August 30 – 31, 2021

We flew from Malta to Rome to visit several cities in Italy.

We drove our little piece of junk rental car from our Airbnb to the Malta airport without too much hassle. We did not add any new dents or scratches to the existing ones, which was a very good thing.

We landed in Rome and Andrea received a text from the car rental agency saying that we were late for our pickup time. Luckily, the agent was very nice and kept our car for us, unlike the jerk in Malta that gave our car away. In the future, we really need to factor in time changes with flights when we make these car rental reservations.

We got a nice little car with minimal scratches and headed north to Pisa. Of course, we wanted to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa. We had booked a nice little Airbnb apartment about 20 minutes from Pisa near the town of Firenze, Italy. We got the top floor “mother in law” apartment over the owner’s house. It was quite comfortable with a nice little garden in front. Kind of amusing was the fact that the real life mother in law lived in the house next door, not in our apartment.

We got settled in for the night and went out the next day to visit Pisa and it’s amazing Leaning Tower.

As usual, parking was a bit of an issue around the Tower. The stupid GPS sent us into a hospital parking lot, located right next to the Tower and Pisa Cathedral. The security guard just shook his head and opened up the gate so we could get out. Probably does that 100 times a day.

We found public parking a few blocks away and strolled through the vendors stands outside the walls of the Tower and Cathedral complex to finally see the Leaning Tower of Pisa. For me this was quite exciting. This is something I have been reading about since grade school. It was another one of the marvels of the world that we have been seeing in our travels the past couple of years.

We had tried to get tickets to get into the Leaning Tower earlier in the day, but they were sold out. So, today we just wandered around the grounds and then went to visit another leaning tower and the Roman baths. We also looked for a couple of geocaches in the area.

Interestingly enough, the Leaning Tower of Pisa is not the only leaning tower in the area. Actually there are 4 towers with a significant lean to them. We walked over to

the Campanile of San Nicola a few blocks away. It doesn’t have the high degree of lean the Pisa Tower does, but it is still quite noticeable.

Next was the Roman baths. These were kind of interesting. They are thermal baths that are about 2,000 years old, named the Termi de Nerone, built during the reign of the Roman Emperor Demitianus. The building that remains was the sweat room and the remaining exterior walls were part of the thermal complex.

The next day we returned to Pisa complete with tickets for entry to the Leaning Tower and the Cathedral. Only one member of the Goodell household decided to climb the 256 steps to the top of the Tower. Guess who.

So, my time to climb the Tower was 9am, first spot of the day. We got there early and while Andrea wandered around, I got in line. The guards showed up a few minutes late, no big deal. I have my mask on, my ticket, and get ready to full fill a life long ambition to climb the Tower. The guard checks my ticket, fine. I have my mask, fine. Then she asked me for my Covid test card. What??? No where does it say I have to have my Covid card. Not online when I bought the ticket, not at the entrance, no where. She is very adamant. I am not getting in without my Covid card. So, we hike back to the car, about 6 blocks, get the Covid cards and return to the Tower. Now it’s past my entry time. I am hoping she doesn’t bounce me because now I am late. Luckily she remembered me and I get in. Let’s just say I was a bit annoyed.

Then, the next guard gives me a social distance meter. I have never seen one of these before. It beeps and warns you if you get within 6 feet of someone else. Now, you get close to people coming up and down the stairs and when you are passing each other on the top floors. You just do the best you can to avoid people. At least the guards don’t throw you off the Tower if you get too close to someone.

After climbing the Tower, we had to go to their ticket office to turn in our online tickets to get real tickets to get into the Pisa Cathedral. At the office there were signs that told you the Covid cards (or Green Pass for the EU folks) were required. But, no where else. I don’t mind showing the card, in fact I agree with the requirement. But for pities sake, let us know about it before you make life really difficult for your tourists. Oh well, traveling in the pandemic. What a pain!

The Pisa Cathedral is interesting. As I have mentioned before; you’ve seen one gorgeous medieval Catholic Cathedral, you’ve seen them all. The artwork was incredible. Of course the architecture was amazing also.

