Lisbon - Day 1: Rain. Stayed home and made a start on all of the washing we had accumulated over the past month, enough of which dried to tackle the ironing.
Lisbon - Day 2: Overcast. Stayed home. More washing and ironing and in-between, planned a trip to Morocco. Not easy.
Bearing in mind that we are travelling from southern Portugal into southern Spain, via Gibraltar, the question is - do we put the car in a secure garage in Seville, Spain and fly in and out of Marrakech for 14 days? Or do we park the car in Malaga, Spain and try to fly into Fes and out of Marrakech, costing a small fortune with flights going via Madrid, Frankfurt or even Paris and taking up to 17 hours? Or do we return our car in Barcelona first, and then fly in and out of Fes for 8 days? Decisions, decisions, decisions!
And the winner was - we decided to have our penultimate week in Barcelona and then return the car to the Barcelona airport return facility, put half the baggage in secure storage at the airport and fly to Fes, Morocco for our final week. Then fly back to Barcelona from Fes, on the same day but 7 hours prior to the first leg of our trip home on 20 October. Tight! Well, that's the plan!
Lisbon - Day 3: Still overcast. More washing and ironing. A major repacking of the bags to reflect the changing weather. Spent the day on the hop on - hop off bus. A nice local dinner - correction - a great local dinner at a little diner we only found because we spotted local taxis parked out the front. Fresh flounder and squid, grilled to perfection with salad and a plate of fresh beans and potato. Local wine, excellent bread. Total 55 euros. $86 at today's appalling exchange rate of $ 0.61.
Lisbon - Day 4: Sunny. Second day on the hop on - hop off bus. Lisbon is hilly and elongated, so the sightseeing bus has two long loops, both of about 2 hours and both of which include different views of the city centre. On our first day we did the blue loop and on the second, yes you guessed it, the red route.
Lisbon - Day 5: Sunny and warm. We went to Sintra. We could have taken the train and then the sightseeing bus up the mountain, but decided on the easier and quicker option - the car. Other than collecting the side door of the car on the corner of a very tight wall in the underground carpark of this apartment block, the drive to Sintra proved to be very quick and easy. About the same distance as Geelong to Winchelsea, freeway all the way, took 45 minutes, parking in Sintra on arrival - 2 euros for 5 hours.
Lisbon - Day 6: Warm. Spent the whole day booking accommodation for the next and final 30 days of our trip. We are tired and happy to stay home with a lovely little sound system and cable TV. Cleaned the apartment. Packed up the kitchen after making mushroom risotto for dinner. Watched a couple of telemovies - they are having an Agatha Christie Festival on FoxCrime - Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot and Vera. All wonderful and I had never seen Vera before!
So I guess some photos wouldn't go astray .......
The bar at the end of our street in buildings that were part of the original wine exporting facilitites of the old port of Lisbon.
Around the corner, an almost unmarked cafe/diner, full of local families and taxi drivers.
The remainder of our squid and flounder. Not the sort of place where you photograph your food so I had to wait until most of the customers had left.
Lisbon is a very handsome city with a great many tree lined boulevards. Trouble is, most roads are cobblestones and so the bus bumps around so much that a steady photograph is impossible.
City centre street art.
The summer palace is very traditional and in impeccable repair.
Its distinctive chimneys.
And beautiful window decoration.
From the summer palace in the square, looking upwards to the ancient Castle of the Moors on the very top of hill - well, more of a mountain really!
Having arrived at the Palace of Pena and seeing that the walk was a further kilometre, vertically, we decided to stay on the bus.
The downward trip was marginally less hair-raising than the ascent. This young bus driver won Paul's "Ice running in his veins" European travel award with the commendation "He was good!"
After a recovery beer, I was assaulted by this viking who seemed somewhat aggressive given I had deposited a couple of euros in his little cauldron.
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