Travellers

For those of you who griped that I don't post enough, I hope you're happy--here's two in one day. Many thanks to those of you who waited patiently while I recovered from Holy Week and enjoyed a holiday with my parents. Either way, here's a brief report of our time abroad.

Mom and Dad arrived on Holy Saturday morning at about 9:30. By 10:30, I had successfully dumped them...err...dropped them off at their lodgings and trusted two church members to look after them while I frantically finished my preparations for services that night and the next morning. What a blessing those church members have been! The folks were exhausted, as we might expect, but I didn't let them sleep much that first day, as I wanted them to get adjusted to the time change. Mom did alright after a couple of days. I think Dad is still adjusting 10 days later. Anyway, after church on Sunday morning and a very nice roast on Sunday afternoon, we made the drive down to London. Mom slept. Dad drove from the passenger's seat. We arrived at the hotel (Hilton, no less!), deposited the car, and went to sleep. We got up too early (3:15) the next morning for our flight to Portugal. Once we arrived, we didn't stop. Pedro was once again an excellent host, and took us around Lisbon to show us the sights and sounds. We even took a street car around. It was toursity, but nice. Pedro's wife and a good friend of his joined us and we had a good day. We then made the drive out to Sintra (to their weekend house) where we stayed for the week.

It was really fun to spend time with Pedro and his family. It was even more fun to see our parents interact. For those of you who don't know, Pedro stayed with us as a foreign exchange student when I was in junior high. This trip was the first time that the two sets of parents actually met. Pedro's folks were very gracious and fun to talk to. I only got worried once when President Bush somehow made it into the conversation--but it turned out to be a non event, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

Once again we ate well, experiencing the best Portugal had to offer. Except the seafood. Yeah....I was about five minutes away from becoming a vegetarian that night. I can't remember which day it was, maybe Wednesday, we had spent a day eating and sight seeing, when we went out to a seafood restaurant for dinner. Now, I'm not a big fish eater to begin with, so this was a stretch. I didn't do well at all. First of all, they brought out clams. I tried one of those. They weren't too bad...though I kept eating the bread on the table. For the main course, they brought out a sampler tray of the finest of sea fare. I kept eating bread. The tray had some creepy looking things on it--including barnacles, crayfish, shrimp (complete with eyes and antennae), and a crab dip in the crab shell. All this came after the wait staff brought out a live crab to show to the table next to us (before they cooked it). The bread was really good.

Without a doubt, we thoroughly enjoyed our short stay in Portugal with Pedro and his family. And we got to meet Pedro's daughter. She's gorgeous! I can't wait to go back and see her (and the rest of the family, too! :))

Thanks again, Pedro, for the great week!

(More on London and Norwich later.)