"I'd recommend the ten year old Tawny sir".
I'd checked into my hotel in Lisbon, Portugal after a long day of flying with three flight segments (Jeddah, Amman, Milan to Lisbon) and was seeking some local refreshment. The Tawny was in fact very good, a lively colour with a fresh taste. This was to be expected as I was in a hotel bar in the country of Portugal where Port is made and produced. But to get to that liquid sustenance it had been a long day in planes & airports.
Leaving Milan on flight segment three with the Alps in the background.
I was booked into a hotel that had been converted from an old palace originally built in the 1800's. Unfortunately it was raining as can be seen in this image taken during the evening, on my way to the bar to look for my liquid night cap.
I was in Lisbon to attend the European Advanced Breast Cancer Consensus Conference, a two & half day meeting. Joy unfortunately was in Jeddah slaving away at her work duties. During my time in Jeddah I had decided to reinvent myself, with some new challenges, to add "breast cancer" to my clinical activities, and hence had to do a lot of work in moving up my new learning curve.
That is the "ABC" (Advanced Breast Cancer) at the conference centre.
As physicians in Saudi Arabia we are fortunate in that "Big Pharma" (the large Pharmaceutical firms) are quite generous in sponsoring us to more meetings than I had been used to at home. This would be my fourth international conference trip in 2011 made possible due to their support. It is curious to ponder why this would be the case in this part of the world, although it is true that we don't have the more rigid controls on drug use that I had at home - for example it is not a problem with our drug budgets for me to order the newer more expensive drugs such as Cetuximab, Bevacizumab, Sunitinib, or Lapatinib, for example, if their use may be justified by the medical literature.
From the patio of the conference centre one can view part of the "ocean inlet - river exit" in Lisbon. Clearly masts of sailboats can be seen (on the left of the picture), although many of these vessels are relatively small.
Lisbon, although a beautiful city, gave the air of having seen better days, being caught up in the European debt crisis issue. Portugal had been a major maritime power in its past, has had some interesting history, but now, much like Greece, is in a different era. Despite this the people appeared friendly, and the locally produced Port helped at the end of a grey day!
What was an old monastery & church, built in the 1500's, now a museum and church, close to our conference centre.
The splendor of this old church, built in the day when the Catholic Church had so much power, again a different era in history.
During the evenings we managed to eat at some nice restaurants, this one by the water - through the reflection on the window one can see a small marina in the background. Sea food is a major staple here being a maritime country.
We managed to get a driver & guide to take us up the coast just north of Lisbon to Cabo da Roca, the most western point of land of continental Europe. From here one can look out over the Atlantic towards the vast ocean where in times past the world was believed to be flat and there were sea monsters and mermaids to be found beyond the horizon. It is from these, and nearby shores, that the great Age of Exploration started with sailing vessels from Spain, Portugal, England and Holland.
Looking out on to the Atlantic from Cabo da Roca on this foreboding day.
The old light house on the bluff over looking Cabo da Roca.
The wild coast line of Cabo da Roca - the vegetation was low lying due to the almost constant wind in this region. It was cold coming off the Atlanic in early November.
Moving South (towards Lisbon) one can view "Cabo" in the background. Of note is the large surf in this region, where it is popular with surfers and windsurfers. Apparently this is one of the locations for some of the world surfing championship events.
Moving down the coast as the sun begins to set in the West over the Atlantic.
Unfortunately not a good view, with the car on the move. However, although we were not able to stop here, this is the location of Cascai a beautiful, clearly wealthy, part of the coast as one heads towards Lisbon. There were pockets of obviously well off regions, although as noted much of the Lisbon area appeared to be going through more difficult times.
It was time to hit the airport in Lisbon, again for a three flight segment (Lisbon, Barcelona, Amman, Jeddah) to arrive back in Jeddah after mid night to appear at work only a few hours later. A very good conference, an interesting trip, and nice to see some rain (being a rare event next to the desert sands).
