2018 European Adventure – Page 6 – Lynn's Travel Adventures

On Our Way to Madrid

March 9

Despite the all-day rain, it was a pretty good day, at least until Lynn drove into Madrid. More on that later.

We left Salamanca fairly late (around 9:30) and on the way out of town stopped at the Roman Bridge, an area which also had a gorgeous view of the Cathedral. We would have loved to see it in the sunshine but the weather gods have cursed us on this trip so we’ll take what we can get.

View of Roman Bridge and Cathedral; Smaller cupola on left is the Old Cathedral

Front part of bridge is modern; Roman section on far side of bridge, closest to Cathedral

Torre de la Armeria; only remaining part of the castle of the Duke of Alba

Our next stop was to Alba de Tormes, about 20km outside of Salamanca. The town was founded in 1142 and is most famous as the founding city of the Carmelite Order. St. Theresa of Avila founded the convent in the 16th century. The Basilica is never open (language barrier prevented us from learning why) but we toured the museum. There we saw some amazing artwork and silver pieces that had been given to the Order. St. Theresa was born in Avila but lived in the convent most of her adult life. She died and is buried there. We were able to see her burial coffin as well as a few relics…. her heart and her left arm.

Painting on cooper; colors are very vibrant

Tomb of St. Theresa; her remains are in an urn in the coffin.

Next, we headed to Avila, which has the best-preserved medieval wall in Europe. It was built in the 11th century, has over 88 turrets and is a mile long. It was an amazing site. We wandered the town a little looking for the birthplace of St. Theresa but couldn’t find it and there was no tourist information, at least none that we found. The woman in the shop where Lynn bought some gloves (temp in low 40s and damp; her hands were freezing) gave us vague directions….to the square and go that way…pointing to the right. Not surprising, we didn’t find it.

Because the skies were threatening, and we wanted to get into Madrid before rush hour we decided to eat our lunch in the car (we’d made ham and cheese sandwiches). Madrid is only about 110 km from Avila, so the GPS gave our ETA as 3:45pm. We did well until we got to the metropolitan area when our plan of beating rush hour traffic didn’t go as planned. In fact, we hit the trifecta…. rush hour, Friday and rain. About 12km from our flat (which is in city center) traffic came to a dead stop. It took another 40 minutes to go about 4 km when the road finally opened up a bit. Since Lynn is more comfortable driving in Europe, she’s been doing most of the driving. She did great, even with the traffic. Where she lost it was finding the flat. The GPS took us to it, but we couldn’t find where we had to turn to park the car. We had directions from our Madrid host, who doesn’t speak any English, to turn right at the McDonald’s then make an immediate left. Well…she drove past the McDonald’s several times but it was in a pedestrian area so she couldn’t find a place to turn. Mind you it’s rush hour in downtown Madrid so each circle is taking 15 minutes so by the 3rd go-around she was pretty frazzled. Peter called Juan, who somehow managed to spot our car (Peter told him what corner we were on), and he hopped in the driver’s seat while Lynn climbed in back. Turns out, we were supposed to turn right INTO THE PEDESTRIAN WALKING AREA and then turn left down an alley sized street. Juan said that it was allowed if you lived on that street. It’s no wonder we didn’t find it. By this time, though, Lynn was a wreck.

But as they say, all’s well that ends well. The flat is small but very nice. We added a 4th night after Juan told us driving into Toledo (which had been our plan on Tuesday) was even worse than Madrid. While that’s hard to believe, we took his advice. So, we’re staying here for 3 days then heading to Granada on Tuesday.

Now that we’ve had a delicious dinner, Peter is looking at the things he wants to do in Madrid while Lynn is dealing with pictures and the blog. We’re doing a day trip to Segovia and Toledo on Monday, so we have the weekend to visit the city. Hopefully the weather will clear but we’re not counting on it.

Talk with you tomorrow.

Well-deserved glass of wine with dinner.