After spending time in the Pisa Cathedral it was time to jump into the car and head for Pompeii and Mt. Vesuvius. A nice 6 hour drive straight south through Rome again.

August 24 – 28, 2021

As mentioned before, Malta has been occupied for over 10,000 years by various groups of settlers and invaders. The result is some very fantastic archeological sites. One of more interesting sites is the catacombs of St. Paul. These catacombs were in use from 300 to 800 BC and then used again in the 1300’s. The catacombs are intertwined over a 20 acre area. There are about 20 sites open to the public. The museum features a glass floor over one of the tombs, including the skeletal remains.

After crawling around the dark, creepy, passage ways, looking for ghosts, we decided to go to Gozo Island. Gozo Island is just off the coast of Malta and only accessible by ferry (or helicopter or spaceship, if you happen to have either one). The island is only 25 square miles in size and has about 32,000 inhabitants. It features some really great buildings and churches and the world’s oldest standing structure. The Neolithic Ġgantija Temple ruins are older than the pyramids and date back to 3,500 BC, which makes it about 5,600 years old. This is about 1,000 older than the pyramids and the sphinx in Egypt.

The Ggantija Temple is classified as the oldest man made structure in the world. Not the oldest temple or structure, such as a wall. So, it has a bit of a niche in the “oldest in the world” competition, but it is still fascinating.

We took the ferry over from Malta to Gozo. This is a pretty large ferry that can handle well over 100 cars and trucks. It is about a 20 minute ride and kind of fun. You see the other boats coming and going and some of the other Maltese archipelago (series of islands). It costs 15.70 euros, round trip. If you time the departures correctly, you only have to wait 15 – 20 minutes to get loaded and get underway.

Once we disembarked from the ferry we drove around a bit to explore the island. It is full of narrow, twisty roads, not unexpected, and lots and lots of old great buildings and churches.

We even went searching for a couple of Geocaches. We found one out of two. One of them featured a very unique picture spot consisting of a huge picture frame to outline your picture.

The town of Gozo is a typical small European town, however, the age of the buildings is just amazing.

We then made our way over to the Ggantija Temples. These are the oldest man made free standing structures on earth. Free standing is defined as walls built up for an enclosed space such as a house or temple, that then has a roof installed. The Ggantija Temples no longer have their roofs, but the structures themselves are amazingly intact after 5,600 years.

After the Ggantija Temples, it was time to get the ferry and head back to Malta. On the ferry trip back we saw a very enterprising fisherman trying out his luck with a hand line. Never did see him catch anything though.

August 24 -29, 2021

One of the great things to do in Malta is scuba dive. The island is surrounded by reefs, ship wrecks, beautiful fish, and many natural wonders. Malta is kind of unusual in that you can do a lot of these dives directly from the shore. Most dive sites require a boat to go out into the water, find the spot, anchor up, and go diving. Malta has most of their dive sites accessible by just going in on the beach, or down a ladder into the water, or over the rocks to wade into the water.

I found the Malta Diving Center completely by accident when Andrea and I went exploring down by the harbor on our first day in Malta. I went in and discovered they had quite an excellent shop and dive operation. I booked 2 wreck dives and full rental equipment for Thursday, a couple of days after we first got to Malta. As the Malta Diving Center is a PADI certified shop, they even had my Open Water and Advanced Diving certificates in their computer data base. I put down a deposit and told them I would see them Thursday, which I did. The shop was only about 5 blocks from our Airbnb, so it was a simple walk to get there in the morning.

As most of their dives are shore dives; this dive shop does not even own a boat. They use vans to transport their divers to the various dive sites around the island. When they do book an off shore dive, they partner up with another dive shop and share space on their dive boat.

So, 8:30am on Thursday I headed down to the shop. I met Kora, our divemaster, got my gear, met my dive buddies, and proceeded to our first dive site.

Interestingly enough, we headed out to Valleta for our first dive. Yesterday, we went to Valleta and did a park and ride to get into town. While wandering around we saw there is virtually no parking in the city. However, Kora took us directly to a secret parking spot only known to the locals. It was hidden behind one of the city walls, around the corner from the harbor.

