Riffs are my random thoughts about a country or place we are visiting. This post is the last of four sets of riffs, but there’s plenty of random thoughts to spill. . .
I used to whine about Europe not providing ice, and then when asking for ice, providing one measly ice cube that melted as soon as the warm drink splashed on it. It’s no longer true, at least in Portugal. . .many times my sparkling waters were brought with multiple ice cubes. On other occasions, when asked if we wanted ice, I would simply shrug and say, “We’re Americans.” The waiter would laugh, and then simply bring multiple cubes without further comment.
One of the best aspects of traveling through Portugal is that nearly every explanatory sign at historic sites were in both Portuguese and English. It made life easy, although we (mostly Carol) got pretty good at puzzling out the few signs only in Portuguese. She didn’t get everything, but got the gist of it. But, I would say that 95%+ of the signs included English.
I will note that the signs rarely included Spanish (less than 5% or so). Some Portuguese really don’t like the Spanish, whilst others appear to tolerate their Iberian neighbors. I get the sense the Spanish ignore the Portuguese, much like New Zealanders don’t like their Australian cousins though the Aussie largely ignore the Kiwis. Or how Canadians fixate on America, even though Americans barely notice Canada, except for when their teams go another year without winning a Stanley Cup. That’s when we just laugh. Ha, ha, ha.
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