After a lecture on the history of Portugal, we took a bus ride up the coast to the picturesque town of Sintra. Sintra is nestled into a hillside. Unfortunately it was very touristy. After lunch, we went to the palace of Queluz which is situated outside of Lisbon. The palace was the official residency of… Read More First full day in Portugal

Our hotel, Vila Gale, is located in the Paco de Arcos locality of Lisbon. It is one block from the beach. The beds are excellent, the shower is good and the food is great. Wonderful swimming pool that Reggie and I went swimming in today. I feel like a new person after swimming and taking… Read More Wonderful hotel in Lisbon

On September 17, I will be flying to Lisbon to join my college roommate, Reggie,on a Roadscholar tour of Portugal and Spain. Afterwords I plan on flying to Frankfurt to spend Yom Kippur with my friend Tamar.

I have been very impressed with Norway and its people. Everyone here speaks English. Some speak English exceptionally well. Anyone you stop on the street will help you. Our guides have also been really interesting. Our guide on the trip up to the Russian border was a retired politician. He was very passionate about things.… Read More The end of the journey

Elaine and I were again on our own today and we set off for the Munch museum. Edvard Munch is Norway’s greatest artist. He is best known for the painting “The Scream”. I have not seen many of this artist works before and I felt that he had an amazing way of expressing human emotion.… Read More Third and final day in Oslo

The following video was taken by my astronomy teacher on my road scholar cruise. His name was Murray and he was a wonderful instructor and person . Enjoy this video of the northern lights. https://photos.app.goo.gl/B5W3y6CSvziDbzYz7

Today we decided to take a guided tour. We went to four different locations. First the bus drove around the central area with a guide giving us some information about Oslo. It turns out that Norway was not a fully independent country until 1905. It had a constitution signed in 1814 but was forced into… Read More Second day in Oslo

Our first day in Oslo we decided to explore on our own. So first we had to master the rapid transit system. First of all it is an excellent system and really not that difficult to use. We were able to buy a pass for our entire stay so we didn’t have to keep buying… Read More First full day in Oslo

It was actually quite delightful to sit on a train for 6 1/2 hours. We definitely went through some beautiful scenery. But this doesn’t even come close to the scenery that we saw on our cruise. However being on a train certainly beats being on a plane.