AND PORTUGAL JUST GOT BETTER...

I did not have very good thoughts about Portugal.  In fact, it looked so blahhh that we stayed on the ship and lounged with our kindles in Oporto (where Port wine comes from, BTW!).  BUT yesterday we were in Lisbon.  And I fell in love with a new place.  Who knew?? Portugal??? Its so small.  Just carved out of a portion of Spain.  In fact, why didn't Spain just take over?? It seems ridiculous that big ol' Spain with its soldiers, armies, explorers, etc didn't just march in and kick the kings out!  There must be a reason back in history somewhere.  Maybe they also thought Portugal was blahhhh.  Maybe you all know the answer.

Anyway, we got on the inevitable tour bus and drove out into the mountains to a small town called Sintra, where they make wine.  Remember good ol' Lancers Rose' wine from college days? And Mateus rose'? Remember those cute little chubby brown bottles?  We thought we were really sophisticated to order a bottle of Lancers the few times we went out to dinner.  Those rose’ wines were Portuguese.  Even Martha and James, my parents in law, loved Lancers.  (Frankly, I think they told us about Lancers!)  Anyway, the Portuguese have special designations for their wines, from the best to the worst, which are their table wines.  Their best always stayed (98%) of the time in Portugal, for those sneaky Portuguese!  They exported their middling designated wines, including Mateus and Lancers!  And we thought we were experts! Ha!!  Now, apparently, they are beginning to export their top grade to the U.S.  And I have to tell you, after a couple three glasses of their wine,  it tasted fabulous to me. (Burp)

After wine and appetizers in the courtyard of the winery, we were all escorted to the cellars, where the big casks were stored -- and a lovely luncheon was laid out for us to partake of.  While dining, a group of college students joined us with their guitars, mandolines, and drums.  They sang and played Portuguese songs with such exuberance, we left clapping and smiling -- along with a couple bottles of their wine as a gift. 

One thing of note to me:  our guide, a young man of about 30, spoke perfect English.  He had no accent.  And he was both comfortable and grammatically correct for the entire day!  So we asked him if he had been raised in the U.S. 

“No,” he said.  He’d lived his whole life in Lisbon and only visited America this year for 2 weeks.  How then, we asked is it possible he spoke so well?  He told us that they teach English to children in Portugal beginning at age 2 (yes, that’s t-w-o).  And all movies and television shows that are from America are not dubbed into Portuguese.  So children become familiar with pronunciation of English and use of English easily.  It certainly makes our country look bad, doesn’t it!  When you travel to the Scandinavian countries, you also find perfect un-accented English being spoken, with people switching easily from, say, Swedish to English in the same sentence! 

A little history of Portugal: you may have heard of Henry the Navigator.  And Vasco de Gama.  The Portuguese were great seamen, who explored much of the world in the 15th and 16th centuries.  And remember that Brazil, that huge country to the south, speaks Portuguese.  While they had kings and even were related to the British, French, and Italian royal families through centuries of intermarriage, the past 40 years they were ruled by a dictator named Salazar, when the country wallowed.  In 1986 they joined the EU and have prospered.  And you can see that prosperity as you drive around.  Their roads are state-of-the-art! Their towns look like toy villages.  And, in the south, they have miles and miles of sparkling beaches, which Europeans flock to on holiday.  

Our guide showed also a real pride of country, which is so refreshing.  Would we like to explore Portugal more?  You bet.  And I have to take back all those ugly thoughts I had before Lisbon.  One benefit: I haven’t heard about the Portuguese going on strike!  Take heed, Monsieur Frenchie!!