June 30-July 2, 1998 Torremolleno--- (near Malaga), Spain - {Casa de Don Larry y Dona Judy} We stayed in Larry and Judy's house on the Costa del Sol. They have a beautiful home on a hill that overlooks the Mediterranean sea. Many times we sat on their porch with a beautiful view of the blue Mediterranean. On a clear day, one can see Africa off in the distance. The breeze off the Mediterranean is cool keeping this whole area from getting too warm. Their house stays comfortably in the 70's the entire day and night. Several times while looking off into the Mediterranean, Sharon and I contemplated the feasibility of living out here for a couple years. Sharon took advantage of their outdoor swimming pool and hot tub. Larry took us and his family out to a wonderful Argentine Steak house. Sharon and I paid for Tele Pizza delivery the next evening, and I made French toast for everyone the following morning. Waffles were my first choice, however they ran out of maple syrup which they get from the US It's pretty hard to find maple syrup here. I did some long needed repair work on the bike taking over Larry's garage. The front forks have been needing a rebuild since the seals started leaking back in Peru. I've been putting off changing them primarily because I was afraid I might mess up some part and need to visit a BMW dealer which now that I'm in Europe, there are plenty of. I have always had the replacement seals. However I was told there is a good chance that one of the dust caps could get messed up upon removal. This turned out to be an unnecessary precaution. The procedure did take a long time, and was particularly messy since everything was covered with dirty spilled over fork oil. Rebuilding the first shock probably took ten times longer than the second since it was the first time for me, however the entire procedure was simple busy work. I repaired the turn signals on the R100GS with super glue. Super glue has become indispensable in repairing these. Three lenses have broken, and one has melted (near the exhaust). The three that have broken have been repaired nearly as good as new with super glue. I changed the rear tire on the R100GS. I've been carrying a spare rear tire since Azul, Argentina. I bought it there figuring it would be 2-3 times cheaper since it's a Brazilian made Pirreli. The new tire is the same last two rear tires that were on the R80G/S, a Pirreli MT70?. It's a good dual sport tire that I was able to get 7-8k miles on the R80G/S. Breaking the bead was a pain especially with my sprain ankle. Sharon stood on the tire stabilizing it while I jumped on one leg with my boot on to try to break the bead. Once the bead broke the tire came off pretty quick. I've had so much practice with tire irons that this process takes a small fraction of what it use to. I fixed our 35-105 lens. The lens barrel cover had broken free which holds the primary lens set in the lens barrel. A little super glue fixed this. Unfortunately, the misting which super glue often does ended up misting the glass lens which will take a lot of cleaning. I think this could have been prevented by using less super glue, and or waiting until the glue was completely dry before replacing the protective filter. The misting has no obvious affects through the view finder. Surfed the internet. From Larry's house, he pays $1.50 per hour to connect up to his internet service provider. Sharon and I surfed for 6-7 hours. We downloaded several new books, and more recent versions of the communication software I'm using. One morning I was getting ready to upload these new files to the computer. I plugged the extension cord into the wall, and then the power converter into the extension. Instead of plugging the floppy drive transformer into the power converter, I plugged it into the extension cord. Within two seconds, I heard a quick crackle, and smoke started emanating from the sealed power supply. I quickly unplugged it. I decided it was too early in the morning for me. Rather than stew on what I just did, I took my mind off by playing some Nintendo. The floppy drive power supply was quite dead... ---- Larry and Judy were among the most welcoming hosts we've encountered. At all times they made us feel like family being very generous, and even giving up their own bedroom despite having a four bedroom house. Larry said he would rather sleep in the office since he likes to get up early in the morning, and read the paper off the web before he goes to work. He was successful at getting us to believe him... Larry liked opening bottles of wine with us around since, he like the local red wines, however has no one to drink with. We happily obliged him with our company :-) July 3, 1998 Huelva, Spain R80G/S 43504 R100GS 32341 