Planning for Portugal

OCTOBER 18, 2021 : In two weeks’ time, Mark and I are flying to Lisbon. The plan is to spend the following month traveling throughout Portugal to map Jewish Heritage Sites. The basic goal of the trip is to locate and verify the GPS coordinates of these sites for our Wandering Jew app. And of course, to have a good time and enjoy ourselves while we are doing that.

In planning for this trip, I discovered that Portugal is like cilantro – people have a very strong reaction to it and either love it or hate it. Of the many people who have been to Portugal that I spoke to, I would say that most love it – but there are also those who would never return. Hopefully we will love Portugal too.

As my friends and family know, when we travel, I am not just well prepared for the trip – I am extremely well prepared.  This means knowing, day by day, even hour by hour, what we will be doing, where we will be going, who will we be visiting and occasionally even what we will be eating.

To be this prepared, I have been doing hours and hours, days and days, of research – all of which I enjoy.

For me, the first step of planning a trip is mapping out a route. For Portugal, this was easy because there is an organization called the Portuguese Network of Jewish Quarters. This is an organization that recognizes the enormous contribution of Portuguese Jews in world history and acknowledges the Jewish heritage in their own local communities (usually with a memorial or a museum), all with the goal of promoting tourism. The network currently has 37 cities, towns and villages as members. In addition to the network, there are a few companies in Portugal that offer organized Jewish Tours of Portugal. Using their itineraries, I added additional places to the list of towns and villages that do not belong to the network. Once I had a complete list, I mapped out in Google Maps all the places and then created a driving route that would maximize the number we could visit – managing to include most of them on our way.

Once, I had the basic route, I then researched in detail what there was to see in each of the places we would be visiting – both the general tourist attractions and of course, the Jewish Heritage sites. Based on how much there was to see in each place, I made a daily itinerary. Once I figured out where we would be each evening, I then ordered the Airbnb apartment for the night. Thus, our trip is planned.

Since the goal of the trip is to verify GPS locations of Jewish Heritage sites, then all that I learned (and there is lots and lots to learn about the Jewish Heritage in Portugal) needs to be uploaded to the Wandering Jew database, to be available in the app. So far this is finished for part of the trip, and I now have the next two weeks to work and finish the rest.

As we travel throughout Portugal, what we learn, what we see, what we do, and maybe even what we eat, will all be documented in this blog. If everything goes according to plan, there will be many interesting stories for you to hear, many beautiful photos for you to see, and much for you to learn about Portugal. Stay tuned.