This is not Sudoku

 

It is sooo good today for us 'independent' travellers, even if we manage to get by without Facebook or Twitter accounts. The mental challenges are all around us as we deal with demands greater than the daily newspaper Sudoku.

 

No doubt DFAT is tracking our mobile moves and the 60 minutes crew cannot be far away either, nor those US drones ready to interfere with life on the planet. Maybe we have been smart enough to disable mobile roaming and location services but how do we find the TripAvisor restaurants without these essential services?

 

We just have to have effectively four computers with us complete with chargers, cables and adaptors. To cover off baggage losses we split any important medications between in hold and carry on so we can live beyond a few days should a loss occur. We also carry spare clothes on board for the same reason. We have spare batteries for cameras. We have an ipod for music interludes. We use skype and facetime some days. We split credit cards to reduce any mugging events and we split cash carried for the same reason. So now we really do not know where anything is for sure and so we are living the mental challenge dream. And all this before we deal with language and research about where we are actually going each day. And before we use any keys, codes, bus/tram cards and city maps in the countries we are visiting. I cannot wait until we are fitted with Fitbit pieces so we can become more completely offbeam.

 

So far we have visited the Lisbon Apple shop to get help for Ms Ipad. Ditto for a call to our Australian ISP. Mr Perfect has forgotten the cable to connect his camera to the computer for blogs as well as the cable to connect his Ipod for recharge. And for a while Ms was searching for a runaway battery. We call this Seniors Fun on the Run. 

 

Ancestry has now told both of us we are more Irish than anything else, ethnically. So we are now on the Iberian Peninsula searching for our Celtic mates here as well as searching for Yvonne's Spanish/Portuguese heritage, her second ethnicity.

It has been drizzling rain in Porto and the surrounding areas as we have discovered the city area and made an excursion east to Amarante trying to expand our knowledge of this part of our world. People are very friendly and helpful everywhere and life looks quite okay around here. There are plenty of early season tourists like us making the rounds too.

 

 

In amongst the three days of drizzle until it cleared somewhat on Sunday, we have discovered most of the old city of Porto whilst the major activity has been the 14 hour day trip up the Douro River and back by boat and bus. It was a long day but a great way to uncover some of the wine history of this area. Of course it would have been better with sunshine but as we discovered a long time ago in Europe generally, you just get on with life as it comes. We exchanged some observations with our new Danish and French friends for the day whilst taking in the sights along the way.

 

 

In planning this part of the trip we took the correct decision for us to base ourselves in Porto and we have been pleased with how things have turned out.

It beats sudoku and now we get to part ways from tomorrow with Yvonne heading south into the Algarve whilst Randall looks to join his walking group friends.