We headed out on the 2nd for a day of sightseeing. Our goals were to see St Fin Barre’s Cathedral, the Elizabeth Fort, Saints Peter and Paul’s Roman Catholic Church, and the Cork City Gaol. And we did!

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Today we visited the castle before meeting up with a former colleague for a pint. I was excited to catch up with her, having just recently learned that she, her husband and two sons had moved from Minnesota USA to Dublin six months prior.

This is the town in which we stayed. It was about a 45 minute train ride to Dublin, then a 15-minute bus ride to the castle.

Dublin Castle

Dublin Castle is the heart of historic Dublin. It is one of the most important buildings in Irish history. The city gets its name from the Black Pool – ‘Dubh Linn’ – which was on the site of the present Castle garden where the River Liffey met the River Poddle. The original fortification may have been an early Gaelic Ring Fort. Later a Viking Fortress stood on this site. From 1204 until 1922 it was the seat of English, then British rule in Ireland. In 1922, following Ireland’s independence, Dublin Castle was handed over to the new Irish government. It is now a major government complex and a key tourist attraction.

After a fire in 1684 destroyed much of the Medieval Castle, the magnificent State Apartments were built as the residential quarters of the Viceregal court. They are now the venue for presidential inaugurations, official state visits, state functions, exhibitions and other events.

Paintings are a particular strength of the Dublin Castle collection, but it is also rich in sculpture, furniture, clocks, china, glassware, prints, tapestries, stained glass and textiles from the 17th century to the present day.

Battleaxe Staircase
The first thing you see when you enter the castle is the Battleaxe Staircase. This grand imperial staircase was the first of its type in Dublin. It dates from 1749. It takes its name from the Viceroy’s bodyguards, the Battleaxe Guards, who once stood guard at the top of it. In the dark days of January, candles were lit and red carpet was rolled out on this staircase, as the Viceroy prepared to host some of Ireland’s grandest banquets and balls during the annual social season.

At the top of the stairs above the double doors, visitors see the national emblem of Ireland, the harp. This emblem is unique, as Ireland is the only country in the world to have a musical instrument as its national symbol.

Today, the Battleaxe Staircase is the setting for the first formal photograph of each new President of Ireland.

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