Since ancient times, new beginnings – that’s carnival. It’s our craving to shuck memories of the slings and arrows that paralyze us. New Year’s resolutions disappear in the first head wind, but carnival has been serious about new beginnings since the Greeks partied to praise Dionysus and the Romans thanked Bacchus for wine and flora, fertility heavy on their minds.

Can you imagine enjoying a foreign destination not only for its scenery and inherent natural beauty, but also for stunning, eye catching “Artworks” that are painted and installed on, so it seems, almost everything you can see? It is one of the many joys of a vacation in Portugal where you’ll discover a profusion of Azulejos. What, you might say, are Azulejos?

Standing on the ship’s deck felt like being on the stage of an ancient amphitheater, rugged stone walls ringing hillsides rising steeply around me. But these walls didn’t hold seating for toga-clad spectators awaiting some amusement. They lined row after row of grape vines, terraces tumbling down the banks of the Douro River flowing across northern Portugal.

Postcards from the Edge of the Continent Three countries the easy way: you don’t have to drive, you don’t have to schlepp your suitcase around, you get picked up at your hotel each morning and you get as many days as you’d ever want in Morocco – and you don’t have to spend a lifetime learning to speak Moroccan Arabic! Insight Vacations, …