Beautiful Salamanca

March 8

Hello everyone. A good portion of the day was the 4 1/2-hour drive to Salamanca. It was uneventful though we ran into some rain, fog and even snow in the mountains. We got settled into a beautiful flat, threw a small load of laundry in the washer, put clothes from yesterday’s laundry out on the line to finish drying (sun was actually shining) after which we went to lunch. During lunch we got a call from our host telling us that his father had given us the wrong flat…oops. He said not to rush back but that dad would meet us there to help us move to the other flat. By the time we finished lunch, it had started raining again and so we rushed home, not just to change flats but to get the clean clothes off the line. Luckily there weren’t many, so we added those wet clothes to the ones we took out of the washer. We packed everything back up and headed to the new flat which is also very nice except for the wet laundry hanging all over the place. Our host felt bad about the mistake, so he refunded the fee for the night. It was an honest mistake and we told him not to worry about it, but he insisted on giving us the refund. Not going to argue about that.

By the time the move was over it was almost 4pm and the sky had cleared so we walked about 20 minutes to the Old Town. Salamanca was conquered by the Moors who controlled the town for almost 800 years, and we can certainly see the Moorish influence in the architecture. What we’ve seen so far on our trip have been the beautiful colored buildings. These are monochromatic brown, but absolutely beautiful. There’s something about the color and shape of the buildings that works. Everywhere we looked there was another beautiful dome or steeple.

Don’t know name of this church but the building was beautiful

The main things to see here are the University and the Cathedral. They’re virtually next door to each other so we were able to knock them both off the list at the same time. We didn’t get into the University but took some pictures of the building…stunning.

Lynn has seen dozens of Cathedrals all over the world, including St. Peter’s in Rome, but she has never seen anything as beautiful as the Cathedral at Salamanca. The “new” Cathedral was constructed between the 16th and 18th centuries while the “old” Cathedral was built in the 12th and 13th centuries. We were able to see both, and the old Cathedral is in remarkably good condition. Even the frescoes are quite intact.

We took dozens of pictures, and it was difficult to decide which to upload so we’re including a bunch. Some don’t have titles, but these are representative of the things we saw in both Cathedrals.

On our walk back to the flat we stopped for churros and chocolate which is a popular item in this part of Spain. We thought it would be super sweet, but it wasn’t at all; it was quite delicious.

Then it was back to the flat for a light supper. Tomorrow we’re off to Madrid, probably stopping at Avilla on the way.

Enjoy the pictures of the Cathedral.

These are from the Old Cathedral; build 12-13th centuries.

One of the original altar pieces from early 12th century

Seriously, consider putting this city on your bucket list; it was well worth the trip. Talk with you tomorrow.

Night.

Santiago de Compostela Cathedral

March 7

This will be a short post as it was a pretty short day. We started out in the rain (of course we did) but luckily it was just a sprinkle, and it didn’t rain for long. We caught the bus down the street from our flat and headed to the historic city center. Santiago is a university town, but its most famous landmark is the Cathedral. It is absolutely gorgeous. Construction began in 1075 and finished in 1122. Of course, there were additions and changes throughout the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries.

West face of Cathedral courtesy of google.

Unfortunately, they’re doing a great deal of construction, so we weren’t able to get a good picture of the front so here’s one from google.

The inside was also a bit of a mess with scaffolding and drapery hanging from the main alter. We couldn’t get too close to it as they were preparing for mass.

The Cathedral is reputed to be the burial place of St. James the Great, one of the twelve apostles. According to legend his remains were brought the Galicia (this region of Spain) in the late 1st century. His tomb was found and is the reason for building the Cathedral. We saw a crypt (couldn’t take pictures) but there was no sign, so we don’t know if that’s where his remains are located.

There are quite a few side chapels, some of which were from the 10th and 11th centuries. Again, no signs, so we don’t know which were which but several of them were also under renovation. Here are a couple of our favorites.

