Robert

portugal: how to eat bone-in fish

04 June 201521 December 2021
food & wine, portugal

Portugal, sardinhas assadas, grelhadas, before, after, antes, depois

For years I joked about making a video on how to eat grilled fish with the bone in… now that I’m guiding groups for Rick Steves in Portugal, I’ve been convinced to do one. This example demonstrates sardinhas assadas or grelhadas which are a Portuguese staple, in season from the end of May to the end of October. Make no mistake; these are fresh, not canned. And because their season coincides with summer as well as Lisboa’s biggest party —the feast day of Santo António— just the smell of these yummy fish on the grill conjures up all kinds of great memories.

19 April 2015
architecture, lisboa, portugal

Portugal, Lisboa, Lisbon, Baixa, galerias romanas, cryptoportico

After years of visiting Lisboa, at long last I’ve been able to see what I consider one of the city’s holy grail sites: Roman galleries buried beneath the modern downtown district. They are difficult to visit because since the 1980s, the city government only opens them once or twice each year. I still remember them being open for one day only, & either I was too exhausted from doing tours to visit or just not in town. As of this post, the galleries are now open twice per year for three consecutive days during mid-April & the end of September. Nevertheless, lines are long & on-line reservations go quickly. Be prepared!

2015, Rick Steves, guidebook research, schedule, Andalucía, Spain

Ever wonder what it’s like to update a travel guidebook? After writing about last year’s Portugal research, I thought I’d do the same this year during a whirlwind 3 weeks through southern Spain. Compiled below are the brief, daily Facebook updates I posted while on the road. Let’s roll!

27 December 201403 April 2024
10 Comments
business, personal

● Where was I? Argentina, USA, UK, Jordan, Israel, Portugal, & Spain.

Welcome to the fifth edition of my year in review… I write this for personal reasons, but you’re welcome to revisit the past year with me. I’ll go out on a limb & say it. 2014 turned out to be one of the best years ever, in every regard except a major one. Let’s focus on the positive for now, shall we?