Our first dive was on the wreck of the HMS Maori. This was a WW II destroyer that was bombed by the Germans and sunk off the coast of Malta in the Grand Harbor in 1942. In 1945 the wreck was raised and relocated outside of the main channel and harbor just a few hundred feet from shore in about 45 feet of water.

The visibility was not very good, only about 40 – 50 feet due to the muddy bottom of the harbor. It was still very cool to see the big wreck just laying there, waiting to be explored.

Our second dive was off Manoel Island in a private yacht basin. Kora had to finagle the entry gate to get us in, which she has done many times. This time we were diving the X127. This vessel was a British water lighter, a troop transport, that was sunk in 1942. There was a very impressive hole blown in the side of the vessel. Looks like it hit a mine.

Again, the water visibility was not very good, only about 40 – 50 feet. But, the wreck was was really interesting.

After the dives we went back to the dive shop, helped rinse out the gear, and got a celebratory beer. But the day was not finished.

I met Andrea down by the beach and we had some lunch and drinks.

We then headed out to the City of Mdina. This tiny city used to be the capital of Malta from 218 BC until 1530 when Valleta became the capital. The city only has 300 inhabitants now. Cars are not allowed in unless you are a resident or on official business. The city sits on top of a hill and is completely surrounded by a city wall and what used to be a moat.

Time to head back to the Airbnb for dinner, once Andrea bailed me out!

August 24 – 29, 2021

After we left Salamaca, Spain we drove to Madrid and flew to Malta the next day. Neither Andrea nor I have ever been to this little island country. Yipee, another country for our countries visited lists!

Malta is located about 50 miles south of Sicily in the Mediterranean Ocean. It is 122 square miles and has a population of about 515,000 people. Malta has been inhabited since 5,900 BC and been overrun by everyone from the Greeks, to the Romans, to the Arabs, to the Normans, to the English. It has its’ own national language but, has English as it’s official second language, so we had no communication issues while on the island.

We had a smooth 2.5 hour flight from Madrid to Malta. We landed and headed to our rental car company to pick up our car. However, once we got to the rental office, they informed us that they had given away our car. We were a little late getting to the office, but I am certain that they never had our reservation in the first place. While sitting in the office the rental agent kept going through his stack of car reservations for the day. He never found ours. I handed him our online reservation confirmation, then all of a sudden he informed us that our reservation had been cancelled as we were late. Yeah, right. Anyway, we went to the office next to his and got another car. It costs more, but what the heck. Life on the road.

Now, out of the airport to try to find our Airbnb apartment. Not such an easy task. We had imagined Malta to be like Aruba. Quaint beaches and small little towns scattered over the island. Wrong. Malta is very heavily developed. Huge buildings, apartment complexes and businesses all over the island. The issue is, all of these buildings have been developed around roads that have been on the island for hundreds of years. So, lots and lots of roundabouts. Lots and lots of tiny twisty roads all over. Driving on Malta is like driving in a maze. Oh yeah, did I mention it is English drive? Yeah, driving on the wrong side of the road. Oh joy.

We finally found our apartment, just a few blocks from a marina and the ocean.

While the majority of Malta is a vast sprawl of metropolitan buildings, there are several historical areas and even some open farmland. One of the primary historical areas is the City of Valleta. Valleta is the capital of Malta and was established by Grandmaster Jean Parisot de Valette, who founded the city in 1566.

We continued to walk around the city and saw some great views of the marina and the surrounding city-islands.

After some walking around, time for a break!

We walked over to the hilltop by the marina and got really lucky. Every day at noon the cannon batteries around Valleta fire. There is quite an impressive ceremony associated with the firing which culminates in a resounding BOOM!

After the Big Bang, we took a Trolley Tour of Valleta and then a ferry over to the 3 cities of Malta. The 3 cities are located on 3 small islands across the bay from Valleta. While you could get there by car, it is much more fun to take a boat over and wander around a bit.

