I'm not really sure how Portugal ended up as our last European country, and I'm not entirely sure how it made it through Explorers Week. Our book focused on Portugal during the Age of Discovery, and how Portugal used to own half of the world. We even had a cameo from Ferdinand Magellan.
Portugal might not own half the world anymore. But, because of the spread of the Portuguese Empire in the 15th century, Portuguese is the official language of nine countries: Brazil, Cape Verde, Angola, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, East Timor, Sao Tome and Principe, and Equatorial Guinea.
Portugal is the oldest country with the same borders in Europe. Founded in 1128 it's nearly 900 years old, and there are plenty of monuments scattered throughout the country that relfect Portugal's rich history.
Our landmark is one of those 'Age of Discovery' monuments. The Belem Tower was built in 1515 as a fortress to guard the entrance to Lisbon's harbor. It was the starting point for many of the voyages of discovery, and for sailors, it was the last sight of their homeland. (It's a popular tourist destination with 4.5 stars on TripAdvisor!)
While we're on the history of Portugal, it was Portuguese Princess Catherine of Braganza who doubled as the Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 1662 to 1685 that introduced the habit of drinking tea to Britain.
Portugal today is a mix of old and modern. You'll find old-school shops, tiled houses, retro bards, port lodges, whitewashed villages, and high-spirited nightlife.
Tourists come from all over to see the beautiful Algarve coastline. You'll even find a giant sand castle festival there once year with sandcastles and sculptures almost 40 feet tall.
Portugal was nearly 500 miles of coastline along the Atlantic Ocean, so it's not really a surprise it's a surfers paradise. It's here some Brazilian surfed the biggest wave ever (they say it was 100 feet!)
The Portuguese use those waves to their advantage. It's home to the first commercial wave farm. Opened in 2008, the wave farm creates and sells electricity harnessed from the waves.
Away from the beach, Portugal is a golfer's paradise. It was recently named 'Best Golf Destination' by some British Golfing magazine. Something like 14 courses in Portugal make the top 100 best in all of Europe.
Sidenote: My book has totally fallen apart. Good thing I only have two countries left.
The boys made their postcards.
Calib's featured the flag again, and the cork trees. Portugal produces 50% of the world's cork exports, and is home to the oldest cork tree in the world. Apparently cork oak trees live up to 250 years. You don't have to chop them down to harvest the cork (for wine bottles and such). Instead you just scrape the bark, and in 9 years it has brand new cork skin.
Peyton's featured the giant waves off the Atlantic, and Belem Tower.
And Hayden's featured different buildings from various important eras in Portugal.
We had a little help from the Trader Joes wine section for dinner.
For dinner tonight we had Portuguese Paella, and Portuguese Fruit Salad. If you're feeling ambitious, you can always make some Malasadas (we, however, were not feeling ambitious- and we had them in Hawaii anyway).
This dinner earned four spoons up.
Hayden was our hold out here, because he is over rice- even if there is hardly any in it.
Everyone else had a second helping. Fun story: Peyton put hot sauce on his, then handed over a piece of sausage to Calib, and Calib nearly died from the heat.
Oh, and the boys didn't have the wine fruit. But it was pretty awesome, and I don't even like wine that much!
I haven't been posting it a whole lot, but we have been plugging away with the Fenderson's and the mail from the Home Office. The boys are successfully identifying lots of landmarks, which I hope will help them with their wrap up Jeopardy.
Tonight our event was Moguls. You know where it's all bumpy, and it looks like they're pulling their knees up like they were in a potato sack race. So, we raced in potato sacks around the back yard. We decided to do it in a circle so there wouldn't be any confusion about about the track, and we thought it'd be more fun to do it all at once instead of as a timed event. Asa put the orange flags around the yard, and the boys had to stay to the outside of them.
Peyton smoked EVERYONE. They went around three times, and Peyton finished all three laps before Hayden finished his first, and Calib finished his second.
Calib then finished about a lap and a half ahead of Hayden, who kept going for the full three laps, because if you quit, you get disqualified and don't get your medal.
Peyton was really pooped out though. He was MOVING. He did go to the gym tonight though, so he wasn't dying as much as he would have you believe.
We had our medal ceremony. Peyton chose to play the old U.S.S.R national anthem for his anthem. (Whoever wins gets to pick their podium/medal ceremony music).
No change in our leaders, but the Netherlands didn't win any new medals today, so Peyton is closing the gap on Hayden, with Calib right behind. Asa and I need to start playing in some events, we're really far behind!
Calib had the honor of coloring in the very last European country. We picked dark red for Portugal, right there next to orange Spain
That is 194 countries down, ONLY TWO TO GO!!!!!
Next Up: Tomorrow we're starting our 'Best Of' Week, but since Oceania isn't all that much, we'll also be doing our last country there with Papua New Guinea. Then, we'll continue on with the 'Best Of' each continent, before finishing next Sunday with Zimbabwe and the closing ceremonies!
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