Tag Archives: boats

Tuesday in Boston (9/23/25)

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We had a typical lazy start to the day. I get rather antsy, but Dan has things he wants and probably needs to do on his iPad (photo things, maybe?) so I busy myself by playing a few games (Wordl, Sudoku, along with a few others) just to kill time) and starting today’s blog.

The weather outside looks lovely, despite the rain forecasts we’d seen earlier, and that forecast has, thankfully, changed. We can deal with rain, of course, but if we don’t have to were are just fine with that!

So here I am, at 9:12AM, dressed, things put away, and ready to go. Now I wait …

At 10:00 we did make our way to the very slow elevator. Of course the elevator that looks to be the one we should be using is out of order. I seem to recall a review criticized that which makes me think it will never be repaired. But what I assume might be the service elevator works: it’s just extremely slow.

We went to a different — and much better — place for coffee and food: Dan had a rather small muffin, and I had yogurt and fruit. I have missed our yogurt and while what I got was fine, our home made yogurt is much better and I look forward to making it when we get home!

We decided we should do the remainder of the Freedom Trail, which meant heading again past the park.

We continued to walk, and we passed a restaurant whose signs just crack me up. I thought they should at least have on item that is second best or maybe even third. But nope!


Then it was over the bridge.

And then we were in Charlestown.

With a short walk we made our way to the Bunker Hill Monument.

We could have taken the 429 stairs up to the top, but we both agreed we weren’t up for that, so we enjoyed the view from below. It’s been so interesting reading about the Revolutionary war: it’s been eons since I learned about it and I never did pay much attention to history back then.

From Bunker Hill we went to the USS Constitution. Sadly we couldn’t board the boat as it is being worked on. We’d rather counted on spending a good amount of time on that. Another more modern ship was there as well but it, too, was closed. So much for that! But we walked around and I took some record shots so I could put them up here.

Then it was lunch time. We had said it was to be a two meal day, but so much for that! I ordered a cup of corn and clam chowder so that was fairly small. Dan ordered a club sandwich and that was huge so I was a very helpful wife and ate a fourth of it.

We could have walked back over the bridge but instead we opted for taking a ferry. It took us a bit of time, along with some help from another ferry rider, to figure out how to buy tickets on my phone, and for some reason I couldn’t find the senior price there so we ended up paying full price, but I suppose we can afford the slightly over $7 it cost us.

Then it was a random ramble. We really had nothing more planned until dinner. I did tell Dan I think we could have done one less day here as we are running out of things we want to do. Maybe tomorrow we’ll investigate some museums, though.

After growing weary of walking we stopped in at a beer garden and had a beer. Mostly it was just to kill time, to be honest.

Getting near 5:00 we walked past a the City Hall (I think!).

And then over to La Famiglia Giorgio for dinner. I’m glad we went so early because by the time we left people were waiting to get in. The food was good, but oh my do they fill the plate. My dish could easily have fed a family of four and I think Dan’s could have as well. I could barely put a dent in the dish, and we both asked to have things boxed up.

We had originally thought we’d get a car home, having walked about eight miles so far, but with the food we decided we’d walk and hand the (very heavy) bag to someone who looked like they needed it. Sure enough, while on our walk, a couple who appeared to be living on the streets were sitting on the sidewalk and Dan asked if they were hungry and handed the bag to them. I do hope they enjoyed the feast.

It was a lovely evening walk!

We reached our hotel and I checked my watch: 10.18 miles today. Not bad! Of course, as I reminded Dan, if we were ever to do the Camino de Santiago we’d have about seven miles to go on some days. Hm. Can we really manage that walk? I wonder!

Oh, and about shoes: I am wearing some All Birds which I really do like, but clearly my Altra shoes are better for lengthy walks when my feet tend to swell a bit. I think I will save the All Birds for hanging out in and shorter than six mile neighborhood walks. I realize that is incredibly exciting information you couldn’t live without!

Tomorrow might be rainy. But then today was originally going to be rainy and it was a lovely, albeit somewhat humid, day. We shall see!

