My 1st impression of Portugal was who ever 1st came to that God forsaken place should have just kept on moving to a better place

The country is one big system of mountains and valleys

There is some areable land in the valleys, but precious little

But they grow crops on the side of the mountains

Danged if I could do it as most of the ground is shale rock the size of a baseball or a hard bale

They actually run a cultivator through that shale

Must be a make work project because even weeds won't grow in rocks

However, somebody discovered they have an excellent climate to grow grapes which they then process into wine

The whole country drinks wine starting at age 3 most times

They are insulted if you do not drink at least one bottle of wine [2 people] with a meal

They put it in barrels, to age, and have found the old fashioned way of tramping with bare feet still makes the best wine

But the hills are so steep they still use donkeys in some places as a tractor would flip over the mountain side

The country also grows cork trees which they peel the bark off every 7-10 yrs and make some very expensive products. Around here that would kill a tree, but a cork tree has to shed it's bark, much the same way a snake will shed it's skin as it grows

We saw on cork tree that was over 2200 yrs old. I forget exactly. Just stopped for a light lunch and the people gave us a close up tour of their small farm, maybe 10 acres or less. They grew enough to feed the family and sold pastery cakes and excess food etc. to the shops in larger towns.

A cork purse which is very soft and feels like a baby bottom will cost you about a 150.00 or more

They also have oranges in abundance which is freshly squezzed at any place you eat at. or you can order just a glass of fresh orange juice. Ane is it so good tasting such is their fresh orange juice

Got Florida beat by a mile for taste

They can actually grow most of the food they consume, a wide variety of food products such as lemon and stuff I never heard of

And of course with the ocean so close, sea food is abundant

But dang, every where you go, you walk up hill or down hill on cobble stones. Who knows the may have been there since the Romans for all I know. Roads and side walks are all cobble stone and very uneven. Kills you to walk any place you go.

Only the freeway is asphalt

And forget parking a car, they can park with a foot or less in front and back clearance on the side streets. I could not do it with our rental car

So much for general comments, but for a worthless piece of real estate, they did miracles growing food on steep mountain sides and rocks or shale rock. They had both

They had some terraces built, but most was straight up or down..

I would not drive a tractor on those mountains but I did see some small tractors.

Mostly they just walked up or down as they worked

We went on a tour of a vine yard. They do not grow any tress that do not have a purpose in life. No scrub trees. They all produce something. At the end of every vine row of grapes they plant either one of two plants which if the vines have health problems the plant will get sicj 1st

Advance warning system to monitor the health of their vine yard

They looked like weeds to me but they were very important plants and served a very important service

As I said they grew trees for commercial value, some actually pulled water up from below and then cooled the vines at night time

Now on to the EU thoughts about food in the next post and then finally climate and other things

Any place we travelled in Europe everything is very old

And of course so is ther thinking

They wll not change their thinking

There is no way they want preservatives in the food and Monsanto/GMO is almost a swear word

I did see one village named Monsanto as we were looking at signs of the villages, which I found rather strange. Did very many people live there??

However, they will never buy GMO products in their food unless they are starving

Every person was the same

They want fresh, local food which is free of what they call GMO

I talked to one person and he was going on about genetic tom foolery as he put it

I told him that genetic cross breeding was happening since the beginning of time as plants naturally adapted to different climate, soils etc

You could not convince him that was true

He said all plants were natural and that was the way God made the world

When people started to do genetic modification, then that was the end of the topic.

That was not natural and he wanted no part of GMO in his food

So; If we want to sell an amount of food products to European countries we need to get off the GMO band wagon or else look for other markets

They may have GMO in their food, I don't know and neither do they

Do not eat any beef products

It is the toughest old piece of Jerky served on a plate you ever tried to eat

Lamb is a much better choice

Pork can be good or bad, depends on what you buy

Sausage is very spicey, and rather tough to eat, but they sure eat a lot of sausage

Those people can make the best cheese I have ever tasted and the variety of choice is mind boggling. Goat cheese is very good

They eat cheese and bread plus wine for an entire meal.