Overall, a very fun day in Valleta. The only issue was the park and ride lot we parked the car in. Turns out we were in a city bus maintenance lot and not the tourist park and ride lot. Luckily we found a very patient taxi driver who finally got us to the right lot after a couple of tries. Then it was a 40 minute drive through the Malta Maze to get back to our apartment. We made it though, with several wrong turns along the way. I blame the GPS. Couldn’t be my fault, right?

August 21 – 22, 2021

After Cabenelas, Portugal we headed east to the University Town of Salamanca, Spain. Andrea and I have been here before, about 6 years ago, as part of a Viking River Tour of the River Douro out of Porto, Portugal. It is a fascinating town full of history and incredible old buildings.

The University of Salamanca was founded in 1218. It is the oldest university in Spain and the 3rd oldest university in the western world. Salamanca has about 150,000 people. The City of Salamanca started off as a Roman fort about 300 BC. It was overrun by Hannibal in 283 BC but has continued to survive for the next 2,200 years.

The old buildings and architecture are absolutely amazing. You can just feel the history oozing out of the buildings as you wander around. One of the primary points of interest is the Plaza Mayor in the center of town. Construction on this plaza started in 1729 and finished in 1755. It was originally used for bull fighting. This continued up until the middle of the 19th century. A very macabre fact about the Plaza Mayor is that it was used as an execution site during the Spanish inquisition of the 1700’s. Thousands of “heretics” died through various methods with the general population in attendance for them all.

Today the Plaza Mayor is full of great restaurants, shops, and the constant throngs of tourists walking through the plaza. Each arch in the plaza has a face engraved that is a walk through Spanish history. The faces feature former kings, explorers, and other people of merit. Christopher Columbus has his own Plaza Colon and statue a short distance away from the Plaza Mayor.

Salamanca is full of incredibly interesting and important history for Spain and its’ surrounding countries. Once such fascinating fact is the Camino De Santiago. This is a 465 kilometer pilgrimage route stretching from the eastern coast of Spain to the ultimate destination of Santiago de Compostela in the upper north western corner of Spain. The path is marked by very distinctive shell designs imbedded into the roads along the way. The pilgrims are heading for the tomb of the Apostle James, located in the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, in Northeastern Portugal.

The University of Salamanca and the Old and New Cathedrals provide the most important historical buildings in the city. The architecture and building ornaments are just fabulous.

One legend regarding the university is the frog on the skull on the front of the entrance of the university. Freshmen students try to find the frog, not an easy task. If they find it they are supposed to have good luck in school.

Also, the cathedrals undergo renovations and even new art work over the years. Recent additions to the New Cathedral are a spaceman, a dragon with an ice cream cone, and a stork.

Other sights in Salamanca include the Roman Bridge, other churches, and statues of Vicente de Bosque and Christopher Columbus.

At the head of the Roman Bridge is a statue of a pig (although some accounts say it is a bear). The statue has been on the bridge since the 12th century. It had some problems with the mayor of Salamanca in 1834, mistakenly believing it had been put there by King Charles I of Spain, he had it thrown into the river. It was later retrieved and placed in several museums until being returned to its’ rightful place in 1954.

We really enjoyed our time in Salamanca. Now its’ time to go to Madrid to fly to Malta. Should be fun!!

August 18 – 20, 2021

After our time in Tomar we headed North East to the town of Cabenelas. This is a very small town in the mountains near Arouca, Portugal. Cabenelas has about 2,000 people, all stuck on the side of the mountains along some very narrow and twisty roads.

We stayed in a very nice Airbnb run by Luis, a third generation owner of the building. His parents live in the main house and have a small orchard and gardens. Luis and his family live in town. He comes up the mountain every day after his day job to help his 80 something year old parents with the crops as he checks in on the Airbnb.

We got a very nice tour with Luis of his family’s grounds and orchards.

Cabenelas is a very nice little town with not much to do. This is exactly what we wanted to see in our exploration of the various areas of Portugal. We found that this town, though lovely, is way too quiet and remote for our tastes.