This Cathedral is one of the Top 10 recommended places to visit in all of Spain and now we understand why. It was incredible!

After finishing at the Cathedral, we strolled the narrow cobblestone streets stopping at a pub for lunch. We didn’t want anything heavy, so we had small sandwiches and a drink. Total cost was under 5 euro (about $5.25). Since it was cold (low 40s) and damp and there was nothing else we really wanted to see, we headed home after lunch.

Once home we had to decide where to go tomorrow. We’re heading towards Madrid but there are a couple of places we could stop along the way. So, after watching a couple of Rick Steves episodes on YouTube we decided to head to Salamanca, which is about 4 1/2 hours from here. We might stop in Zamora on the way for a quick peek into the Cathedral. We booked our AirBnB flat so we’re good to go. We may get to Madrid on Friday but who knows where the spirit (and weather) will take us.

Love to all…..

Visiting the Birthplace of Portugal

March 6

In 2016 we had 8 rainy days in the 10 weeks we were in Europe. We’ve been here for 8 days, and we’ve had 8 days of rain. But the good news is that today it only rained while we were in the car so at least we stayed dry.

It started out as a beautiful sunny day so after we left Porto, we stopped in Guimaraes, which is considered the birthplace of Portugal. In the early 12th century, a major battle was fought in the area and as a result the town was considered the capital of the kingdom. Alfonso Henriques, who was born there, declared himself King of Portugal and that was the birth of the new nation.

How cool is this document? It is the original document declaring Portugal belonged to King Alfonso I and his heirs.

We decided to first head to the Palace and Castle. Guimaraes Castle was built in the 10th century to protect the monastery from attacks by the Moors and Norsemen. It became the official royal residence in the 11th century Much of the castle was rebuilt in the early 12th century. King Alfonso the 1st was born and lived his entire life in the castle. All that remains are the outside walls and towers so it’s difficult to picture it as a residence but what is there looks like it was built to last.

Then we toured the Palace of the Dukes of Bragnaza which was built in the 15th century and refurbished in the 19th century. The guides told us that it was built in the 5th century but everything we read said construction started in 1420 so we think there was a bit of a language issue. None of them spoke English very well so we think they were confusing 5th with 15th. We were actually surprised that this type of building was that old so this makes more sense.

View of the Palace from the top of the Castle

Regardless of when it was built, it was quite beautiful. Several rooms had super tall ceilings made out of gorgeous wood. The tapestries, while beautiful, are reproductions as the Spanish stole them somewhere along the way. Again, we had a bit of a language barrier so we’re not sure when that happened or why Portugal hasn’t gotten them back.

Outside courtyard, the tall roof is the ceiling of the banquet hall

Large stone fireplaces in every room

By the time we finished touring the Palace the sky was very dark, so we headed back to our car. We planned to visit the Guimaraes historic city center and the town of Braga but just as we got into the car it started to pour so we decided to head straight to Spain instead.

Even though Santiago de Compostela is directly north of where we were in Portugal, it is on Central European time so we lost an hour as soon as we crossed into Spain. By the time we got settled we had just enough time to get to the grocery store before it started pouring again. So, we settled in for a cozy night at home. Tomorrow we’ll visit the Cathedral and stroll the city center. There’s only a 20% chance of rain tomorrow so our fingers are crossed for a totally rain free day. How nice would that be?!?

Couple of Days in Porto (Oporto)

March 5

We got to Porto about 2pm yesterday and settled into our beautiful flat. It’s large (at least by European standards) and is very nicely decorated. It’s just north of the city center so it’s only about a 20-minute walk to the main Se (Cathedral) Square.

