Up at the crack of dawn... couldn't really tell what time the sun rose up due to the clouds.

Anyway we headed back to Belem to visit a few museums. Firstly the Coach, then the Archaeology, finally the Maritime.

The coach was great, didn't know there was so much to learn about the horse draw mode of transport. Dee and the kids found the second, not so good (I was looking for WiFi to book our seats on the flights home). The Maritime was also very well displayed and informative.

Funny story about the WiFi. There is a Starbuck's in Belem -- we knew this from our previous visit -- and with the purchase of a not too bad espresso we got access to the WiFi. Actually we didn't, and neither could the staff... oh ho ho ho! We were informed that the centre across the way had a hot spot, it didn't. Finally we were told McDonald's had it. The problem, well one of them was that it was hidden. McDonald's has never been one to hide its presence, but boy they really tried in Belem.

The second problem is I think McDonald's is to cuisine what Hitler was to world peace. So having paid money for shit fries we got access and booked our seats home.

After taking a cleansing was in a torrential down pore we hit a restaurant that Dee had read about in her ever present guide book, called Nunu's. Nunu's specialise in sea food. We had a starter of proscuitto on toast and a whole crab mixed with mayo and other stuff then served back in the top of the crab shell. For main courses, I had the squid with prawn on a skewer, Dee had the lobster. Anwen and G split a battered fish with s bread soup, which was more like a stew. White wine for those that were old enough. Dessert was Mango mousse, Chocolate mousse and

Nunu's pudding, which was cream caramel in anything but name.

We then hit the gift shop at a gallery we had previously visited at the start of the trip and bought all sorts.

For the trip home we decided to take the tram all the way back to the apartment, it was our final tram ride, and is always great.

So there you go, our final day in Portugal, very sorry to be leaving, I think, even with the not so great weather we have had, we have seen lots, eaten lots and enjoyed the whole experience as a family.

We hope you have enjoyed our blog, and well be seeing you all soon.

Ciao

Around Lisbon....

The day began with a beautiful sunrise.

We then set out to get tickets for the metro, and with the aid of a very helpful metro person, got some.

Jumping onto the underground --would that be jumping down to the underground?-- we headed over to the main part of Lisbon's shopping area/older town, in the Baixo/Rossio part of town.

Dee wanted to visit a market which as it turned out had fruit,veg and meats all in one huge single story building. The meat section went around on all four sides of the market, in from that was the fruit and flowers, and in the central square was the vegetable sellers. We stopped for coffee, surprisingly, and pastries at the market.

After the market we picked up a lift from one of the greatest rides out there, the funicular. If you don't know, this is the tram that takes you up and down the side of hills saving your legs from the excruciating climb. Note: When you look at the picture of the funicular look at the writing next to Dee's head.

Wonder how it finished, didn't notice

it till I was looking through the photos.

Got up to a new view point. It is opposite from where we got to on our little walk yesterday.

We wandered around from store to store finding one after another was closed, even though the guide books say they will be open. Shop hours in Lisbon are like the maps, kind of vague.

To get over this disappointment Dee found us a restaurant that provided us with one of the best meals we have had.

Called Cervejaria Trindade, it is based in what was a monastery. A monastery that used to make beer. For a starter Dee and I Split the Octopus salad, yummy. I then had a steak, Dee had a sea food --shell fish-- with rice mix, Anwen the soup and G hamburger -- without bun-- with salad and fries. Dessert was chocolate mouse. Dee and I tried the beer just to make sure the monks knew what they were doing. They did. In fact everything was excellent.

The waiter we had could speak six languages, with a little Japanese added on. Makes you feel rather bad for not trying a little harder with the local language.

After lunch we hit a few more shops, some were open and then headed home on the tram.

I have to say Lisbon is one of the great cities out there to visit. With the added sunshine it just gets better.

More walking and visiting tomorrow.

Ciao

Everyone is better.

Didn't do much yesterday. G and Dee took it easy, so mainly spent indoors.
Back to Lisbon today (8th).
Will have pictures for you to see then.
Ciao.

Back to the Algarve

The lady -- in the building across from us -- in the back of the picture is holding a conversation with another lady in our building, two flights up from us.

We hit the road about noon after saying bye to Jesus. G was showing signs of not being his usual happy self and by the time we got to el parents house he had temp of 102.

He's had an uncomfortable night but now seems ok-ish.

Now Dee is showing signs of illness.

I think all the walking in the rain is starting to take its toll.

So for today (6th) we will be relaxing.

Ciao.

Didn't rush to get going today (4th). Everyone seemed a bit tired. So the first stop was the coffee shop visited yesterday. Turned out the chocolate and churros are VERY good.

While there, the skies opened up and we got to watch a HUGE amount of water fall to the ground and produce rivers of water through the plaza. After about 15 minutes it had stopped and we plucked up the courage to hit the road.

The Cathedral is impressive alright, remembering that all that splender was in some way stollen from other cultures by way of natural resourses. G and I did the climb to the top of the minaret that was the original building on the Cathedral site. The climb consisted of 36 levels to the top. It was quite entertaining as G counted off the levels not knowing how many there was on the way up. He pretty much ran back down, much to the amusement of the people in front of us.

