The day promised storms and rain so we took our time before starting our activities for the day.

When the weather cleared we walked to the west and first stop was a Polish memorial to those who died at Smolensk on their way to the ceremony to remember the Katyń massacre.

Lake Ontario was in sight but with the uncertain weather, we decided to walk up Roncesvalles Ave, past the Polish area and church.

It was humid and another storm was looming. We took shelter in a bar called Loons. The service was very friendly and we chatted with the bar attendant about her life and that she was also an air flight attendant with Air Canada. We also chatted with some interesting locals as the storm continued.

LCBO are the government controlled outlets where you can buy spirits and other alcohol… it was here in Loons that we were informed about a strike and that it was hard to purchase any spirits at the moment. So much for finding a bottle of vodka!!!

I bought a Pinot Grigio from the bar ( to take away) which we could purchase provided that we were consuming food.

We ordered some snacks – deep fried pickles with ranch dressing and buffalo chicken wings. Delicious! The rain bucketed down while we enjoyed the refreshments.

Once the rain had finally subsided we wandered back home, stopping to pick up some cauliflower soup and bread for a simple dinner. A section of the freezer in this Supermarket was stocked with a range of pierogies.

Packing for Montreal was a priority as we will catch the VIA train at 8:30 tomorrow morning.

Good night

Sunday began with the promise of a warm day and then storms and rain. We had a lazy Sunday morning while I blogged and Scott organised his plans.

After midday, my personal chef prepared meat, pickle, tomato and condiment toasties….delicious (learnt from the best).

Backgammon is a game I have loved to play and Scott was keen to finally learn the finer strategies of the game. We played 2 games and won one each…..Scott was coached by me but also fluked a back game come back. Well done!

Now it was time to move on and make the best of Sunday…..unexpectedly in the rain. Scott bought an umbrella (because the one in the apartment was not worthy) and we made our way up Queen Street and hopped on a tram. We could not work out how to buy tickets so we just did what tourists do and sat down then got off close to our final destination.

It was still raining so we were trying to find a bar to settle into and have a bite to eat and drink. One place we entered was a bowling alley with television screens and very loud games….we gave that a miss!

The Euro24 Football seemed to dominate the activities of Toronto City. Every bar and establishment with television sets were loudly tuned into the England vs Spain Euro24 game playing in Berlin.

We finally found an uncrowded bar called El Furniture Warehouse. An organic beer and a double spicy margarita were the beverages of choice. We also ordered pierogies and beef tacos.

When the spicy Margarita came out, one side of the glass was encrusted with chilli salt… my fav so far! We also had to drink Budweiser beer while listening to the Foo Fighters during half time.

Once the game was finished with Spain being the victors we made our way to the CN Tower which Scott had booked as my belated Mothers Day gift. The CN Tower is a 553.3 m-high concrete communications and observation tower in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Completed in 1976, its name “CN” referred to Canadian National, the railway company that built the tower.

There were security checks and ticketing essentials before we were whisked up to the viewing platforms and restaurant in a fast elevator. Once shown to our table we chose the Seafood Platter and a sparkling Rosè as our meal while admiring the spectacular views. Our waiter, Stephen, was very attentive and ensured that we had a positive experience.

We caught an Uber home and welcomed sleep after another great day in Toronto.

Good night.

The plan for Saturday was to go shopping and peruse the unique stores of Toronto. Once we started walking up Queens Street the heat and humidity became evident. Popping inside air conditioned shops along the way provided some relief.

We made our way to the food hall called Waterworks. Many different cuisines were on offer and we chose to eat burgers from Harry’s, a Big Jane for me and a Crispy Fish burger for Scott. They were delicious. The meat patty for the Big Jane was cooked flat and crispy, providing a different texture to the usual burger.

We then continued down Queen Street and came across the Toronto Outdoor Art Fair. It was well attended and there were many creative offerings in the form of artworks from various mediums. Unfortunately, it was oppressively hot and we were eager to find shade and cool refreshments.

Onward to the Eaton Centre which is an enormous shopping mall compared to what we are used to in Australia. There were many people attending the shops and we welcomed the cooler environment.

Sunglasses were the focus of this shopping trip and preferred items were selected and purchased.

Ambling back down Queen Street and 17,000 steps later we stopped at the Dog and Bear pub. This establishment was essentially a Sports bar with a British theme. The menu included a Buffalo Chicken Poutine and a very tasty Meatloaf. The Bloody Caesars were spicy with bits of fresh horseradish adding to the delight of this beverage.

The purchase of Marijuana was first made legal in Canada in 2018. The Canadian government regulates sales of this product and you must be 19 years of age to purchase marijuana and you can only smoke it in private places. We passed many Canabis stores up and down Queen Street.

