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 | Marie-Dominique (or Marie as she was called -- she judged her full name a bit much for Americans) was our guide from Intropa. While French-born she had spent considerable time in Spain. She knew all of the wine areas that we went through (she was French after all). In many cases her language was French and foreign, so she would start explaining in Spanish. Not that her English wasn't excellent, but she was to speak a foreign language and so Spanish came to mind. I can relate to that easily. My last few foreign trips have been to Japan and so when thank you and foreign come to mind - arigato comes to mind. Not too far from "obrigato" in Portugal, but the full formal phrase "domo arigato gozaimashita" really confused people. When it was mentioned that this was a good trip; we never got lost (as opposed to the trip in Poland 2 years ago), a glacial expression appeared -- things like that did NOT happen when she was a tour guide. | 
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 Paula was Portugese, proud of her country and wanted to show us as much as she could. When visiting a town, she would suggest restaurants where she liked to go and eat. Along the road she would point out houses that always intrigued her or that she would like to own. She had facts at her fingertips, but if she didn't know, she would say so and then try to find out (and usually succeed). Her only real impatience was the length of time necessary for bathroom stops, but with 52 people and limited toilet facilities in many site, this was reality!
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Fernando provided much excitement on the trip -- what impossible feat would he accomplish next! His talents are well described in the section on miracles in the section Miracle of the Buses |
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 José drove us all through Spain which was a long drive. He had to coax the poor Vera (the bus) up the mountains to Avila when it overheated -- but we made it! He also put up with the singing of José, José with remarkably good grace
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Paula was Portugese, proud of her country and wanted to show us as much as she could. When visiting a town, she would suggest restaurants where she liked to go and eat. Along the road she would point out houses that always intrigued her or that she would like to own. She had facts at her fingertips, but if she didn't know, she would say so and then try to find out (and usually succeed). Her only real impatience was the length of time necessary for bathroom stops, but with 52 people and limited toilet facilities in many site, this was reality!
José drove us all through Spain which was a long drive. He had to coax the poor Vera (the bus) up the mountains to Avila when it overheated -- but we made it! He also put up with the singing of José, José with remarkably good grace 
