Portugal and Paris Olympics

Saturday August 3, 2024 Olympic Trivia On its journey from Greece to the host country, the torch has flown in planes, traveled under water (and stayed lit), scaled Mt Everest, gone on a canoe, and ridden on horseback and camelback. The Olympic five ring symbol represents the five inhabited continents- Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Oceania. The official languages of the Olympics are English and French. At the events this year, besides the flags of the countries parti

Thursday August 1, 2024 Olympic Trivia The Olympic Motto is Faster, Higher, Stronger - Together. Six athletes have medaled in both the summer and winter Olympics. The first Paralympics was in 1960, to allow war veterans a chance to compete. Olympic Culture and Sportsmanship, Deuxieme Partir (part two) Yesterday's blog discussed the culture of valuing good play and being positive at the Olympics while observing an event. Well, today's Volleyball game took the level of enthusi

Wednesday July 31, 2024 Update on Azja Czajkowski - Remember Azja? We told you about how we went to watch her in the Women's Pairs rowing event and they qualified for the semi-finals. Well, we have an exciting update - today, Azja and her partner qualified for the finals!! Go Azja and Team USA! Our tickets for today are for Men's Gymnastics All-Around competition. The event doesn't start until 5:30 p.m., so we had time this morning to relax and do some shopping. We wand

Tuesday July 30, 2024 The winning "Try" by Alex Sedrick. Olympic Trivia Tarzan competed in the Olympics! Johnny Weissmuller, the actor who played Tarzan in the original movie, won 5 Gold Medals during the 1924 and 1928 Summer Olympics. Four were for swimming, and 1 for Water Polo. A few Olympic sports that are no longer part of the Modern Olympics are Hot Air Ballooning, Dueling Pistols (sounds dangerous!), Tug-of-War, and Pigeon Shooting (sounds dangerous for the pigeons!)

Monday July 29, 2024 Olympic Trivia The first Olympic games were held in 776 BC and took 6 months to complete The original sports were wrestling, boxing, long-jump, javelin, discus, and chariot racing. Each of the Olympic Medals this year include a piece of the original iron from the Eiffel Tower. Getting Around in Paris We have been very impressed by how easy it has been to find our way to the venues (and back) in Paris. The City and the Olympic Organizers have done a fabul

Sunday July 28, 2024 We finally made it to Paris on Saturday after an unexpected delay getting there from Porto, Portugal. Our first challenge was getting to our friend Nicolle’s apartment from the airport. Since prices for cars and ride shares had skyrocketed, Nicolle gave us directions for using public transportation to get to her place. And I am proud to say we successfully navigated that “game." A bus, a metro ride, and a short walk; and, we didn’t get lost. Score 1 for

Thursday July 25, 2024 Images from Porto We walked across the Ponte de Dom Luis I bridge to the city of Porto and visited some landmarks...

Tuesday July 23, 2024 Animals are part of every village, and seem to have freedom to roam around. Today we saw these cute little kittens outside the bakery, and the two dogs on the street. Dogs sleeping in the shade in the afternoon are called Siesta dogs in Portugal. So, I guess we have our own Siesta dogs! Elphie, Dixie and Bailey Before we share our experiences from today we want to thank our tour guide Mariana. Viking made the excellent decision to have the tour guides s

Sunday and Monday July 21 and 22, 2024 Sunday we took a trip to Castelo Rodrigo in the hills above the Douro river in Portugal. And...

Saturday July 20, 2024 Quick note - If you were interested in the story of the bats in the library that was in yesterday's blog, I posted...

Friday, July 19, 2024 To start today's blog, here is a beautiful picture Karen took yesterday evening in Lisbon. One of the charming things about Portugal is the pride people take in their way of life. They love their food and drinks, gathering places, and language. And their enthusiasm is contagious. On this drive to Porto we learned a lot about life in Portugal from our guide. Portugal is the oldest country in Europe, they are a leader in renewable energy, and there are

Thursday July 18, 2024 Our hotel and Breakfast Buffet. The Corinthian Hotel in Lisbon is a beautiful hotel with nice outdoor areas and several restaurants. The breakfast buffet, which was part of our Viking Cruise package, was one of the nicest we have ever seen! And the food was very good, especially the pastries. Tour of the city - highlights: Jerónimos Monastery - UNESCO World Heritage Site The Monastery The entrance to the church at the Jerónimos Monastery. Beautiful a

Wednesday July 17, 2024 We arrived in Lisbon around 9:00 a.m. this morning, tired and a little jet lagged. Fortunately going through...