However, the big take away was no Monsanto or GMO food products

The people of Portugal were especially sensitive to climate change

1st of all they all considered C02 as a pollutant

When I tried to explain that C02 was essentiall to life on the planet I ran into a brick wall

And they have some reason to question what humans are doing to the climate

It used to be that the temp would reach 30 degrees plus in the summer

In fact hot enough they had a siesta every afternoon, because it was hot

We did not think their winter was so hot but that was the way they lived

Every day from 12 or maybe 2 clock until 6 or 7 every thing stopped

You could not find a place to eat until at least 7 o'clock and most times 8 o'clock

We went into a pizza place. The door was open and people  inside. However the people worked there and the place did not open to the public until 7 o'clock

Please come back later

So we came back later. But was that pizza ever good. Even the crust was good. And a list of maybe 15 to 20 different kinds of topping to choose from

But back to climate

They tell us their climate has changed

What used to be 30 degrees celcius plus is now 40 degrees plus

So they have good reason to question climate change

Maybe the world as a whole is greener, but in their part of the world the heat is killing them and the plants suffer

So don't even try to talk about C02 

They are convinced the extra C02 is the problem that has changed their climate

The C02 has changed and so has their climate

There has to be a connection, is what they think

And it does make a certain amount of sense

They don't live any place but right there. And the climate has changed for the worse

They don't really care about the rest of the world

They care about their place on the planet and it has changed from hot to very hot.

One final word on a topic that is the same in all of Europe

And that is Brexit

The people have their ideas about Brexit

But don't mention the word Brexit

They will look daggers at you

heir thought are the people have decided one way or anotheer

But the politicians have mucked it all up

Their opinion of all their politicians is hostile to put it mildly

And they seem to especially not like the EU parliament

That is the lowest of the low in their opinion

Any more than that and they just won't say a word

I have no idea if any of this is of interest to you or other wise

Europe is a very old country with memories just as old

They live in villages, with very narrow roads

They are very concerned about the health of the planet and have many energy saving ideas that they put into use, such as turning off the heat at night in your room

Or the lights are motion sensitive and go off and on according to motion sensors

A real experience when sitting on the toilet and the lights go out

They walk a lot,, use bicycles and scooters or motor cycles

Any thing to save on fuel consumption

Their price of fuel was not as expensive as I thought it might be

Most people spoke some English and were very friendly

The one thing we have never solved in any of Europe

One is how to make a telephone call

The other is how to make their GPS system work on a car

We could get it to take us back home but to look for a place to eat or sleep was hopeless

And as I mentioned before

Their Wi Fi is not what we would consider anything but hopeless

A very weak signal or none at all

We asked for Wi Fi in all the places we stayed so what is considered a good signal, I have no idea

They have places that are 500 yrs old and are a good two blocks long and a block wide

Not many sky scrapers, they just use the old buildings

So: don't ever go to Portugal unless you are into walking up hill or down hill on uneven cobble stones. My body is still healing the wounds to my muscles I did not know I had

They do not have a hotel on flat ground, unless you are down by a marina on the docks, made of good wood and fairly new, and flat

As for climate science and C02, they never heard about the benefits to the world as a whole, or don't want to hear about it, I don't know. They just curse the amount of change that the excess heat has brought on them. That was the 1st thing we heard on the taxi ride from the air port to our hotel. How hot it is and some thing happened to make it hot. And 10 degrees hotter is a big change, you have to admit, when it was already 30 degrees plus in the summer. Now it is 40 degrees plus and that is not good.

All they know is their climate has changed and the only thing they know that has changed is the amount of C02 in their part of the world

Finally, there is not one single plant, tree or shrub in he whole country of Portugal that does not have a commercial purpose

That was amazing. Nothing is just waste land or useless plants

Even the tops of the mountains grew something of value

Even the trees on the side of the road were tipped inward, away from the road, to shade the cattle, sheep or grow fruit etc. or some other purpose

Some tress were 40 feet tall with branches that touched the ground due to tipping inward

They also have a system of green houses that use hoops and clear plastic, maybe a couple hundred ffeet long, growing huge strawberries or other veggiesMuch cheaper than our green houses

The water table seemed to be very close to the surface where they irrigated, as we saw several ponds with water and old cement water channels to move water

And that is what we saw in Europe, although this recent trip was the most complete that I remember

The plane ride is about 8 hrs give or take depending on which way you go and where you go

China is a killer. 14 hrs of sitting on that air plane

We have to travel coach or business class due to our age. We need for the extra room in the seat, as our muscles won't take the close quarters. It costs more, but what can we do. Our body is not as young as it used to be.

Ask for wheel chair assisstance

You go thru the lines of waiting people much faster, some times riding in a golf cart, with people to load your baggage and such

We have not found assistance on trains so far, so it is up to you to haul and load your baggage 

You will have your own lane with nobody in front of you most times

Ask if the hotel has an elevator. We take such thigs for granted, here at home but I have seen us go up 5 flights of stairs with no elevator. Remember, some of these buildings are very old

And forget getting good Wi Fi. We were promised good Wi Fi in every hotel but that is their idea of good, not ours.

Thanks very much,Wayne

Thanks, very interesting.