Once we got settled, we headed out to get a late lunch. Just about everything in Portugal is closed on Sunday so we had a hard time finding a restaurant but eventually found one that was serving all day brunch. It was more than we usually spend (22.5 euro each) for a meal but there wasn’t much else open. The brunch was nice, but Lynn wasn’t wild about the Eggs Benedict, which is usually one of her “let’s splurge for brunch” favorites. The eggs weren’t quite poached enough, and the sauce was cold. And then there was some type of green leafy thing all over it. It wasn’t lettuce and it didn’t have much flavor so not sure what it was. She ate it but this will go one her “don’t eat away from home” list. The best part of the brunch was the sparkling wine “punch” they served. The wine was mixed with a fruit puree of some sort, a splash of 7 up and some other secret ingredients the bartender wouldn’t share. It was quite delicious. Lynn’s going to experiment with it when she gets home.

In spite of cloudy but dry weather on the drive, as soon as we hit Porto it started to rain. While we were at lunch it stopped, and the sun actually came out for a little while. We took advantage of the nicer weather to walk the pedestrian street that had shops that were open. We didn’t go into any of them, but we enjoyed the walk. We had a 3-hour drive, so it was good to stretch our legs a bit especially after a big brunch.

Enough though Porto is in the hills, the streets aren’t as steep as Lisbon. So that was a nice change. The houses are painted different colors and are really quite pretty.

In the evening Lynn was busy uploading pictures to the blog while Peter watched a bit of TV. We’ve got cable with a ton of American stations. Unlike Costa Rica and Italy, the shows are in English with Portuguese subtitles so he’s enjoying quite a bit of TV. But by about 8pm we were both falling asleep, so we played a few rousing rounds of Rummikub. We have a travel size and Lynn taught Peter how to play the other day. She let him win a couple of times to build his confidence but from now on she’ll show him no mercy. It’s a fun game and helps pass time in the evening as we don’t go out much at night. After walking a ton of steps (today it was over 18000 which is 8 miles) we’re too tired to do anything at night. In addition to Rummikub we have a deck of cards and a travel size Yahtzee game. Are we just the life of the party!!

This morning it was raining again. Even the locals are getting tired of the constant rain. We’ve been told many times that it is very unusual to have this many days in a row of such bad weather. But, as we keep saying, there’s nothing we can do about the weather, so we just keep moving forward. We did get out of it a little by stopping at the central market. It wasn’t very big, but it was under cover so it worth a look-see. The market had the usual things – flowers, fruits, veggies, and meat but it also sold souvenirs, cork products (very big in Portugal) and, of course, port wine. Porto is where port originates and is sold just about everywhere. We bought several small sample bottles so we could taste several different kinds. The oddest store, though, sold live chickens or maybe they were small turkeys; we’re not exactly sure. Lynn felt a little bad knowing that they were sitting there just waiting to get executed for someone’s dinner. Ew…

Beautiful cork products. You can even buy cork shoes!

Once the rain stopped, we continued our walk to the Cathedral Square. The Se was built in the 12th century and is one of Porto’s oldest monuments. While Romanesque in style it has Baroque touches that were added in the 16th century.

The Cathedral was quite pretty but very dark, so the pictures didn’t come out too well. This the 5th church we’ve seen in the last 3 days and they’re starting to blur. And we’ve only been here a week. Not sure if we’ll remember any of them after 3 months.

After the Cathedral we walked through the oldest neighborhood in Porto on our way to the river. There were lots of very colorful homes and the streets were steep and narrow. Luckily, we were walking downhill but we still had to be very careful. The hill was steep, and the cobblestones were very wet, so it was slow going. But we weren’t in a hurry and safety was more important than speed, especially after we saw a young woman fall on the wet pavement.

Once we got to the river, we had planned to tour the Palace but when we got there neither one of us was much in the mood. The cool, damp weather (not to mention the hills) is taking a toll on our arthritic joints. So, the thought of taking an hour-long tour around another palace wasn’t very appealing. Instead, we hopped on a tram which we thought would take us in a tourist circle around the city. But it was only a one-way ride to the far west of the city. It turned out for the best, though, as we saw where the Douro River meets the Atlantic, which we probably wouldn’t have seen if the driver hadn’t thrown us off the tram at the end of the line. The sea was incredibly rough, and the water wasn’t the least bit inviting. It’s hard to believe that just 3 weeks ago we were swimming in the bath water warm Pacific Ocean.

