What travel advice would you give?

Eric and I are off tomorrow for an adventure in Portugal. He has a business meeting there next week so we are going to fly out for a few days in advance to see some sights. I'll stay on while he is in the meeting. I figure I can work from there about as easily as I do from here, and then I can go sightseeing in my down time.

I say all this in the way of introducing a conversation I had with a woman I met Saturday. Let's call her Jane. I am talking with Jane, and it comes up that this Portugal trip is coming up. It's a small world as Jane's in-laws live in Portugal, and she and her husband return at least once a year for a couple of weeks to visit. Positive thoughts rush through me. Perhaps she can provide that one sage piece of travel advice for Portugal I've missed in my pre-travel reading. Perhaps, perhaps.

Then, Jane leaned into me like a boss to a favored employee getting the secret scoop at the company Christmas party and softly said, "Well, I am a little embarrasses to say this and all, but I must advise that you take some bran with you to Portugal."

I hope I kept a straight face. I really do. Honestly, she said it so softly and we were in a pretty noisy place, that I thought I had misunderstood her, but I didn't.

Bran. Jane thinks that I need bran. She suggested a small pouch packed in my suitcase would do quite nicely.

Bran. The universal sign of old age for the young. The butt of so many of my jokes about my father. B R A N. When did I get old? How did she know? Is it that obvious any more?

While I do enjoy a bit of regularity in my life, and although I am sad to admit, have actually taken a bran-like substance before, I certainly hope this is not the first thing that one thinks of when meeting me. I was expecting something about the great little town of Sintra or the coast line full of great beaches. I got bran.



Laugh if you like. In fact, I hope you do. That's about all I can do with it. I can't bring myself to bring bran with me on the trip. It's just too much of an admittance of defeat before even beginning an adventure. You can't be a bran adventurer.