I suspect that you’ve all been wondering where we planning to travel next. Well, it isn’t where we thought we’d be going when we returned from Iceland last September! I was going to wait a few weeks after my review of that trip and announce our next trip, but 3 weeks later it became apparent that it was not likely to happen and was officially cancelled in early November. You probably guessed by now that it was a trip to Israel. We were to be travelling later this spring with Dr. Todd Still, Dean of Truett Seminary at Baylor University, and several of our Baylor friends whom we’d travelled with on the Baylor Alumni In the Footsteps of Paul trip in September 2022. So, back to the drawing board to rethink our 2024 travel plans.

A short while ago, our friends Keith and Paula called to let us know they were planning a two-week trip to Portugal towards the end of April, and could we join them? It’s a destination we’d previously discussed and on our wish list of places to which we’ve not yet been. We checked our calendar and commitments and were able to use the business class airfare credits from our cancelled Israel trip to book a 10-day trip flying to and from Lisbon. Our overnight flight is scheduled to arrive at 9am local time, and we will meet up with Keith and Paula for the 3-hour train trip to Porto for four nights. We then plan to return to Lisbon using a private guide/driver with a few stops along the way. We will spend four nights in Lisbon, then we return to Houston while Keith and Paula will head to the Algarve region (southern coast) a couple of days before they return home. So, no, this is not a cruise trip although we do plan to take a 1-day cruise up the Douro River from Porto to the Douro Valley wine region.

For the past couple of weeks, we’ve binged on Rick Steves’ Portugal videos (from season 10, if you are interested) and his Portugal book and website articles, along with the Lonely Planet Pocket Guides to Lisbon and Porto, plus a smattering of other Portugal travel-related videos and books we found on Amazon Prime and Kindle Unlimited. I highly recommend the documentary “A Year in Port” from 2016 available on Prime. It follows the port winemakers through their year and provides some excellent background on the history and recent developments in the port industry. Dave has downloaded a Portuguese in 3 Months book. I’m just hoping to learn a few basic phrases by the time we go!

My travel planning spreadsheet is in full-swing as I research sights (hours, costs, etc.) that we want to see from reading and watching the videos. We will do a mix of DIY and hiring local guides as we really appreciate the insights and history they can provide as well as knowing off-the-beaten path places to go and the most efficient routes. Guess I’d better get back to it!

If you’ve been to Portugal, please let me know your favorite thing to do/visit in Lisbon or Porto in the comments.