Palace of Porto; probably nice on inside but we’ll never know.

We took the city bus back to town center. Just as we found a place to eat by the river the sun came out and the air felt quite mild, so we decided to eat outside. Well, the nice weather didn’t last long and before we got our food the clouds rolled in and we moved into the restaurant.

Duoro River; we had lunch at the restaurant with the red tablecloths.

We got in just in time as within 2-3 minutes it was raining. It was still raining pretty hard when we left the restaurant so by the time we walked across the river and got the the Calem Port Cellar for an afternoon tour/tasting we were pretty wet.

There are 5 or 6 major Port Wine Cellars in Porto. We went to Calem because it was the first one, we came to, and it got us out of the rain. They had a nice museum that explained the process of making Port (they actually crush the grapes the old-fashioned way….by stepping on them) which we visited before the tour. The tour was quite interesting, and the guide was very knowledgeable about the process. Some of the oak barrels are huge, holding up to 60,000 liters (almost 16,000 gallons) of wine. There were some smaller ones as well which were aging the 50–60-year-old port. They actually still have several bottles that are over 100 years old. They only sell those to private collectors, but we could have bought a bottle from 1961 that sold for 175 euros…. we didn’t.

Did you know that port is made by blending Portuguese brandy with the grapes? Neither did we. The tour was very informative but, of course, the highlight was the tasting. We upgraded to the premium tasting which gave us three different wines instead of only two. Lynn enjoyed the wine more than Peter as he prefers dry wine while Lynn likes sweet. Even the dry white was too sweet for him. Her favorite, though, was the ruby red (middle glass in the picture). It was sweet but not overwhelmingly so and was quite smooth.

After buying a bottle of the wine, we headed back out into the sunshine and across the river. Our destination was the central train station and the Clerigos Church and Tower. It only took about twenty minutes but most of it was uphill. The train station is fairly small, but the walls were covered with beautiful tile work. Then it was over to the church and tower. The Clerigos Tower is one of the most iconic landmarks in Porto and the church, while small, was very pretty.

Since it was after 5pm it was time to head home. It only took about 30 minutes but a lot of it was uphill so by the time we got to the flat we were exhausted. Tomorrow will be a little easier as we leave Porto and head to northwestern Spain. We may stop in a couple of places along the way, but we won’t have too much walking.

Have a great night everyone and we’ll post again soon.

Pictures from Day 3 and 4 of Lisbon

It’s Monday morning and I thought I’d upload the rest of the pictures from Lisbon before we head out to visit Porto. Enjoy!

Thursday March 2 – Obidos; Nazare; Batalha; Fatima

Video Peter took of beach at Nazare.

This is a chapel built to commemorate the Miracle of Our Lady of Nazare when, in 1182, the Blessed Virgin saved the life of a Portuguese knight who was about to ride his horse off the cliff in dense fog. To honor Her, he built this chapel.

Construction of “new” church began in 16th century.

Painting of the Miracle of Our Lady of Nazare

Final stop of day was Fatima

Inside modern church; pretty but we preferred the old style

The children are buried in the Shrine. Jacinta and Francisco died in the flu epidemic in 1919. Lucia became a nun and lived until 2005.

Friday March 3 – Peter’s Solo Day of Sightseeing

Barge commissioned in 19th century last used by Queen Elizabeth II in 1957.

Okay, so now you’re caught up on pictures of our first 5 days in Portugal. After breakfast we’re going to head out to explore Porto; we’ll post that tonight. Talk soon.

Pictures from Our First Two Days in Lisbon

Well, we’re in a new flat in Porto (also called Oporto) and have a crazy fast internet connection. So, here are a ton of pictures from our first two full days in Lisbon. We’ll get caught with the next few days tomorrow.

