Trip Report Spring Break to Portugal, March 15-22, 2000. Theoretically, it should be possible to get away for a week or so during the spring break. By having easy-to-grade finals in both Data Structures and Calc I, having all the previous work summarized, and by working through much of the night, I was able to get my grades in within a day after my last exam. Normally I would putz around until after the due date. Anyway, we were able to spend most of a week in Portugal, plus a day coming and going in Amsterdam. As many of you so aptly put it: "What would you want to go there for?". Well, because it's there; it's well recommended; and we've never been there. Also Northwest/KLM was offering a good deal. Getting there: flew out of MSP about 10 pm on the 14th. Arrived AMS about 11 am on Wednesday, the 15th. Visited the Van Gogh museum and the Stedelijk Museum of Modern Art. Left AMS about 8 pm, arrived LIS about 10 pm. On Thursday, we toured hilly, picturesque Lisbon by bus, tram, elevator, funicular, metro and foot. OK, except the bus drivers went on strike. Old castle, old churches, a grand old monastery in Belem. Most of Lisbon and much of Portugal were leveled by 1755 earthquake, so there aren't many ancient buildings standing. Early on Friday, we picked up our rental car and drove to the Algarve, Portugal's southern coast. Highlights: hang-out of Henry the Navigator; the southwestern tip of Europe; small coves with beaches in the west; long, wide beaches in the east; overbuilt, touristy beaches in the central Algarve. We stayed in small towns, Salema one night and Monte Rota the next, and spent most of our time exploring the beaches and admiring tiles. Highs in the 70's with plenty of sun. On Sunday, we drove to Evora, an old walled town with a Roman temple, medieval streets, and many old churches. On the way we drove through hills solidly covered with wildflowers - and dipped into Spain a bit. Early Monday, the day before the vernal equinox, we visited some megaliths near Evora. These are prehistoric groupings of large stones, more numerous but not as huge as those at stonehenge. We got there before sunrise to try to view how the stones were aligned with the sun. Several other groups of Druids were already there. Sharol was wearing a black, hooded jacket so we fit in. It was so foggy that we couldn't discern where the sun was or even that it had risen. Spent Monday back in Lisbon. On Tuesday we took a day trip by train to Sintra. Sintra is mountainous and overlooks the ocean. On one mountain top is a Moorish castle, on another an national palace, and on another, still another national palace. Tiles, tiles, tiles everywhere. At 5:30 am on Wednesday, we left LIS arriving in AMS at 9:30 am. We visited the Rijksmusem for a few hours and left AMS about 4 pm arriving back at MSP at 6 pm. There are a lot of bicycles in Amsterdam. And a lot of cell phones. We noticed people riding bikes with one hand in heavy traffic holding their cell phone to their ear with the other ear. Food: Typical breakfast: bread, salami, cheese, fruit, decaf. Interesting dishes: lamb, whitefish, sea bass, charcoaled sardines, pork with clams, salt cod with grilled shrimp, cartaplana (similar to paella) and good, cheap red wines. We gained a few pounds despite limiting ourselves to only one large meal a day. How to fight jet lag and get some sleep: 1) Think about how cramped up you felt on the plane and how you would have done anything to be lying down and strechted out. 2) Flicker through all the 80 cable channels trying to find something to watch. "So You Want To Be A Millionaire" was more interesting in Spanish and Portugese than in English. The hosts and the contestants were funnier, and the slow pace almost allowed us enough time to translate the questions and answers. It was interesting how many questions we were able to answer anyway, and that we had no idea on some of the supposedly easiest questions. Costs: roundtrip airfare = $320 each, *** Best Western Hotel in Lisbon = $70/night, small hotels elsewhere = about half that, car rental = $30/day (free upgrade from class B to class E, a Renault hatchback with standard transmission), gas = high, tolls = high, local transportation and museum fees = cheap, food = about $25 for a large meal for the two of us including a bottle of local red wine. Safety: We were jostled twice on crowded trams - once Richard's back pocket was unbuttoned, once Sharol's pack was unzipped - but we didn't lose anything. We encountered one couple who lost their camera case and passport at the airport and another who had their car trunk jimmied. We kept valuables in moneybelts and carried only a day's supply of cash in our pockets. Would we go back? Sure, we could have easily spent twice as much time in the places we were, plus there's a lot more of the country to see.