Drunk in Porto
So after 4 days of roving around Andalusia, we returned to Portugal. We spent time in Lisboa, Setubal and now we just finished our Marathon Port tasting tour ... tonight we see the musical Amalia about the queen of Fado, Amalia Rodrigues (pronouced Rod-ree-gsh).

The difference between Andalusia and Portugal is stark. In Washington Irving's Tales of the Alhambra, he described Andalusia as a desolate place where the barren hills (now filled with olive groves) are uninhabited and the towns are few and far between but also dense. People clustered in cities for protection from warring nations (Christians vs Moors, then Spanish civil wars). And much of this can be said about the landscape today.

In contrast, the inhabitants are more scatered in Portugal and the hills are lush. It is easy to szee how history has shaped these two places.

More than Spain, Portugal has modrernized quite a bit in the last few years, and almost everyone there speaks either English or French. Portigal is doing a good job, it would seem, of catching up with other western countries in terms of technology and education. If only the leaders of our country could be foward thinking. With the current crop it may take a while.