Tuesday Feb 28 Lisbon on the tourist tram

Funicular near our flat…look at that hill!

Famous Tram #28; make a circuit around the historical center.

Looking at Placa de Commercial (one of main squares) from walking street.

Skinny house people actually live there.

Narrow street of Alfama; easy to get lost….just ask Lynn.

Peacock at the castle; there were 5 or 6 of them.

Not sure of the name of the church; Lynn took picture while trying to find Peter.

Wednesday March 1 Sintra and Cabo da Roca

Here’s a short video of some “train musicians” on our way to Sintra. YouTube #1

Pena Palace. Here’s one of the palace. It’s a little easier to see the beautiful colors in the video. YouTube Video #2

Pena Palace; Sintra; could barely see it through the fog.

Pena Palace; it’s so colorful; too bad it was so cloudy.

One of the first modern bathrooms in Portugal.

New part of Palace; added in 19th century.

Can barely see clock tower through fog; was pouring rain.

Moorish Castle overlooking the town; no way we’re walking up there.

Kitchen; much less modern than in Pena Palace

Lighthouse at Cabo Da Roca; then we got on the wrong bus.

Full moon over Lisbon; it was a long, wet day but a lot of fun.

That’s our first two days. We’ll post more pictures tomorrow and get you caught up on Porto as well. Love to all….

Peter Going Solo

March 3

Lynn woke up this morning with chills and a bit of a scratchy throat. Not a big surprise given that she’s been walking around with wet feet all week. Since it was raining pretty hard again this morning she decided to stay home but Peter went out to explore the Belem district of Lisbon. He went to the Maritime Museum which had gorgeous models of virtually every type of Portuguese ship. He said it was a pretty impressive display. One of the barges he saw was one used by Queen Elizabeth II on an official visit to Portugal. It looked like a barge Cleopatra would have used and had room for 80 oarsmen.

He also visited the monastery which was built over 100 years beginning in 1501. He didn’t go into the church as there was a wedding and he didn’t want to intrude.

Next he visited the Discoveries Monument which is one of the most iconic monuments of Lisbon. It was built in the late 1950s to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the death of Henry the Navigator who was responsible for the early development of Portuguese exploration and maritime trade. While Peter didn’t get to see the monument from all sides due to high seas, he said it was pretty impressive.

After visiting Belem he took the bus back to the Lisbon Cathedral. It’s one of the things we missed on Wednesday when we got separated at the Castle and Lynn got lost in Alfama. There was a line to get in and since it was still pouring he decided to take a pass on seeing the inside.

Between the rain and tromping through puddles (which are almost impossible to see on the stone streets) he was soaked, which is of course why Lynn didn’t go out.

So what did she do all day while Peter was out playing in the rain? Took a nap, did a load of laundry (which takes about 3 hours), read a book and repacked suitcases for our departure on Sunday. Really exciting stuff but by the end of the day she felt much better and is ready to brave the elements once again.

Tomorrow we leave Lisbon without seeing quite a few sites but maybe we’ll have time at the end of the month to catch a few things we missed. Even though there is 100% chance of rain over the next couple of days we decided to head to Porto anyway. It’s the 2nd largest city in Portugal and it looks like there are some nice places to visit. Hopefully wherever we stay will have a faster internet connection so we can upload some pictures. Here are a few more google links for pictures of the things Peter did today.

Talk with you soon.