We did find a very interesting Geo Park outside the town of Arouca about 15 kilometers away. The Geo Park has the unique distinction of being the only place on earth, no kidding, where stones give birth to other stones. It is called Pedras Parideiras. The process is a geological phenomena called the nodular granite of Castenheira. The granite has pockets covered by a substance called biotite. Underneath this biotite are small, flat, rocks made of quartz and other minerals. Over time, the wind and rain water erode the biotite, exposing the rocks underneath. You can easily see the pockets in the granite as you walk around and through the granite fields. This area is about 1,000 meters long and 600 meters wide. Andrea actually found one of the quartz rocks that must have just broken loose from its’ base. We compared it to verified rocks in the museum and it matched perfectly. Don’t tell the staff we found and kept one.

We had a nice, relaxing couple of days in Cabenelas. Time to head east, towards Salmanca, Spain.

August 15 – 18, 2021

The next day after visiting the Knights Templar Castle, we set off to explore the area around Tomar. Of particular interest to us was the Convent of Christ Aquaduct. King Phillip I of Portugal, who was also King Phillip II of Spain, ordered the construction of an aquaduct from the mountains above Tomar, and more specifically the Convent of Christ. He wanted more water available to irrigate the Seven Mountains agricultural areas. The aquaduct system was completed in 1619 and consists of 180 arches over a 6 kilometer length. Large sections of the aquaduct still exist and portions can be seen through out Tomar to this day.

We drove into the hills, about 5 kilometers, to see the largest surviving section of the aquaduct.

After this very interesting visit to a great piece of history, we drove back into Tomar and walked the streets over to the Gothic Church. Along the way we met a couple of interesting old guys.

We continued to walk about town and found the Mata Nacional dos Sete Montes which is a great botanical garden in the shadow of the Knights Templar Castle. Not the best garden we have ever seen, but it is interesting and fairly well maintained.

Outside of the park was a very nice statue of Henry the Navigator. Henry was born in 1394 as the third son of the king of Portugal, King John I. Henry became an explorer, focusing on the coast of Africa, which at the time was largely unknown to Europeans. He also helped develop smaller, faster, ships for the Portuguese navy.

We continued to walk over the bridge to the east side of town to find the Gothic Church, officially known as the Church of Santa Maria do Olival. This church was built in the second half of the 12th century by Gualdim Pais, founder of the Knights Templar. The highlight of the church is the Rose Stained Glass window in the western wall of the church.

We really like Tomar. Should we decide to do the Portuguese Pensioner program and move over here to live, it will most probably be in the Tomar area.

August 15 – 18, 2021

We decided to visit Tomar primarily because of the history of the Knights Templar. Who is not fascinated by the history of this soldier/religious order? The fact that they amassed a gigantic fortune through their conquests just adds fuel to the fire.

However, Tomar has some other unique and interesting sites to be seen. One of them is the Museum of Matches (Meseu dós Fosforos) located in the courtyard of the Convent of Saint Francis (Convento de São Francisco). This very unique collection consists of about 43,000 match book covers, collected over many years, starting in 1953. They represent 127 countries with pictures depicting everything from sports figures, to cigarette brands, and even the risqué covers from the early 1900’s. They are loosely organized by country, with subdivisions for specific subjects. Most of them are mini works of art.

We took a little stroll around town before heading up to the castle. We found some more interesting sights in this endearing historical setting.

Along the way, we checked out several possible places to live, whether we bought them or rented them. It seems that we both really like Tomar and will probably make this our base should our plans to become residents work out.

Now, time for the castle. I wanted to walk up the big mountain (not really) but Andrea wisely suggested that we just drive up. Good choice. Our little rental car barely made it up the hill. I don’t think we would have.

Wandering around the castle grounds, you could almost feel the energy of the Knights Templar from so many years ago.

We didn’t find any lost Templar treasure, but we came away with an almost mystical sense of their history.

August 15 – 18, 2021

After the Algarve region, we went to the City of Tomar, Portugal. Tomar is close the the Silver Coast of Portugal, but about 50 kilometers inland. For you history buffs, know that Tomar is the city where the Knights Templar were headquartered in 1160 by Gualdim Pais. In 1160 he founded Tomar and then began the construction of the Castle of the Knights Templar, where they managed their legacy for hundreds of years. Yes, these are the Knights Templar that fought in the Crusades, amassed an incredible fortune, and had the Knight guarding the Holy Grail in the Indiana Jones movie, The Last Crusade.

