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A Sagres In Sagres
In Portugal you’re either a Sagres fan or a Super Bock one. But there’s no town called Super Bock. So, regardless of your heart’s affiliation (because there’s no accounting for any major taste difference), it seems a fitting rite of passage to raise a glass of Sagres in Sagres. We camped our way to the…
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An Oasis Of Calm
Even in the midst of major upheaval, my favorite hotel in the world cocooned us in its nearly transparent embrace. You’d never know the traffic howled outside on Bras Basah Road, the construction whirring behind scaffolding on the hotel itself—and the chaos we felt in our lives—as we checked into the Raffles in Singapore last…
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My First Punk
We wheeled up the high street from the car park, and into the little lodge in a nondescript town north of London—not quite Cambridge but nearly there. We stashed our bags upstairs after the proprietor/barman showed us the secret door to the lodgings. The pub on the street felt bright and airy—a cheerful place to…
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Boas Festas de Sagres
The month of August in Portugal means a circuit of the festas that make the rounds of the towns that surround us. The carnies who set up the arching lights and bumper cars live near Mucifal—I found their off-season lair once on a run—and starting in Azenhas do Mar they continue through Janas to Almoçageme…
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Cheapest Happy Hour In Cascais
Oh that first August in Portugal, how I worked hard to save euros. I had savings enough, but not knowing when my next paid gig would come, I fretted a lot. But the weather shined upon us, even if opportunities seemed to bubble up and pop. So we took long walks in the park, finding…
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Summertime In Iowa
It’s been a funny summertime everywhere, it seems: record heat in the UK, cool temps in Portugal but hot as blazes elsewhere in Europe. But here in the Midwest, we’ve had a gorgeous run of fair weather, first up at Oshkosh for Airventure, and now back on the farm in Iowa. I recall growing up…
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Spotted Cow Sighting
A few years back, I had the joy of working with the Cessna sales and marketing team, and one of our favorite occasions had to be the week we’d spend at EAA’s Airventure at Oshkosh in Wisconsin every summer. Our leader of the piston troop, while normally a vodka guy, made an exception for beer…
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Curds & Root Beer
When you bite into a cheese curd, the sound may remind you of chewing styrofoam—not that you’ve done that since you were a kid, right? Still, this fact shouldn’t keep you from enjoying one of summer’s greatest snacks. But that curd (a cheddar-based concoction native to Wisconsin, as far as I can tell) evokes a…
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Waiting For The Ferry
It’s July, and seemingly everyone in Europe has decamped to the beach. Used to be that folks took off for August, but these days people tend to stagger things a bit, so offices can keep a nominal schedule, and restaurants stay open a few more days. Still, the masses concentrate on a handful of beaches—in…
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Ericeira, Mais 351
We pass by doors that frame what must have been fishermen’s cottages, back when Ericeira, Portugal, was the town of pescadores, not surfistas. Now the main praça on a Friday afternoon is lined with stalls, the keepers of which sell knick-knacks. Around every corner lies a board shop, or a café selling vageuly Portuguese favorites…