Kim and Dan, Larry and Judy's daughter and son-in-law had offered to take back some souvenirs of ours to the US since they were flying back this Sunday. They live near LaSalle Peru Illinois, about an hour away from Chicago. We packaged up all of the stuff we bought from Morocco. Even though she said she had several empty suit cases to take back, I felt like we would be taking advantage of her generosity, and tricked them into taking what we would have spent on postage as compensation for lugging back our fossil stone plates and inlay wood bowls we bought. Kim handed back the money I had wrapped in an envelope with out even looking at it. So, I handed it to KayLee, their 6 year old daughter and told her to hold it, since her Mom would just give it back to me. She smiled.... and held it until we could depart. We had a running joke about getting off to an early start. Last night we thought we might take off before most people would get up, This changed to noon, and then to 2:00pm, and later to 3:00pm. We finally left around 4:00pm, heading back toward Malaga where we could pick up the road heading West to Portugal. By the time we made it to Huelva, we were hungry and tired and so stopped for the night. We drove through vast fields of sunflowers. I can only imagine that this is exported, as I haven't noticed sunflower seeds or oil in the cooking. The yellow fields make for a very pretty landscape. I'm so messed up with the language now. While having dinner, buying water at a store, and interacting with the hotel clerk, I stumble in conversation greeting and thanking people in Arabic, and asking questions in a mixture of French and Spanish. The restaurant clerks read my hesitation as implying I don't speak Spanish when in reality, I'm trying to suppress blurting out Arabic and French at them. July 4,1998 Evora, Portugal R80G/S 43713 R100GS 32550 We filled up in Spain since we had heard gas would cost less there. Crossing the border from Spain to Portugal is now like crossing from Illinois into Indiana. People just drive on through. The only formality being that one needs Portuguese escudos rather that Spanish pesetas. At the first town in Portugal, Casto Marim we pulled off the road to see if we could exchange some money. Casto Marim is a little residential town with no apparent industry save possibly farming. I stopped in a little grocery store and asked about changing money. The clerk told me that this could not be done in this town but rather back in Spain near the border. Ten miles back, in Spain, we had passed some little booths on the side of the highway advertising money changing. We back tracked and went to the booths. We changed our remaining 39000 pesetas into Escudos for an OK exchange rate of 1.17 escudos to the peseta. I handed the cashier a US$100, and she gave me back 15600 Escudos. Afterward, I looked up what I had written the dollar to escudo rate was, and realized I got a lousy rate on that exchange. It's actually trading around 183 Escudos to the dollar. We took the little country road called N122 North to Beja. This narrow road winds through scenic dry hills through little villages. I could see by the side of the road that this use to be a cobble stone highway that has been paved over. The road passes yellow fields of sunflowers, and orchards of cork and olive trees. We stopped in one of these sunflower fields and took a bunch of pictures. We passed through the pretty village of Mertola with it's castle built over looking the river that passes through... and another overlooking castle in Portel, North of Beja. We had lunch in Beja. In Evora, Sharon found us a hotel while I waited on the plaza. Down a small alley, we found a popular restaurant amongst the locals. Sharon wanted to get away from the touristy restaurants with their "tourist menus", of which there were many. This restaurant was a good find, except the employees didn't speak English, French, or Spanish, and the only Portuguese we know is Thank you... "Obligado" which doesn't get us much food. We were able to get a menu, and use some Spanish since many words are similar. We ended up with a tomato salad, fish fillet, veal with onions and french fries, delicious chewy moist dense bread, and a bottle of recommended locally produced red wine that tasted most similar to a chianti. Port wine which we were keen to try comes from Oporto, and so we put off trying this until later. At 10:00pm, we watched a large free production of a street play. Baccus meets the statue of Vasco da Gama, fawns party with fairies, techno ghouls with glowing eyes dressed in suits escort the techno dragons, and strangle housewives with telephones and hair dryers. Meanwhile people dressed from the renaissance stand in the surrounding