journeywithmadonna

We had been talking about a trip to Scotland in Oct/Nov for quite some time…….but as time went on during the spring and summer of 2014 it just didn’t happen. No main reason really, but looking back Jim and I were just too busy with him back to work full time for the spring/summer at Joe and Lois’,  the cottage rental was quite busy, company coming and going etc.   George and Gerry were also busy with George winding down her professional life(can’t call it retirement) and also preparing to send Anna off to Acadia for her first year.  So discussions began about delaying Scotland for another year and taking a road trip instead. Where to go? Didn’t take us long to come up with a very rough itinerary which would take us first to Ottawa and then into New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia and up the Atlantic Seaboard arriving at our sister Sharon’s for American Thanksgiving……..not a bad plan at all.
November 4th brought good driving weather so we left Tidnish and our ‘lame’ furnace into the hands of Pierre and we headed west to Ottawa. Great drive in our new vehicle and decided to spend the night in Montagny, Que.  Continued on the next day in Quebec where Jim showed us all his old stomping grounds around Laval, Ste. Eustache, Deux Montagnes, Oka and from his younger years, the ferry to Hudson where he visited his aunt and uncle.   (See picture of G, G and J at the ferry site in Hudson).  He also shared a few other stories about wild weekends in Wildwood(appropriate name), New Jersey which I will not get into here.  Next stop, Marilyn’s in Ottawa, for some great food, wine and friendship!!  You probably can’t read her apron but it says “shag it”!

…….was yesterday and I got Jim and Marilyn good! I told them we had a notification from Lufthansa that our flight on Thursday was delayed by 12 hours which meant we would miss all of our connections. Guess what, today we find out Lufthansa is on strike and we’re scrambling!!!!!!! Crap…….we now want to come home real bad no matter what the weather. Headed off to find out what we can do because apparently everything is already booked for the next three days!!!

………and headed to Porto by train.  Jim is off the hook for driving and we will spend the next few days exploring what Porto has to offer on foot.  It’s been several years since Jim and I have been here and it is Marilyn’s first time so we were all a little excited and besides, we were getting sick of that Spanish wine(not really!)  It was good that our last night in Spain ended on a positive note, food wise……..I had a great cod dish,  Marilyn had sea bass and Jim tried the ribs – Trip Advisor reviews came through again.     After our two hour train trip  we arrived, no surprise, to rain!  Walked in the rain for a couple of hours, came back to dry off in our unfortunately very cold apartment and had a glass of port left by our air bnb host.    The rain continued so we went somewhere close by recommended by our host and Trip Advisor and thankful we only ordered two meals , one of them cod, as there was enough for the three of us and lunch for today.  Woke up this morning to cloudy skies and managed to walk around this beautiful old city of  200,000 for three hours before the showers started.   Given that it was quite warm it really didn’t matter so much about the rain so we continued and wandered over to the ‘port caves’ across the river Duoro but we were too early for the tour and tasting.  The port cave our air bnb host recommended was Offley so we picked up a bottle and after our rainy walk home we had a glass of port and it was ‘offley’ good!    So was the nap after ……….and off we go to another restaurant our host recommended……and trip advisor seconded!  A success and already enjoying the food here so much better than in Spain……it might just be luck but hope it continues, and the rain stops!    I dare not  complain as we’ve heard from friends and family in Nova Scotia, and Calgary, and what we are getting here is a joy compared to what you folks are dealing with there…..sure hope your weather changes soon and not just because we will be home in a few days!!!  Take care