The view from the apartment includes a single windmill which rotates to capture the best angle and we assume powers the Botanical Gardens next to it – a good example of how renewable energy sources have been embraced by communities in urban environments.

The sun sets after 9:30pm but sleep was welcomed early after a long hot day of shopping and walking.

Good night.

Sunrise was at 5:47am and it promised to be a nice day. Scott bought me some breakfast from Tim Hortons, a Canadian equivalent to Starbucks.

The trip to Niagara Falls was a 2 hour drive on massive motorway clogged with traffic until the last 30 minutes of the trip. The weather was a warm 25C but somehow felt hotter than that, maybe from the expansive concrete structures surrounding us and the massive highways. I caught a whiff of marijuana now and again which we deduced came from the legal outlets or farms in Canada.

During this journey, I booked our business class train seats through viarail.ca for our short trip to Montreal. A very easy process completed on the phone through Google.

We found the Niagara Falls car park and cruised until we found a space. There were a lot of tourists but we managed to find a park. The cost for parking was $35 on exit. The walk from our car park revealed amazing views of natural water behaviour

Time for lunch at the lovely Table Rock Bistro where we chose Bloody Caesar’s as our beverages and the Lobster Roll and the Brisket Sandwich. The food was very tasty and the spray from the falls was a very welcome way of staying cool.

To add to our cultural experience I booked our Broadway Musical – &Juliet for our New York segment of the itinerary as we waited for our food.

The power of the falls was awe inspiring and photos do not convey the energy on display. We watched the open top ferries taking ponchoed tourists to the falls for a saturating experience. The ones from the Canadian side wore red ponchos and those from the USA, across the gorge, wore blue ponchos. The amount of people who were crammed onto each ferry eventually helped us to decline the opportunity and enjoy the light spray from the viewing areas instead. Niagara Falls are a bucket list must do.

The souvenir shop had a wide range of enticing trinkets and merchandise of which some were purchased. It was busy with tourists from far and wide.

Back on the road despite 5 lanes each way there was constant traffic and some congestion. After an hour it began to rain and we welcomed the cooler conditions.

After the 2 hour plus return journey, it was time for dinner.

We walked down Queen Street to find a small restaurant called Alepia 1070 and shared some dishes before walking home in the rain to settle in for the night.

Having an extra long day yesterday and not sleeping until dark seemed to keep the jet lag at bay. I will now go to sleep at dusk and adjust fully for the next adventure.

Good night.

We woke up in our Madrid apartment ready to explore (sorry that we neglected to say where our plane actually flew us too).

Teresa had done some research and saw that Guernica, a famous painting by Picasso, was only a short walk away from our accommodation. The Museo Reina Sofia had artworks by Picasso and Salvador Dali, which were humbling to see in real life.

The weather was overcast with a light drizzle as we decided to go to the main train station, Atocha, to purchase train tickets for our trip to Barcelona the following day. The Spanish attendant at the Renfe ticket desk was very easy on the eye! Teresa asked if we could buy tickets on a ‘nice’ train. The man looked puzzled and asked what is ‘noice’? We didn’t realise that our Aussie accent rounded our vowels such that it didn’t sound like English to them. Once he realised we were Australian we enjoyed some banter, and he shared that a friend of his is visiting the Gold Coast, but that he would not go because he is scared of sharks.

Once we had tomorrow sorted, we set out to explore the beautiful town of Madrid. Michele researched somewhere to eat and found a place not far from our accommodation called Restaurante las 5 letras, which had raving reviews. Michele ordered the oxtail, which was slow cooked, caramelised and served with potatoes….the best meal so far. Teresa also had a stand out dish, small prawns cooked in oil with large slices of garlic and small red chilies. We left this place with bellies full and big smiles!

The architecture in this town is so stunning and imposing, many buildings have amazing statues and ornate carvings.

We had planned to do as we do, walk around and discover the town. But alas the rain had began to fall and we found ourselves having to take shelter in a very well patronised bar/restaurant. We tried to wait out the weather, but after two wines and a chat with a nice local man who we suspected possibly owned the place, we realised that we probably needed to give up. The roads aren’t really made for sightseeing in the rain, very little shelter.

For dinner we found a restaurant next to our accommodation and asked for recommendations. Michele had pork with potatoes and Teresa had a paella. These were tasty but not our favourite. We ended the meal with a Disaronno each and then headed into our warm and dry apartment. Tomorrow we catch the train to Barcelona. Boa noite!

The train system is very easy to navigate here in Porto. Once we had purchased the tickets we just had to remember to validate at each part of the journey. Săo Bento was our station on the yellow line. We had to change after two stops at Trindade for the purple line to the airport. It was also a nice way to relax and enjoy the sights.