balconies watching and waving, and a large choir of traditionally dressed country people sing. Three hundred people performed in this play. Occasionally fireworks and smoke accompanied the performance. The play which they called Hidra filled the entire main L shaped square such that there wasn't a bad place to view from. The main action would switch from in front of the Roman temple of Diana, to the main church, to the monastery, always passing through the crowd as it changed. Although bizarre in style accustomed only to Europe it was entertaining and well done. I have no idea what the message was... It reminded me of the French circus opening at the Olympics earlier this decade. July 5, 1998 Evora, Portugal walked around town. we went to the museum, cathedral, cathedral museum, public garden, tourist shopping, ate and drank beer on Geraldi square. took lots of pictures. July 6, 1998 Elvas, Portugal R100GS 32735 R80G/S 43902 Before we left Evora we visited a church which had the walls of one entire wing covered with neat stacks of bones. Skull were stacked and cemented in place. leg bones were stacked such that only the ends were visible so that the maximum could be fit in the room. Apparently this rooms contains the bones from over 5,000 humans. The room smelled very musty as if there was a lot of mold growing in the crevices of these bones. Leaving Evora we headed to Elvas.... Driving up to the walls of Elvas feels like entering a fortress. After driving up the hill, we passed the first wall, which separates what looks like might have been a large moat or break zone followed by another wall and may have one had a draw bridge. The walls appear to be thick enough to repel catapult assaults. This fortress dates back to pre-Roman times, and was significantly built up during the moor occupation through the 13th century. The history section of our guide book suggests that it held out another 100 years after Lisbon fell to the Christian because it is so well fortified. Fortresses in Portugal seem even more common than other parts of Europe. I suppose this may be because the Holy wars raged on here in the Iberian peninsula for over 500 years. As we wind through the back roads on the motorcycle, "Oh, another fortress..." I tried Bacalhau (pronounced bockle-Yow) for lunch. Bacalhau is considered typical Portuguese food, and basically means salted cod. Not expecting something very tasty, but wanting to try "typical Portuguese food", I ordered Bacalhau Douro from the menu. What I got was a mixture glop of stringed potatoes mixed with a fibrous salted cod and melted cheese. It doesn't sound good, but tasted like an excellent staple food with beer. I'd order it again. Sharon ordered a herbal garlic broth with large chunks of bread that soaked up all of the liquid, and had a poached egg on top. She liked it, and ordered a second one. We had another Kraft macaroni and cheese dinner of Europe.... that is, a fresh loaf of dense moist chewy bread, butter, and a bottle of wine (port). We picked up some red waxed dipped cheese in a squished sphere shape, thinking it would be something like a Goudha. USFDA would call this processed pasteurized cheese food, and Kraft would put this in an aerosol can. It didn't get eaten. The Salami we picked up left something to be desired as well. Vintage ports are cheap. I can buy a 1937 vintage Barros Tawny port for 25,000 escudos ($138), a 1957 Barros 10,000 ($55). The tiny little grocery store I saw these in also had a 1950, and a 1967. Since it was the year I was born, I considered getting the 1967 to save for some future birthday. Later note: This was a special case.... In Oporto, I found out what a deal this really was. Barros sells this '37 for 44,000 Escudos. Too bad we didn't buy any. We passed many orchards of cork oak. They are obviously the cork trees since the bark is stripped from the ground just out of a short ladders reach. The upper branches are lighter colored where the bark has not been stripped from. The trees seem to be planted some what willy nilly, that is in many places without apparent order. July 7, 1998 Torres, Portugal - {camped near the Torres} R80G/S 43955 R100GS 32788 The Torres is the highest point in Portugal, and is a scenic drive. The road wound up the the mountain in stages giving us wide views of the valley below. However by the time we were near the Torres, the valley below was obscured by clouds. It appears that over the century people have built around here expecting a tourist economy greater than the attraction. Climbing the mountain we past several abandoned homes and a hotel that have stunning views. The designated campgrounds were commercial and consisted of packed in campers. There are many road pull offs that