Middendorf Blog

Friday, May 29, 2026

Gavin Graduates!

Despite all the attendance calls and maybe due to all my nagging, Gavin has completed enough school work to receive his diploma! Super proud of him for persevering through COVID times and all the flexibility of high school (not always helpful to students in my opinion).

Thursday, March 5, 2026

Portugal

2/26/26

Lisbon - Arrived early in Lisbon & made my way by public transport to Fred's hotel. I rested while he finished up meetings and then we headed out for a walk around town. The walk was hilly & we soon found we needed a snack of a croissant with pistachio filling. That gave us strength to get to the market to find some lunch & pastel de natas & ginja shots in chocolate shot glasses. We walked along the water to see the sights & singed up for a "sunset" cruise.

Rua Augusta Arch, Statue of King Jose I, Pastel de Natas

Views from the sunset cruise, as you can see - it was not quite sunset...

Sanctuary of Christ the King, Belem Tower, Monument of the Discoveries

2/27/26 - While Fred attended meetings, I went and caught Tram 28 to tour Lisbon via cable car. Fred was done by lunch & came to meet me near the tram stop. We grabbed lunch & then caught the bus over to Jeronimos Monastery for a tour - no narration or much signage for that "tour" either. We tried more pastel de natas from Pastels de Belem liked the ones from Manteigaria better. We wondered the area for a bit & thought about making the walk back to the hotel on foot, but opted to catch the bus at some point. We rested and changed before heading out to get supper at a Nepalese place - momos and then capped off the evening at wine bar.

Views from a cable car.

Jeronimos Monastery & the back of the Monument of the Discoveries

2/28/26 - Picked up a rental car and headed toward Sintra. Should have taken public transport or a private tour. We found some parking and hiked up a ways to get a peak at Pena Palace & the Moorish Castle (no good pictures). I was already frustrated by traffic and roads, so Fred made sure we got some lunch before trying again to find parking. We really wanted to tour Quinta da Regaleira, but we could not find parking & gave up out of frustration. Instead we ventured out of town and found some waterfalls on our way to Coimbra for the evening.

A stop at Boca do Inferno (Devil's Mouth) on the way to Sintra, Pena Palace, and couple waterfalls we found.

Fred enjoying supper at Taverna de Portugal in Coimbra, the bottle of wine we shared, gelato on the way back to hotel, Hotel Astoria

3/1/26 - Got on the road early to make it to Lamego in time for a food & history tour. Walked up the many steps to the Sanctuary of Remedies. Food stops included Rose & almond pastries, cheese & vino verde, and a traditional Portuguese meal at the end with a carafe of wine. Needed a rest after all that food, so we checked into our hotel on the river. We made a drive that evening to try to find a waterfall, found it, but not the trail to it. Came back to Lamego and eventually settled on an Indian place for supper.

Food tour!

3/2/26 - Waterfall day! We made our way to Peneda Geres National Park. Found many waterfalls and survived the narrow roads with hairpin turns! Made our way up all the way to the border with Spain - no border control or anything up there. We got a late lunch in Geres before heading towards Porto with a quick pitstop in Braga.

Evening in Porto. Found a wine bar & enjoyed flights, apps, and yummy dessert!

3/3/26 - Morning in Porto to do the 6 Bridges river cruise and walk around a bit. Toured the Torre dos Clerigos, climbed the tower. Found a yummy pastry & tried the Francesinha sandwich. Made our way back towards Lisbon for our flight the next day. Made a stop in Aveiro to see the "Venice" of Portugal & grab some gelato. Found our hotel for the night & found supper down the street a bit - first struggle with our lack of language, but we managed to get food.