Maritime Museum

Discoveries Monument

Monastery

Great, but Wet, Day Trip

March 2

Ok….if anyone knows a “stop the rain dance” we’d appreciate a little intervention. We’ve been here for 4 days and for 4 days it has rained. We leave Lisbon on Sunday and since we have a car, we thought we might try to find someplace where the weather is a little better. Doesn’t look like that’s possible as the entire Iberian Peninsula has a 60-100% chance of rain for the next 10 days. So, it looks like we just going to have to deal with it. Yesterday Lynn bought a warm scarf and today she found a nice, handmade sweater, so she was actually quite toasty even in the damp weather. The problem is her feet. She only has her sneakers which are super comfortable to walk in but not water proof. She thought about buying a pair of boots but unless they’re old-fashioned galoshes that go over her gym shoes, it’s pretty much a non-starter. We’ve been walking 15,000-20,000 steps a day and that’s not something she wants to do in new shoes. So tomorrow (when there is a 100% chance of rain) she’s going to try plastic bags over her socks before she puts her shoes on. Might look stupid but if it keeps her socks and feet dry she’ll try anything.

But back to our day. We walked to one of the central plazas this morning for our 9:30 bus tour and we were very excited to see that there were only 7 people on the tour. Our first stop was Obidos, about 75km from Lisbon. It’s a walled city and, other than a few churches, there’s not much to see there but there are a bunch of cute shops. Lynn found a pair of warm socks, which is great because by the time we got there it was pouring and there were gigantic puddles everywhere. Once she got back on the bus she was able to talk off her wet socks/shoes and put on her toasty warm socks. Of course, she had to put her wet socks/shoes back on for the next stop but at least her feet were warm for the ride.

Anyway, it turns out the delicious ginja we had yesterday in Sintra comes from Obidos. Most of the shops sold shots of ginja in a chocolate cup, which of course, Lynn had to try. She also got a small bottle to enjoy over the next several weeks.

We only had about 40 minutes in Obidos then it was back on the bus for Nazare, a cute fishing village on the Atlantic. This is where we had a delicious lunch and where Lynn bought her very warm sweater. We both chose the meat (versus fish) option and it was incredible. For the most part we have really enjoyed the food here. Peter wasn’t wild about his cod hamburger yesterday but other than that it has all been quite good.

After lunch we headed for our 3rd stop, the Batalha Monastery. We only had time to visit the church but it was very beautiful in the gothic style. We’re still not having any luck uploading pictures so here’s a link to some google pics. Batalha Monastery

Our final stop was Fatima, where 3 shepherd children saw the Virgin Mary in 1917. The children saw The Lady on the 13th of the month from May-Oct except for August when they had been placed under arrest for a short while. For the last vision, there were 50,000 people present to witness what is known as the Miracle of the Sun.

There is a separate building that has a statue where The Lady actually appeared. Pope John Paul II attributed his survival of the 1981 assassination attempt to Our Lady of Fatima so the bullet that was removed is now in the crown of the statue….very cool. The churches were beautiful and we spent a very enjoyable 75 minutes there before making the 90 minute trip back to Lisbon. Here are some google pics to hold you until we can get ours to upload. Fatima

By lunchtime the rain stopped and the sun actually appeared a couple of times so in spite of the wet feet, we thoroughly enjoyed our day trip. Tomorrow is our last day in Lisbon so we plan to catch some things we missed earlier in the week.

Guess that’s all for now. Take care and we’ll chat again soon.

Another Rainy Day

March 1

Turns out the problem we had yesterday with the blog was the browser, so we switched from MS Edge to Firefox and we’re up and running again. We managed to upload one picture this morning. This is a picture of the street our flat is on taken from our bedroom balcony.

Today was our day trip to Sintra, Cabo da Roca and Cacais and except for taking the wrong bus and misplacing Peter’s train ticket we had no major issues. The train ride to Sintra was about 40 minutes and the train was very crowded. Luckily we managed to find seats so at least we were comfortable. Sintra is known for its palaces and castles. Once we arrived we bought a bus ticket that makes a loop around the area so we could get on/off wherever we wanted. Our first stop was at the beautiful Pena Palace, on top of a mountaintop. According to Wikipedia, on a clear day it can be seen from Lisbon but, unfortunately, today was so not clear; we could barely see it from the Sintra train station. We’ll upload some of our pictures when we can but they don’t do the palace justice. Here’s a link to a google search page that has several pictures. Pena Palace

