On May 14, 2010 my friends Kyle & Evan were married in

Portugal.  How lucky am I to have wonderful friends who get

married in wonderful places?

When we arrived in Madrid, we were informed that the Porto

airport was closed, thanks to the Eyjafjallajökull volcano.  So

we were re-routed to Lisbon, but our luggage was not.  It

finally caught up with us a couple of days later.

Fortunately, there was a Modelo (i.e. Portugese Super

Walmart) near our villa, so we were able to stock up on

European undies and PJs while we waited.

We stayed in a beautiful villa outside of Ponte de Lima, in

the Minho region of Portugal.  On Tuesday, we went on a

wine tour in the Douro Valley region, and drank lots of port!

We spent Wednesday in Porto, Portugal's second largest

city.  It's a beautiful old city at the mouth of the Douro river

where port was traditionally exported to other countries.

There are a lot of port houses on the river, so we drank

more port!

In addtion to all the port, the Portugese people eat ham.

Lots and lots of ham.  They even sell proscuitto flavored

potato chips.  It's really too much ham.

If you just can't stomach another bite of ham, then there's

cod.  Pasteis de Bacalhau, which are sort of like cod and

potato hushpuppies, are served everywhere, and they are

delicious!  But, what happens if you get sick of cod?  Well,

there's ham.

The wedding was at Paco de Calheiros, the 17th century

family home of the Count of Calheiros <insert Sesame Street

Count joke here>.  It was truly stunning, with amazing views

of the Lima Valley.  Although the weather didn't fully

cooperate, Kyle and Evan were married on the steps of the

villa.  Kyle was gorgeous!  Afterwards, we had champagne

in one of the sitting rooms. and then it was on to dinner and

dancing.

Several of us were booked on a 7am flight out of Porto the

day after the wedding (not sure what we were thinking).

With the Porto aiport about 45 minutes away, we decided

that we'd just have to wait and sleep on the plane.  Happily,

the Porto airport has barcaloungers at the gate.  Seriously!

Why doesn't every airport do this?

Many, many hours later, and we were back in Atlanta, with

fabulous memories of the week in Portugal.  If you've ever

considered visiting Portugal, do it.  It is beautiful! The people

are very friendly, and it is really inexpensive for Europe.  Just

prepare yourself to eat a lot of ham : )