In the 1306 King Phillipe of France owed them a tremendous amount of money. He then fabricated charges against the order, hunted most of them down and had them executed for “crimes against the king”. Their treasures were then lost to history. However, their castle and the adjoining Covent of Christ still exist to this day in Tomar, Portugal.

We had decided to go to Tomar as an alternative to the beachside towns we had been exploring for the last week or so. Tomar is inland and in a more mountainous area. Obviously the appeal of exploring the Knights Templar history was enticing also. To make our stay even a bit more interesting, we stayed at an Airbnb called the Central Family Palace. This is a building that is not quite a palace, but definitely is a mansion. The current owner’s son runs the place. He is the 8th generation to live and work in the home. His entire family lives in the house in various wings and floors. We stayed in one of the 9 guest rooms that they rent out. As in most of these old historic places that are still owned by the original family, money is tight and they do whatever they can to make ends meet. It is not easy to maintain 52 rooms and the grounds associated with it. We stayed in the Lord’s Room. Their story is that D. Fernando, King of Portugal stayed in this room for 3 nights in 1848. I don’t know if this is true, but I am willing to believe them enough to say that we stayed where true royalty had slept, not just my Queen Andrea.

Here is our room, where royalty has slept!

After getting settle into our Royal Chambers, we set out to explore the town a bit. We found Tomar to be extremely charming and full of nature and history.

We wandered about the city streets and found quaint streets full of restaurants, shops, unusual sculptures, and a great park in the middle of town.

Time to head back to town, grab some dinner, and call it a night.

August 12 – 14, 2021

After our time in Sintra and the Silver Coast of Portugal, it was time to head south. The primary resort/expat area of the country is the Algarve region. This region consists of many towns along the 96 mile coast line on the Atlantic Ocean. The western side of Algarve with the town of Lagos is the high end side. It is very highly developed with expats and native Portuguese alike buying property to either live there, or rent out to the thousands of tourists that come every year. The primary season runs from May to October.

The eastern side of the Algarve ends with Fuseta and Tavira, only about 20 kilometers from the Spanish border. While the beaches are are just as nice as the Lagos area, this area is much more authentic to the Portuguese lifestyle. There are still tourists and expats, but imagine this area as Key West and the Lagos area as Miami Beach. Something to offer for everyone in this beautiful part of Portugal.

We spent a lot of time in Algarve looking a property. As this is the main expat area, we wanted to see what everyone was so enthused about. We found the beaches and towns to be very nice. The people, natives and tourists/expats a like were all very friendly. So we spent 3 days looking possible places to buy and maybe settle if we committed to becoming Portuguese residents.

As an option to buying a place right away, we also looking into renting an apartment or a house on an annual basis. We discovered very quickly that this was virtually impossible in the Algarve area. The owners of these units make so much money during the May to October season, that they do not want to tie up their units in annual rentals. As property owners ourselves, we certainly understand this business concept. Why rent a unit for a year for just a little more than you can make in 6 months?

We saw some beautiful condos and homes and even a very quaint Bed & Breakfast called the Sleeping Beauty in a little town called Monchique just about 25 kilometers north of Lagos in the Algarve region.

After exploring the town of Lagos and the surrounding area, we headed east the next day. We wanted to see what Fuseta and Tavira had to offer. They were a very different town than the upscale Lagos area we had been in for 2 days. Fuseta is a still functioning fishing village complete with docks and working fishermen all over the place. It is also known for kite surfing, due to the regular windy conditions it has. It also has a great beach area. As I mentioned before; imagine going from sculptured, upscale Miami Beach to funky Key West. It pretty much sums up the difference in the areas.

We enjoyed our time in the Algarve area, but found that it was not for us. Number one, it is really expensive there. Everything we looked at was really nice, but out of our price range. Second, the Lagos area was too developed and the Fuseta area was too funky and dirty. Time to drive north and visit the City of Tomar in central Portual.