Arrival in Lisbon, Portugal.
WinePredator arrives tonight. Just spent the morning in a social media seminar led by Ryan Opaz (Catavino) and André Ribeirinho (Adegga). With the help of my new Blackberry and tutorials from Jose, I was ready to Twitter myself into oblivion. I pretty much kept up with all things being discussed, which you can now find on Twitter under #ewbc (European Wine Bloggers Conference).
Checked into the hotel, the same one hosting the EWBC… Biggest discovery – or not to be discovered – the cable from my computer to my camera is still in California. I’ve now got to find another cord, so I can upload images. On this day, I have so many images that I feel lost not being to upload them.
Lunch “Mercado do Peixe” (the Fish Market Restaurant)
Lunch location changed and I’ll update when I get back to my camera. Everything is so spread out and everywhere. This isn’t my office and there’s a total disconnect from my own electrical outlet source, plus my ability to get on line with my own network. This is going to be a challenge, but I’ll find the answers. Delfim Costa of Enoforum Wine is going to give a card to me so I can be wireless for the rest of the trip. This hotel still charges for being on line, and I’m still not easily able to get into their dial-up system.
Lunch was right on the Atlantic Ocean. The room in which Delfim and I had lunch had no walls…. Obviously glass sliding doors, but they had been slid open and pushed back to a place where I couldn’t even see them. It was sitting in a Mediterranean garden, with temps in the low 80s. I’m not a fish person (allergies), so I’m not the chef’s most easily pleased person. I had a gorgeous pork dish and lots of Alvarinho (Portuguese) [Albariño (Galician pronunciation: [albaˈɾiːɲo]) or Alvarinho (Portuguese). I wanted to begin my Portuguese wine journey, and so it began.
3:00 p.m. ~ Tourist visit Belém (Jerónimos, Tower), Cascais
This was the beginning of cultural education, and it included everything based along the Lisbon waterfront. Lisbon is a large land area, with many neighborhoods within the neighborhood. There is one “true” Lisbon neighborhood, based right on the Tagus River. The mouth of the Tagus leads right to the Atlantic, where everyone who’s come into Lisbon from the Atlantic must travel. There are many ancient forts along this waterway, because during the times of invasion (Columbus, Vasco da Gama, etc.), there were many who wanted to protect their rights, and forts were born. (I can hardly wait to upload the images of what I’ve seen, because it’s just amazing and my words cannot do what I saw any justice at all.)
7:30 p.m. ~ Dinner at “Porto de S. Maria,” Estrada do Guincho, Cascais
We met my new Portuguese friends Madalena and Dr. Paul Rude at this restaurant in the coastal town of Cascais. This is the place where Martin Page wrote his famous book The First Global Village ~ How Portugal Changed the World. Again, it’s now a shame that I don’t like fish, because I have never seen this type of presentation… and I’ve been to several islands, where this could have/should have been the way the menu was presented. A waiter came up to my left side, and when I glanced over my shoulder, he was carrying a huge tray of fresh fish off all kinds, including all of the shell fish from the local waters (crabs, lobsters, snails, etc.)
After dinner, I went to bed, and didn’t wake up until 8:30 this morning… Unthinkable for me, but understandable after a 17 hour day of flying… Well wroth it. This morning began the European Wine Bloggers Conference, and I’m in a seminar room by myself, where I finally found connectivity. Now, off to find everything else I need… connection to uploading files. Later…
| Touristic visit Belém (Jerónimos, Tower), Cascais |
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