seem intended for people just to put up a tent. I searched along the road, and found one out of sight from the road with a beautiful overlooking cliff view of a dammed lake below. I bought two 1.5 liter bottles of water from a near by restaurant. With the full moon, I experimented with the multi-exposure mode on the camera, using a 300mm lens with a range doubler positioning the the 600mm zoomed in full moon over the lake in a night time photo. July 8, 1998 Palace Bussaco (Bucaco), Portugal As Sharon was making oatmeal, she became disgusted by the number of bugs she discovered in with the oatmeal flakes. I said "that just means it's organically grown, and protein fortified... You have to pay extra for that." It didn't work... she didn't want to have anything to do with it. I ate rationalizing... What's the difference between chocolate covered ants, grasshoppers eaten in Mexico, beef, pork, fish, chicken. To my stomach, they're all just carbon nitrogen chains with slightly different DNA patterns. While not doing much for taste, it's more nourishing... This reasoning held me a while until I too saw the density of bugs was pretty high. It's not like we didn't have plenty of other food... :-) Afterward, Sharon said she wouldn't kiss me until I brushed my teeth. Obviously they had a lot of problems with bugs in their oatmeal as the packaging was a little overkill with quality guarantees on the label. I suppose it's cheaper to write this on the label than fix the bug problem. We packed up the bikes, and drove the rest of the way to the top of the Torres. Near the top of the Torre, the highest point in Portugal, some Christian vandals carved a beautiful larger than life statue of Mary into the rock face in a lush little valley, probably just to piss off the moors... At the top was sort of a disappointment. Little could be seen except clouds. There is what appears to be two weather radar tower. During the turn of the century, the Portuguese royal family had a summer palace built in the Bussaco (Bucaco) woods. These woods were formerly the area of a monastery, and contained trees from all around the world. A visiting pope once decreed that anyone chopping down a tree here would be excommunicated. The Bussaco royal summer palace is now a 5 star hotel. We decided we would treat ourselves to a stay. The palace was beautiful with cultivated garden, and ornate stone and plaster carvings on all of the walls. After a good hot shower, we walked through the gardens and trails through the woods. We had dinner out on the outdoor covered balcony with it's beautiful ornate carved pillars. We had: A bottle of red and white Bussaco wine produced locally. 1st course: vichyssoise 2nd course: I had a fish skewer with 4 kinds fish.... tuna, grouper, salmon, flaky white (hake?). The fish was interlaced with a delicious thick Canadian bacon. Sharon had a wonderful lobster and crawfish puffed pastry 3rd (main) course: I had wild boar with peaches... delicious Sharon had veal medallions with tarragon The main course accompanied by fresh french style green beans whole grilled tomato, mash potatoes and fresh salad. desert tray: raspberry vanilla ice cream bombe, flan, egg custard with raspberry sauce. --------------- Written after two bottles of wine and a fun evening... -- It's a five star hotel! I don't give a shit how many stars it has, but the value is kick ass. It was built for Portuguese royalty. That in itself I also don't care. However it contains the opulence valued and paid for by royalty which is not economically feasible to construct today given it has such a high value (cost v.s. enjoyment ratio). Of course it wasn't built for commercial purposes, and so monetary returns on investment probably was never a consideration. The details put in the beauty far exceed the cost of what we are charged on a daily basis. I love it, and consider it and excellent stay. ---------------- July 9, 1998 Luso, Portugal - {Pension Central} We had a nice buffet breakfast in the dining room, and then hiked the remaining trails throughout the bucaco forest. Making the most of our stay we checked out of our room, put our things in storage, but didn't leave until around 4:30pm where we drove 5 minutes to the town of Luso. Luso is known throughout all of Portugal for the water springs, and water baths. The most popular water sold in Portugal comes with the Luso label. Portuguese show up at the public spring with dozens of 5 liter jugs to fill up and take home. Our guide book had mentioned something about the water being slightly radioactive which put a damper on our enthusiasm to fill up our own jugs. ---- Dave Thompson thompson@pdnt.com www - http://sdg.ncsa.uiuc.edu/~mag/Thompson Net-Tamer V 1.09 Palm Top - Registered