Viewed (and beautifully pictured by Briana) from the wrecked fortress on the hill over looking the town of Alcobaca, the Monestary is a well visited site housing the erie tombs (tombos) of King Pedro and (queen) Inez de Castro.

When Pedro was not yet king, he had a love affair and early marriage with a spanish noble lady, Inez de Castro. She was the lady in waiting for the woman intedned to be his wife and queen. After the secret marriage was discovered by the King, Pedro’s Father, He had Inez murdered.

Some time later, after Pedro had inhereted the kingdom of Portugal, he honoured his former wife by digging her fetid corpse free of the earth, enthroned her and saw her crowned as queen. To seal the status of his (late) bride, before she was reentombed, all members of the royal court were compelled to kis the decomposed hand of the dead queen.

The tombs face eachother across the trancepts of the monestary in Alcobaca as if to be together intombed in stone for eternity.

Sweet

Flickr Photo Download: Alcobaca

Blogged with Flock

So, one of the things about our time in Portugal was that we really missed our dog Wagner. Every time we saw another dog, it was “Ohh, there goes Wagner” before too long, all mammals were Wagners, then birds too…

Ok, that’s lame but it is true! We just couldn’t console ourselves. We had to take pictures of all the puppies we saw. Here is Sao Cao the Wagnerian spotted at the Holy Sanctuary near Obidos.

Wagner

Blogged with Flock

Briana and I are in Portugal and in Portugal it is not so common to have easy and reliabe access to internet. Result? Lots of funtastical stories with interesting photographs and no time to blog them.

While we are able to so far upload the contents of our SD cards to the Flickr website, so yawll can get a view of what we have been seeing. But if a photo is a thousand words, we would not have novels. Here is one funny story of our trip to posturise youself with:

So during the first half of our trip, on a visit to the medieval encastellated town of Obidos in the mid-coastal area of Portugal, I had recently become used to being an honoured master at the secrets of the manual transmission. (there is nothing like a nation of crazy, honking tailgaiting lunatics to advance your learning curve!). I had also, hovever, run over a screw or nail or porcupine or something else beause, to our shock and horror, we have a flat.

Ok, so no big deal, it is just a flat. I have had flats before and I spit in their general direction. This flat was ok, we pulled over, applied an almost full sized spare and checked out what to do next.

The spare said 80 kms on the side and I wanted the flat fixed so the rental company would not charge us a repair fee or something. I send Bree to the housewares store where we have parked to make the repair. She is to ask where the tire shop is. “Gulp. OK!” She gamefully embarks with her phrasebook in hand to the sooopermercado to find some direction while I finish up with the mal-auto.

Afortunado! The customer in line (no inglesh) knows a repair outfit (sooper-bom!) and so he hops on his dirt bike and we zip through the village roads following hin to a close-by rural mechanic.

Afortunado! His name is Carlos, he owns the shop and he has an eager to help mechanic fried (of advanced years, receding dental profile and remarkably usable english) named Roi. Carlos and Roi. Nossa Salvadores do Obidos. Sweet.

They hammer out the dent on the inside of the aluminum rim, pump the tire up, examine it, swap it to a trailing wheel rather than the leading ond and pose cheerfully fr a photo after I cheerfully give them 40 E’s for thier efforts and good spirits.

Fast Forward - Afortunado Nada: The next day of travel sees the Renault Clio at the side of the highway with the same tire flat. It seems Carlos and Roi had not really fixed anything but our delusions. We swap again to the spare and on the way to Nazare we find a tire shop. !200E’s! Original not repairable!

Afortunada. The spare is a normal tire is as good a a regular one and we use it on the rest of the trip. When we hand in the car in Lisbon, we learn that our E-Tailer car rental company has insured us against these problems and we will not be out of pocket. Carlos and Roi’s repair of the aluminum rim has saved us a greater expense and we are golden.

Thus concludes the story about Bree, Will, Carlos, Roi and the Clio and the case of the mysterious Afortunado.

Well it is that time folks. It is the morning of Wedding’s Eve and Bree and I are getting ready to leave our home for the last time as maid and esquire to alight upon the world, to be transformed by the eternal and ancient magics of community, commitment and togetherness, and to emerge as a whole; a stronger compact.

As it were we will become likened unto an alloy, whose combining produces a metal far stronger than the original materials.Like an alloy we will forge our individual strengths in the flame of our love and shape them with the anvil of our commitment to each other. truly, such a strength will be produced so as to withstand the test of time and the corrosive effects of adversity.

So we won’t be around here for a few spaces. I might get Joc to guest Blog for a bit. Thanks for the opportunity to use all the boy similes.

Flickr Photo Download: Posing with ‘Steve’

It is possible that at the time I write this post, His wife does not yet know the fate of her husband.

I recently blogged about the death of “Harriet” the Galapagos Turtle in the Australia (S.Irwin owned) Zoo near Brisbane. Now, it seems, her master has also been brought home.

My Canadian/Australian family have had a lot of fun at Mr. Irwins’s expense (while loving every minute of it and buying Steve Irwin action dolls.) but in realty, his nutty behaviour was in part to raise awareness for the critters of the world. His Mega Zoo benefited too of course. In a way he is like the Jaques Cousteau of his generation. I will miss him. Crikey! What a riort.

He was killed in a freak accident in Cairns, police sources said.

It appeared that he was killed by a sting-ray barb that went through his chest, Queensland Police Inspector Russell Rhodes said.

He was swimming off the Low Isles at Port Douglas filming an underwater documentary and that’s when it occurred.

WORLD EXCLUSIVE by reporters from The Courier-Mail, Brisbane

September 04, 2006 01:56pm

Steve Irwin dead | The Courier-Mail

Another awesome stop on our Lisbonical vacation!

Google Image Result for http://urban.csuohio.edu/~sanda/pic/travel/portugal/nazare/nazare70219.jpg

One Week! Bree and Mee are getin’ hitched and flying to Portugal. Obidos is one of the locations we will visit.

Obidos02c.jpg (JPEG Image, 902×592 pixels)

Super props for my sister, her husband, son and neighbours for throwing a Canada Day celebration at their home near Brisbane Australia. The Candihoovians were from Manitoba and British Columbia and everyone dressed in their maple leaf best as they partook in a Sausage Sizzle on the BBQ.

Happy Canada Day!

During the Victoria long weekend in May Briana, Myself, my father and my son Solomon went on a short overnight boat trip from LaConnor to Hope Island. Hope Island is ridiculously close to La Connor, where we started and where my parents reside. Close as it was, it soon became the abode of trolls and pirate treasure.

I think the exploration of this little island (where incredibly, we got lost) was the highlight of the trip for litte Solomon. For me, it was wonderful to spend time with my Dad, Bree and Sol in a “magical” place. Pop is in St. Petersburg Russia right now learning to be a tortured artist. I hear he is feeling a little isolated. I am sure he is having a great time despite that but we miss him too.