From the cathedral we headed to the El Corte Inglés, there are two of these store, actually three if you include the seperate book store, in a small area. Hit the first shop looking for a knife, then hit the second looking for the grocery department. Dee was in second heaven due to the vast choice.

She did make the mistake of picking up an Advocado and fondle it, that brought out the clerk to jabber at us in Spanish take the veg, weigh it, bag it and tag it. All in a Spanish style huff! Pretty funny.

The heavens opened up again so we headed out to find lunch, it was 2:30 at this point. We settled on a place called BOBO. Very pretentious and not great food. After this we dashed to the sports store, again, bought more track suits, then a shoe shop, bought shoes.

We had not stayed for coffee at BOBO but stopped once the rain had stop, in a small plaza. It had a small coffee shop with a serving window on the street side. You could just sidle up to and get served.

The old guy at the window said he didn't speak English, I tried to use my Spanish on him. I think he started to laugh on the inside then he started to speak English and laugh on the outside. He looked and acted like kind hearted Mafia man.

On the way back to the apartment we stopped for some butter in the old town and as we three waited outside under cover for Dee, a hail storm errupted. Not small round hail, but chucks of ice as in, lets put it in a rum drink, kind of ice. Everyone ran for cover. I half expected the four horse men to appear!

Also picked up a cake on the way home from the best smelling bakery any of us had been in.

Got home, got dry, had wine, had cheese, had spanish tortilla, had cake, watched Wallander (new season) and to bed, exhausted.

Ciao

The Palace of Alcazar took up most of the day.
But first the obligatory coffee shop was hit.
This one did what the Spainsh like to have for breakfast. Which is Lovely hot chocolate, about the size of a double espresso with Churros. The Churros are -- as you can see form the picture -- oval shaped, hand sized, made from a fried light donut batter, warm loveliness. Very addictive. Dee did the ordering -- coz I guilted her into it -- and it's becoming plain to all that the Spanish do NOT speak English, and why should they. Having it easy in Portugal has made us soft.
The translation book has been used a lot. It has been fun and it seems, if you try they seem to be happy and helpful.

The Palace is an amazing mix of Moorish and Christian arts and crafts. Unfortunately none of the pictures will do it justice, it's impossible.

After the walk around -- the kids were very patient -- we found the restaurant Robles by accident.
Took the plunge and ordered Tapas. Surprising how such a small amount of food can fill you up.
It was a varied selection and very good. Sorry about the after picture again. We, sorry, I am getting worse as times goes by.
The Spanish take there food VERY seriously and I mean VERY. One guy got really MAD due to

this plonkers kids making too much noise. They were brats. In Canada we would have stared and tried to use our none offensive telepathy to get the parents to get the kids to SHUT UP. Not this guy, he had the backing of the restaurant, you could tell. The kids shut up and the parents weren't happy.

As we headed home the clouds really opened up and we all got soaked wet through. It has become the norm, ah well.

The main shopping area was only about 80% of yesterday, but still nuts!

We are unsure about tomorrow. Maybe have to go back to the coffee shop, just to make sure the Churros were as good as we thought they were. Travelling is hard.

Ciao.

We're off to sunny, sunny spain! January 2nd

Seville.

We had an easy drive from Espiche to Seville. Lasting all of two and a half hours.

When I was down this way in the late 80's there was no bridge just a open car ferry, kind of like the one's you see crossing rivers in John Wayne movies.

Surprisingly, the bridge was the only piece of rough road, seems like neither country wants to pay for its upkeep, a tad concerning.

Found the apartment without too many wrong turns. Seville is very flat and in a sort of grid pattern. A grid layed out by Picasso maybe?

After meeting Jesus, nice guy not surprisingly, and getting the keys, we headed out.

The period between Christmas and January 6th --when the Spanish really celibrates something or other to do with Jesus and god and stuff -- is spend like crazy getting presents and stuff time.

There is supposed to be a 20% unemployment rate in Spain, you wouldn't guess it from the number of people out and about, all done up with shopping bags in hand.

One of the stores had an escalator that was busier than a London tube station at 5 pm. We headed home.

We saw a cool exhibit call "Guardians" its the rusty fellows in the picture, they were pretty impressive in person. Included in the same square was a craft market. More like Gucci than Galiano crafters.

All around the city are racks of bicycles for rent. The system seems to be pretty well used as we saw many people riding around on them.

On the way home we walked pass a grocery store knowing full well that there was one near to the apartment. It was closed, nuts! So we looked on the Google God and found a LIDL not far away.

The LIDL was rubbish, looked rubbish, had rubbish product and terrible staff. There payment system was so old it couldn't take VISA, after telling us they could, GRRRRR!

We got what we could -- with cash, nothing is very expensive -- then found another grocer down the road a bit. It was a bit better but not much. Portuguese shops are better in every way, SHOCK!

The apartment is very nice if noisy. The windows have all the noise insulation effect of rice paper and the woman up stairs likes to ware her heals all evening.

Cats fight, people whistle at each other, cars with hip hop blarring go by, dogs howel, old men hack up a lung, the airport is busy and you cannot sleep. Back to living in a BIG city is a shock but that's ok, it is SEVILLE after all.

Ciao.