Heather and I spent the day running errands, getting ready for our trip to Portugal. It's much more relaxing leaving on the weekend, although the trade-off is one less day in Portugal.
On each of my previous trips, there was a major highlight to check off the list, such as a famous ruin or waterfall. There's no must-see on this trip -- it's going to be all about the food and wine and relaxing. We're flying into Porto, and have 20 days to end up in Lisbon.
Also for the first time, I'm not relying on the Lonely Planet. I got hooked on traveling when I took my three weeks vacation in '94 at P&G and went to Israel and Egypt. My friend Kirk gave me the Middle East LP as a gift (it still sits on our bookshelves). Back then, the LP "assumed you knew how to get your luggage off the carousel", as they proudly stated on the back cover. At some point they dropped that reference, and the writing and coverage has become less interesting every year. We're taking both the LP and Rough Guide to Portugal; and will likely switch to the Rough Guide for future trips.
And on the technological change front, instead of carrying paperbacks and trying to find english book stores when I'm done, I downloaded a bunch of ebooks on Stanza on my iPhone. I also installed the BlogPress app so that I can blog on the go, and upload posts when I find a wifi hotspot.
See you soon from Portugal!
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