Final Full Day in Bruges

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After our typical slow start we went in search of breakfast. We found a table for four at the Verdi Restaurant … or maybe we were in the Tea Room. Who knows? I had a simple breakfast of two rather sad slices of toast (I thought they would be a bit nicer than they were, but whatever) and a cappuccino. While we ate we heard (no surprise) snippets from Verdi operas. Outside were what appeared to be very musical frogs.

From there we opted to go in search of the loading spot for a boat tour on the canal.

We bought our 15€ each boat tickets and waited for our “ship” to come in. The tour guide spoke several languages, but I must confess I could barely understand him even when he spoke in English between my bad ear, the mic, and the general noises nearby. So it goes. It was a pretty ride, and we saw a few things we wanted to later check out.

After the ride we were planning on finding a place to sit and enjoy a beer (it’s’ Belgium, after all), but first we saw a church so we opted to go in. We soon found out it was a church-turned-museum. We looked around a small amount, but then opted not to pay the fee to see more and went back outside.

Walking more, we ended up at a place we had seen from the boat tour. Beers and Padron peppers were ordered and enjoyed. We had hoped for fries, but it didn’t appear that they had them. This meant we would “have” to take another stop somewhere later to get those. As we sat there the sun would come and go, but no rain! The people sitting in the next table over offered to take photos for us (on Greg’s camera: mine are from Dan and his nice long arm that can manage to get us all into the frame). Then “we” (primarily Greg and Dan) chatted with them for a while. My bad ear was aimed toward them, so I missed some things, but I believe the woman was from the Netherlands and the man from Germany. I could very well have gotten that wrong, though.

More walking transpired, and of course more photos were taken.

We entered one area where we were instructed to be quiet. It was a place where, in the 13th century, emancipated women who dedicated themselves to God resided. It is still a place for nuns and single women. It was so very quiet there, and quite peaceful.

Now, keeping in mind that we had not gotten our much deserved fries, we found a place that would serve them. You’d think it would be easy, but some places didn’t have them, so we walked until we found a place. It was … um … interesting: bras were hanging from the ceiling and many coasters were signed and on the walls. I suspect some women offer up their bras and maybe it’s for a free beer or something. Who knows? No beer for Jan and me this time: the one from earlier seemed stronger than we expected, so sparkling water was our drink of choice! I should have taken a photo of the bathroom area out back but neglected to do so. (I wasn’t interested in the ceiling with bras, nor was I willing to sacrifice mine. Breathe a sigh of relief if you’d like!) But back to the bathrooms — one sign pointed to the right and read, “Women are always right,” while the other pointed left and read, “Men to the left.” Yep! Truth.

More walking, and then we entered the Sint-Salvatorskathedraal. I had seen it on the map and it showed a few photos that made it seem rather interesting. And it was. We saw a few things there that were in yesterday’s parade, a few organs, and of course lots of stained glass.

By that time it was nearing 16:00, so we decided it was back to our hotel for a bit of rest. I even managed to sleep a bit. And suddenly it was time to leave for our dinner at Curiosa. I had booked dinners for both nights here because of the festivities yesterday and the warning from our hotel that restaurants fill quickly on weekends. Sure enough, we we got to the restaurant it said it had no openings, so I’m really glad I had made reservations. The place was, as far as I’m concerned, quite special. It was down some steep stairs, very quiet, and not all that many tables were there (and some never did fill up). As far as we could tell the server was the only person working. Was he also the cook? We wondered! The food was delicious and the ambience lovely. And the huge thing? I didn’t have to struggle to hear conversation! I’m just sorry I didn’t take a photo of the place itself, as it was really fun.

Before going back to the hotel we picked up a few pieces of chocolate. I decided to hang on to mine — I’m too stuffed to eat another bite! We also took some final photos.

Tomorrow we sadly must say goodbye to Jan and Greg. This has been a whirlwind of a visit, but I’m so very glad they drove here to meet up with us!

Goodnight … and tuned for tomorrow’s city!

A Day On The Douro

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We began on the early side, because we had an 8:30 appointment with a boat. Our week with Green Walks meant a breakfast at the hotel, so we packed our bags and went down to the restaurant where breakfast was being served. Now I normally don’t even eat until after my walk, so eating that early doesn’t bode well for my weight, but how can I turn down a “free” (hah!) breakfast? After that we took a few photos out front of the hotel and went back to our room to get all of our stuff together and head downstairs.