For this part of the journey we are flying Iberian Airlines which Teresa booked about a week ago. She first uses Skyscanner to find flights and then she books directly through the airline. We flew here on Portugal Airlines which are very efficient but Iberian proved to be time consuming due to not having auto bag drops and staff were often delayed with some customers. The airport itself is clean and there was live music playing for entertainment.

When it was time to board, Michele and Teresa joined the queue at gate 32, the one on the boarding pass they printed for us, only to find ourselves in the queue to Zurich. Michele spotted this and we frantically tried to find the new gate. Here we had to queue again in the air bridge… there is a lot of queueing with this airline. It was also a very full flight so no luxurious middle seat as we have been accustomed to.

The taxi cost €45 to our accommodation at Suites Prado. It is in the centre of town down a small laneway. We settled in and researched somewhere to catch a feed. The location is excellent and Viva Madrid Tapas bar was just down the road. It was a busy place, warm and inviting. There was the chatter of many languages and the atmosphere was lovely. We an ordered tapas, battered hake (fish) skewers that were served on a mini smoker-like apparatus, patatas bravas- potatoes cooked in olive oil and served with two delicious dipping sauces, and bao buns with Madrid meat stew. Washed down with spicy cocktails.

We wandered down to discover a lively square near where we were staying, Santa Ana Plaza, where we ordered a wine and enjoyed the atmosphere. The complimentary olives were smokey and amazing.

After all of the travelling and queuing we had done today, we were ready to just rest up for the evening. A quick stop to the mini-mart and we settled in for the night. Tomorrow we will experience a bit of culture at the art museum. ¡Buenas noches!

Even though we are staying in the heart of Porto, with a massive amount of construction around us, the night was actually very quiet. Waking up, we planned to walk down to the Douro River.

There are six bridges to the other side, but we chose the nearest to us which is the Ponte Louis I. This is a metal bridge that you can either take by foot or by train. It was constructed in 1881 and is about 385 metres above the river itself. Safe to say that Teresa took a bit of convincing to walk across!

The views walking its 172 metre length are very breathtaking, but only Michele was able to look and take photos, as Teresa was just focused on making it to other side alive (she peeked now and again), it is pretty bloody high and even Michele had trouble looking over the very edge.

There seems to be a large amount of abandoned old resident buildings wherever we walked. Reading up, it appears that one in five buildings in the main Porto city is abandoned and derelict, and it seems to be that they blame the growing centralised business in Lisbon.

Once we were (safely) on the other side we took in the view and quickly realised that there was not much else to do, so we made our way back across (again without incident).

The restaurant that our reception had recommended was called Tapabento, and didn’t open until midday (along with quite a few other places in Europe as we have noticed) so we had about half an hour to kill. We walked up and down the main street and then stopped for a coffee and port at one of the patisseries.

Tapabento is attached to the main regional & international train station, Sao Bento, which is right next to our accommodation and is a sight to behold in itself. Very ornate with artwork and tiles that tell the history of the area.

We worried that the proximity of the restaurant to the train station may take away from its ambience, but we were not disappointed. The food was delicious and the wait staff were so friendly. This place had a bit of an Asian twist, Teresa had the creamy vegetable soup and some oxtail dumplings. Michele had wild tuna tataki. This was accompanied with some green wine. Michele had read a few reviews on this place already, so when they recommended the peanut ice cream foam dessert she did not hesitate to indulge. It was a flavour and texture sensation! Of course washed down with some tawny port.

We walked around a little more and tried to explore some more of the city. There are cranes, scaffolding and construction literally everywhere, even to the point that there is a street that is being staffed consistently by policemen to control traffic. Walking down the main street again we stumbled across a lovely little cafe that did port and chocolate pairing and realised that we had wanted to do a port tasting in Porto, so why not pair it with chocolate?

The flavours complemented each other very well and we enjoyed our little tasting.

We stopped by the supermarket on the way back to our apartment and then settled in for the afternoon. Tomorrow we fly to Spain. Boa noite!

Setting out today we realised how good the weather had been yesterday. Once we reached the end of the main street it was too foggy to even see the Tagus river. We decided today to explore the old town, which meant walking up a series of streets.

We expected it to be steep, but really it is just a slow incline, with beautiful surprises around every corner of old buildings, ornate tiles, parts of cathedrals, or just suburbia.

We paused for a wee dram about halfway up to gather our bearings and chatted with a couple of lovely ladies from Nepal who are studying and working in Portugal. We then kept walking up until we were met with the most stunning view of all of Lisbon. Once again such a juxtaposition of old and new in one frame. This place has us in awe of its beauty.

The restaurant we found for lunch was so eclectic. It had a “grandma” feel while being very modern. The music playing was Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra and the menu was handwritten in old books.

We ordered the soup of the day (cauliflower), chicken and apple croquettes, and sardines. All to share (Michele hates sardines but did have a tiny taste).