The original part of the palace started in the middle ages as a chapel, then it became a monastery. The great earthquake of 1755 destroyed it and it wasn’t until the mid-19th century when King Ferdinand II (distant cousin to Prince Albert of England) decided to rebuild. It’s easy to tell which part of the palace was the monastery as the ceilings are fairly low (about 12 feet) and the decorations are pretty subdued. The new part of the palace has 20 foot ceilings and is much more ornate. The entire palace is quite beautiful. We got some good pictures of the inside so we’ll upload them as soon as we can.

Of course just as we headed outside to tour the terraces, it started to pour and because the wind was crazy strong the umbrellas were virtually useless. In addition to being wet and windy, the temp was only in the low 50s to it was pretty miserable. The good news is that it didn’t rain for too long so after having hot chocolate in the coffee shop, we headed back out spending a few minutes wandering in the garden. If it had been a nicer day we could have walked quite a bit as the park is huge but it was just too cold so we headed back to the bus. Once down off the mountain, we stopped for lunch at a small cafe. Lynn had cod, which is pretty much a national dish in Portugal. Peter ordered a hamburger, ignoring Lynn’s warning that hamburgers in Europe aren’t even close what we have at home. He should have listened….what he got was a burger made out of cod. It wasn’t bad but certainly not what he was expecting. Lynn’s fish was delicious.

Then we wandered around a few shops, buying a few gifts and a warm scarf for Lynn. We also tried Ginja, a cherry liqueur that is a Portuguese specialty. It was delicious. The sun actually came out for about 5 minutes but by the time we got on the bus for Cabo da Roca and Cascais, it was raining again. Cabo da Roca is the western most part of Europe and has a beautiful lighthouse on a hill. The ride was about 30 minutes but, unfortunately, Peter didn’t get a seat. The trip was beautiful and by the time we arrived the sun was actually out. We walked a short way to the cliffs, got our pictures, and headed back to the bus. The wind was even stronger than in Sintra so it was pretty cold, even with the sun.

The plan was to get back on the #403 bus and head to Cascais for dinner then take the train home from there. Well, you know what they say about best laid plans. What we didn’t realize is that the bus is not a circuitous route so when the bus came we got on it without a second thought. But, we got on the bus that was going back to Sintra…oops. We figured it out fairly quickly (the bus turning toward Sintra instead of Cascais was a big clue) but short of getting off, going back to Cabo da Roca and waiting for the next bus, there wasn’t much we could do about it. So, we didn’t get to see the small fishing village but we have one on the agenda for tomorrow so we don’t feel too badly.

Our second misadventure came at the train station in Sintra. We didn’t realize that the train ticket we bought in the morning was also good for a return trip. We asked for one way so there was no reason to think we’d need it on the way back. Lynn found her ticket right away but Peter’s was no where to be found. He’d given Lynn everything in his pockets during the day which she dumped into her bag. As a result her bag was filled with receipts, maps, guide books, etc., etc., etc. The line was growing quite long behind her so after a few seconds of looking we finally gave up and bought a new ticket. Of course, as soon as we left the window she found the ticket….oh well.

Once back in Lisbon Peter finally got his hamburger as we found some at the grocery store and made them for dinner. Of course they didn’t taste anything like our burgers but they were okay.

Tomorrow is another day trip, this time with Grey Line tours. We’re heading to Fatima and two other nearby towns. We could have gotten to Fatima on our own by taking the bus, but we wouldn’t have been able to see the other towns so we decided on the tour.

It’s almost 8:30 here and we’re still a bit jet lagged so we’ll close for now. Take care everyone and we’ll talk again soon. Hopefully we can get a couple of pictures uploaded in the morning when the internet connection seems a bit faster.

Love to all…..Lynn and Peter