Our driver arrived soon after, and we went to the boat. My voucher said a particular name, and we immediately saw that sign, so we went there. Um. Nope! The men there pointed to the pointed to the boat next to theirs and so we walked there. I went to the woman holding a list of names and asked if we were in the right place. She looked through three pages and didn’t see our names. Oh dear! But she looked again and, sure enough, we were actually on the first page at or near the top of the page, so on board we went as soon as they were letting people on. Oh, and when she saw our name on the list she told us we were on table number 12 … for breakfast and lunch. Heh. Who knew? We were directed to our table and sat down next to a nice couple. The breakfast consisted of two kinds of bread, coffee, and juice. We both barely touched the bread after our first breakfast, but it was nice to converse with our neighboring couple. They were from Canada, lucky people! (Sadly I didn’t get a photo of them. I just wasn’t thinking!)

After breakfast we went up to the deck and sat next to a couple from the UK. They, too, were very nice and easy to chat with. The boat got started and off we went. The scenery was lovely.

When we got to the first lock music started blasting through the speakers and the crew handed out little glasses of port. It was quite the festive time!

We continued on the journey. Slowly, as boats go. I can’t say I’m a boat person: I much prefer going more quickly to my destination. Or walking. I really do prefer that!


Eventually it was lunch time. When we went back down a server suggested I had asked for fish. I really couldn’t remember if I’d told the walking company that, but of course fish is fine by me. It was a bit confusing, but eventually we did realize that what I ordered was served to both Dan and me: it was lone HUGE dish, like a fish casserole, really. And it was quite tasty. But no way could we eat even half of it. We share it with our new Canadian friends (and they shared their pork with Dan), but still there was much that didn’t get eaten. They also provided a full bottle of wine for just the two of us, and later brought dessert which I simply couldn’t finish.

Oh … and yes, I DID get a photo of our new found friends!

Suddenly we noticed we were off to the side and not moving at all. Apparently something was up. An announcement (in multiple languages) came over the loudspeaker but I really couldn’t hear it clearly. I just knew something was awry. Our Canadian friends Paul, who also speaks Portuguese, went to ask what was up. He said mostly they were blaming the Spaniards, and said either we eventually will go on our have to turn around. Crazy, but there you go.

Fortunately for us, the boat did eventually move forward. We reached the second lock — no port on this lock, though. And moved on.

We were to have reached Requa by 4:00, but didn’t arrive until after 5:00. Fortunately I had sent a message to the walking company via WhatsApp and they took care of things. It took a moment, but we found our driver and he drove us the thirty minutes or thereabouts to our town for the night, Pinhão.

And then we checked in and went to our hotel room. I thought last night would be the nicest place, but THIS place is huge, with the largest bathroom we’ve ever had. I was sorry to realize that we’d only be here for this one night. But so it goes.

When we walked to dinner (about a fifteen minute walk downhill to the actually town) it began to rain. We had a list of places to eat, one of which was supposed to be next to the train station you see below, but we never found it.

We found the restaurant, which is related to our hotel (we are at the LBV House Hotel), and spent a bit more than we’d hoped, but there really was very little choice in town. The food was delicious — I do hope we burn it off on tomorrow’s walk: we’ve been told it’s the most difficult day when it comes to the climb.

The restaurant called a cab for us since we really weren’t up for hiking back to our place in the dark. I’m thankful that Dan was watching the driver: he didn’t turn on the meter! The ride took maybe five minutes and the driver said it was 10€. Dan wasn’t having it and offered the guy 4€, but then gave him 5€ (at least I think that’s how it all went! In any case, I was glad he didn’t fall for the 10€ bit because that’s way more than we’ve paid anywhere else on this trip. We’ve been told cabs/Ubers/Bolts are all very low. I don’t wish to be seen as the ugly American, but I also don’t want to be taken for a ride (figuratively speaking!) by someone who thinks we are stupid.

Getting into our room we had to rearrange our luggage for the walk which begins tomorrow morning. I’m looking forward to getting out, although apprehensive about the difficult climb. We also know we might be in for a wet day, but I’m rather hoping the rain holds off while we are out and about. Time will tell.

Ciao for now!