We trekked back as the fog was lifting and suddenly 2 enormous ships had appeared at the docks where they were not visible before. We could see the river again and the sunshine made for a nice afternoon. This city was such a surprise and one of our favourites so far!

After about 4 hours of wandering (which is so easy to do in this city), we made our way back to our apartment to freshen up and head out for an early dinner.

We went back to the little restaurant across the way and had a soup each, finished off with a port. The owner took a shine to us and poured us another shot. The people here are so friendly, we can’t recommend Lisbon enough.

Tomorrow we fly to Porto. Boa noite!

All 3 of us prefer to be at the airport earlier rather than later, so even though our flights weren’t until after midday, we set out at about 9am. We dropped our hire car at the correct place and then had a short walk to departures. The weather today was cold and drizzly, we remarked how lucky we have been with it all. Just before we came to Scotland, the UK experienced some very wild storms and lots of roads were closed. We managed to miss all of that, and were also fortunate that we didn’t encounter any black ice.

After dropping our bags we made our way through security and then found a place to order some food and drinks and wait for our respective flights. Scott’s plane boarded first so we said our goodbyes, thanking him for an awesome holiday together.

Teresa and Michele boarded the flight to Lisbon at 12:45 for a 1:15 take off. Once on the plane, after sitting for about a half hour, we were informed that there was an urgent repair required on the runway, which was holding all planes up. We did not take off until a quarter to 3. It was a hold up for whole airport and there was a long line of aeroplanes queued to take off, with many landing at the same time. It would have been quite the challenge to organise the backlog!

We landed into a very drizzly Lisbon just before 6pm. Despite a long bus ride from our disembark to the airport terminal, our experience from landing, collecting our bags and then locating our transfer was pretty quick and fuss free. The apartments we were staying at had been in touch with Teresa via WhatsApp and had organised our transfer with our driver Fernando, who also communicated through WhatsApp.

The drive from the airport to our apartment was about 30mins, and Fernando was very friendly and informative, recommending places to see and eat. Arriving at our very centralised accommodation, Rossio Apartments, we were amused to see that the entrance is right next door to a peep show!

Our room is clean & spacious, with two comfortable single beds side by side, and decent shower. Due to it being dark and wet outside we decided to stay close for dinner. We found a restaurant called Nicola and sat down for our first Portuguese meal. Fernando had told us that in Portugal the seafood is very good. Michele chose clams “Bulhão Pato” style, which was a sauce of olive oil, garlic, white wine, lemon & onion. Served with crusty bread…delicious! Teresa chose a prawn curry which looked lovely, however the prawns were a bit chewy and she found herself having food envy. We washed down our meals with glasses of green wine (vinho verde), a Portuguese wine from the Minho province and essentially means that the wine is made from young grapes…it was really good.

After dinner we walked just around the corner to the supermarket “Pingo Doce” to buy milk and for Michele to buy some Portuguese red wine and then headed back to our apartment. We had a quick FaceTime with Babcia & Barb and Michele was able to see her baby Basil. It was near 10pm by the time we said goodbye and we were ready for bed. Tomorrow we explore Lisbon. Boa noite!

Waking up in our new apartment in Edinburgh, we noticed that the structures we were looking at out of our windows were actually grave stones in an old cemetery. Once we got dressed and the daylight had arrived, we set out to explore this side of town.

The cemetery had many grave stones dating back to the 1700s. We walked further up the road and found some steps and a path that led to Calton Hill, a spectacular lookout with amazing views all the way to the mountains and over the whole of Edinburgh. Here there was also a structure built to honour those who died in the Napoleonic wars, as well as a mausoleum built for David Hume who proposed this area as the first public space for anyone to exercise and enjoy In Edinburgh.

The weather was cool and crisp, but perfect for walking around and sightseeing.

We chose a quirky little pub called Dirty Dick’s for lunch. Teresa had a tomato and lentil soup, Scott a steak and ale pie, and Michele chose a dish that we kept seeing on all of the menus…macaroni & cheese (with added jalapeños of course). This pub had a cosy atmosphere with many items used S ornaments aromatic the walls.

Teresa had arranged for us to have a drink with a friend from Oz at 4pm, so we did a bit of souvenir shopping and then went back to the hotel to await our appointment. Scott had a wee rest while Teresa & Michele went down to the bar for a wine and to play some cards. Prince Street Suites were an excellent choice for accommodation with location being a major plus.

Meeting up with Narelle and Andreas was lovely. Scott and Teresa had last met with them early last year in Reykjavik Iceland. Such a small world that we happen to be in the same place as them again.

After a couple of drinks we said our goodbyes and Scott, Teresa & Michele stayed on at the Kinelworth Inn for dinner. This one was another meal that wasn’t so memorable.

We finished up and walked back to our apartment. Tomorrow we say goodbye to Scott and fly to Lisbon in Portugal. Good nicht!