Leaving On A Jet Plane…

My bags are packed
I’m ready to go

I’m really not ready to leave Lisbon Portugal, to end my trip sponsored by Enoforum Wines. But then, I love to travel, I love new roads. I love the castles, the countryside, the coast, the history, the rolling cork oak covered hillsides of the Alentejo, the historic buildings at Belem in Lisboa like this tower which was originally out in the water, protecting the people from invaders from the sea.

I love Portugal. These explorers are my people–they are the earliest Art Predators!

My trip here to Portugal has been an amazing experience. I had absolutely no idea what to expect last month when I wrote a 200 word essay about why I wanted to come here. I didn’t know the first thing about Portuguese wine and cuisine. I just knew it sounded like a great adventure and I wanted to go!

As I work on getting packed, enjoying some 1995 Justino’s Madeira from Colheita (think orange essence and so much more that I just wish I could talk about!), I am having a hard time. Since I bought a new suitcase, everything fits. Except what doesn’t: ever try to get a castle in suitcase? I have closed bottles of wine too but I’ve already dropped one and haven’t yet found to buy two Alentejo liquors, one of cork acorns and the other of a plant from the mint family. I am trying to write why and realize I just need to do a whole post on each.

And now it’s time to head back to Southern California. I am filled with such abundance, an abundance that comes not just from the experience of being hosted so well by Enoforum Wines but by the Portuguese people everywhere we went. They are so willing to share what they know. No question is too small, to impertinent, too persistent. They offer heart-felt gracious hospitality.

I don’t know where that lesson about abundance will take me next, the abundance of heart I learned here in Portugal, but I do know I have an ArtRide to go on tomorrow which meets at 530pm near the gallery of the San Buenaventura Artists Union, a Biker’s Ball to do tomorrow night at Bell Arts from 730-10pm with music by the Sideshow Preachers, and a small boy who has his last soccer game on Saturday and birthday #6 in a few days. No Rioja for me this time. The Wine Academy of Spain will have to make do without the Art Predator this year.

There is so much more for me to do here. And much more to say. I have spent all day and all week and then some learning about this region, the history, the cuisine, the wine. Honestly, I’m not sure when and how I will get those posts together for you, to share with you more stories and more images, more reflections. Once the trip is over, I will be entrenched again in my life as a mom, an environmental activist, a college teacher, and yes, a wine blogger. But a wine blogger who has developed a new level of experience, confidence and expertise.

Speaking of being a wine blogger: What is the prompt for this month’s Wine Blogging Wednesday anyway? How about wines from the Alentejo region of Portugal? And could I host it?

Distractions, distractions. Lisbon, I’ll be back! And next time, I will go for MANY bike rides–like one on the new route pictured along the waterfront around Belem!