The world is a beautiful place to explore, and everywhere is different from here, so consequently, here is also different from everywhere else, so look around first in your own back yard: there are likely many places to visit in your own back yard. The Royal Botanical Gardens are one such location not 50 km from my home, but when you're on vacation, you'd readily stop, as we did, at the National Botanical Garden of Wales. There are also breweries and wineries and restaurants which people visit from all over the world, but are so often ignored by some locals, those same people who would pick a quaint restaurant to stop at in, say, Portugal.
Our honeymoon was three weeks in Portugal. We expected to spend most of the time in the south in the Algarve, but we started going north, first, instead. Our plan was simple: every day around two o'clock, find a bed and breakfast for the night. We started out of Lisbon, and visited the first place on the map we looked at: Porto Alto. It was a great little town to spend our first night in. We also got to see how they made the walls around the yards: while the cement was still wet, they broke glasses and embedded the sharp shards into the cement. After 15 years, I forget where we ate, but we may have simply purchased something, and the first store we entered was the Pingo Doce. After that, we were fine, because any time we entered a town, we knew we were okay when we found the local Pingo.
At the Pingo, we found one crate of wine for sale: €0.80, so maybe $1.25 Canadian. It was surprisingly good wine. If you visit a poorer region, try to help the locals. One young girl was selling a huge bag of cherries for €1. I gave her two. I should have given more, probably, as that same bag would easily fetch three times that price in Canada.
When you visit, always consider trying local food and beverages. In Portugal, my favorite was Vino Verde. Sherry could not understand my fascination, because it is wine made from underripe grapes, so it is especially tart, and it is much more tart than the Vino Verde they export. Indeed, I look forward to the day where I find a Vino Verde bought in Ontario that tastes like the original. It was just nice to have, and the history is interesting: there simply was insufficient land to grow grains, so by law, vineyards were relegated to the steep slopes of the valleys where they never got enough sun, and thus needed to be picked before they were ripe. Just like in Poland, England and Wales, you have their local beers, and in Italy you have espresso as well as wine.
Returning to our trip to Portugal, we then went to Óbidos, which was also fascinating, as was Batalha and Tomar. But that was only the start, and we just continued our journey north, stopping off at Porto, of course, but always north with Braga and Bom Jesus and then to Valença on the border with Spain. This was a true star fortification, but what was so fascinating was that because the borders of Portugal and Spain had been so stable for so many generations, in other places, we found star fortifications built around castle walls. While Valença is well maintained, if there was a star fortification around a castle, the star fortifications often were in ruins.
Driving east, finally, we saw a sign on the road indicating an archeological site. So we turned south and followed the road. In North America, there are continually signs indicating you are going in the right direction. Not so in Portugal. Instead, you just keep going. In this case, we ended up at Mosteiro de Sanfins. This was a ruined monastery, but it was fascinating to walk through. I still remember walking past a small aqueduct, and entering the one remaining chapel. Next, carrying on east, we stopped at the Castle of Lindoso. The castle was being rebuilt, but the workers invited us in anyway: regulations and safety be damned. The crane operator spoke German, and we talked, he pointed us to a café owned by a Canadian, Arnoldo, who then pointed us to the next town we would have never visited: Soajo. Here we saw interestingly built granite granaries. Anyway, as it turns out, we then went south again, and then east to Bragança, and only then did we start going south. We actually only spent a few days in the Algarve, and to be honest, we did see the best part of Portugal. On the way back north, we saw a sign post for an industrial archeological site. This piqued our interest, and it turned out to be the Museu Mineiro do Lousal, This was a site that was at some point a pyrite mine, but it has since closed, and the community, rather than closing down, decided to turn the town into a tourist attraction. It was really worth the trip.
I personally like to visit museums, churches, and nature. Churches in Europe are always open, and it is beautiful to visit them. If you ever want to go up the Duomo in Florence, show up half an hour before it opens, and you'll likely be close to first in line. The first time I went up the Duomo, we were the only two on top of the world, as the couple behind us were elderly and much slower.
When you visit the Vatican, always purchase your tickets online. You can get tickets for both the art galleries and museums, as well as the gardens. There is a line that is literally one kilometer long that snakes around the outer walls, and people wait an hour or more to get in. With a ticket, you walk up the front of the line and are escorted in. You do have to bear some of the insults of those who have been waiting hours and are still waiting, as you walk past.
The security in the Vatican isn't what it used to be: John Paul II was giving his weekly address, and as the Bishop of Rome, that day, he was performing weddings. Gendarme at the north gate kept us out, so I noticed the South gate seemed empty, so we just walked around the colonnade and waltzed right into the Piazza San Pietro. What happened next was even more awkward. When the Pope left, the guards started herding us towards the cathedral. It was the most amazing experience, to see St. Peter's when it is completely empty. We just walked up and down the statues, and we found the Museo del Tesoro di San Pietro, or the Treasury Museum. It was beautiful, and we were the only ones walking through; however, when we finally got out, the cathedral was packed with people like sardines. There really wasn't any point in staying: we had already experienced the cathedral when it was empty, so it was pointless staying.
Other places we've visited: Iceland, Gdansk, England and Wales, Italy, Trinidad, but also Nova Scotia, Labrador, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland. The formula was often the same: find a place to stay around two o'clock. Our one destination that did not follow this approach was the Azores. More on this later.