Friday, May, 8th- 5:00 the alarm rang and it time to get up. We were pretty quick as everything had been packed the previous night. We left the place by 5:30 and five minutes later we had hailed a cab and we're headed to the airport. We got checked in and then it was a waiting game to see if our pilot was going to show up. The airline knows one hour ahead if the flight will be cancelled. By 7:30 we hadn't heard anything so we felt pretty confident. Sure enough we were getting ready for take off on time. We arrived in London on time at 11:00, but we had to hustle as we had a 20 minute walk to our gate and our flight was at 12:05. All was good except that we left 35 minutes late. We had a good flight with a hot meal, then a little snack. We watched lots of movies and the seven hour flight went pretty well. We are now waiting for our final flight- Toronto to Moncton. We should be home by 7:40.  It was an amazing six weeks, even if I didn't get to experience the whole camino. I'm sure that Ron, Rémi, and Monique will have stories to relate for some time to come. Portugal was a great trip as well. Lots of great memories.
Hope you enjoyed the blog this last while. Thanks for keeping up with us.

Thursday, May, 7th- Visiting Lisbon today. Sunny and 20 degrees. Rémi is off on his own today. He leaves around 8:00. We leave around 9:30. We actually both end up at the same place but don't meet up with each other. We walked to the metro station and head out to visit the aquarium. It is actually a teaching venue and there are a lot of school kids there with their teachers. It ends up being better than I thought. I'm not big on keeping animals amnd fish in an enclosed area. We managed a few pictures even through the glass.

Pretty ugly, but he is called a sunfish.

Beautiful ray.

Cute puffin.

Two very playful otters.

So many colourful anemones.

We had never been in that part of the city so we walked around for a while. We went into Vasca de Gama shopping center and had a bite to eat in the food hall.

We then took the metro down to the waterfront. It was nice and very busy. The city was getting even 

busier as it was the beginning of the mask festival. There were buskers in the pedestrian only roads. 

Tents with all kinds of foods, meats, cheeses, and beer were set up in one of the squares. 

Lots of yummy stuff. 

Cheeses, meats, breads.

Tons of pastries.

We went back to the apartment to pack up our bags for an early departure. We went out again at 6:30 and met up with Bruce and Isabel for supper. We found a nice Italian restaurant in a quiet courtyard. Ron and I had Mojitos and shared a pizza and mushroom risotto. Rémi, Bruce, and Isabel shared a bottle of red and they all had lasagna. 

Bruce pouring the wine.

Bruce and Isabel from Adelaide, Australia. We have a place to stay when we go down under. 

We had great conversation for the next two hours then we went back to the main area and chose our last Portuguese desserts. 

A strawberry glazed Nata.

A regular Nata and a tasty dessert that we couldn't pinpoint the taste of. 

This one is called "Rocha" which you might have guessed means "rock". Rémi and I thought it might make for a good breakfast so he got one first. I thought that it looked heavy so I picked it up. I couldn't't believe it. It had to weight 5 lbs. it was so funny. Then Rémi had a bite and said how good it was so of course we all had to try it. It was very tasty, but I couldn't get over the fact that it was so heavy, so I past on it.  Rémi bought a second one to take home to share with Maurice. 

It was getting late so we said goodbye to our new friends with hopes of meeting up with them again one day. 

It was just after 10 when we got back so it was quick showers and off to bed. 

Wednesday, May 6- train ride from Lisbon to Sintra, 35 minutes. Sunny day once again so Rémi and I are wearing shorts. We get up around 7:15, Rémi earlier as usual and Ron a bit later as usual. We shower, have breakfast and are on the road by 8:35 and at the train station by 9:00. The next train leaves at 9:06 and the lady in front of us is taking a long time. Finally our turn, we get the tickets and hussle to get on. We were not the last ones, but pretty close. It took about 35 minutes to get there. We walk out and decide to walk in a direction. Turns out it was the direction of the tourism office and the castle. We see the Sintra right in front of us but decide to do the uphill climb and visit the Moors castle dating back to the 11-12th centuries.

View from downtown Sintra.

Rémi walking around the interior walls.

Ron in one of the arches.

One of the many towers.

Rèmi and I sat out this climb, but Ron went up to take pictures and catch the views.

The scenery from the castle was amazing. Very cool town as there are many castle like homes (smaller versions of course).

I think this was a church seen from the castle above. 

This palace was a 550m climb above the castle. It is called Palacia de Pena. As you can see it was multicoloured and very interesting. 

The yellow view of the Palace. 

A different view. 

We were walking the walls surrounding the palace and Rémi was in the courtyard below. 

Stained glass in the chapel. Very beautiful. 

The palace is still full of furniture mostly fron the 18-19th centuries. 

This doesn't show the real  size of this thing. We could crush mint leaves for a year in one shot.

Half of the kitchen with it's copper pots and pans.

We missed the real path down and had a bit of a challenge managing broken tree branches, mud and narrow, steep hills. 

Lots of statues around town.

Another example. 

These cops are ready to take to the hills. 

The Sintra palace. We had lunch once we came down the hill and went for our last visit. Well by mid-afternoon all of the bus tours have arrived and we always seemed to be behind a large group. It wasn't very pleasant  and I think we were tired out. Here are a few pictures from the Sintra palace.

Don't they look like royalty? Where are the tea and crumpets? Oops, that's England. Here it's cappuccino and Nata.(the local pastry. It was in a blog a few days ago).

The ceilings are always very unique.

Another ceiling. 

Tiled murals were in found in a lot of different rooms. 

Tomorrow is our last full day in Lisbon. We decided to stay put rather than do another day trip which we originally thought of doing. Rémi will visit the museum of modern art and Ron and I will visit the aquarium, one of the largest in the world. They have habitats that are very close to the real ecosystem of the fish, mammals, etc. should be interesting. 

Tuesday, May 5th- Lisbon- 19 degrees and sunny. We got up around 7:15, showered, had breakfast and headed out around 8:45 or so. We still had about 5 hours left on our Hop on Hop off from yesterday so we decided to use it. It can be used for every form of transportation in the city so we thought of the tram. It's the oldest form of public transport that is still used and it was headed in the direction of the market and the castle which we wanted to visit today.

It can get pretty tight in some of the narrow streets as this team follows a rail and can't go around parked cars. We saw a few interesting scenarios. 

We reached our destination in about 20 minutes. There was a local market where there were some newer items, but mostly it was a huge flea market. I did buy a brand new belt and Rémi bought some rings. We then went in search of the castle. You can see it from the bottom of the city, but what a mystery when you get to the top and there are no signs. We met up with many other people looking just as lost as we were. Finally a local man lead us I the right direction. It is called Castel ....Jorge. What is ever crowded. It feels like the heart of tourist season, but it isn't. We did see at least four cruise ships docked so that's a lot of people. 

 

The castle is basically the walls and interior courtyards. 

Ron with city in the background. Notice the pack in front. Tons of pickpockets around and there are warnings everywhere to keep a close eye on your stuff.

Nice little archway. 

Ron getting frisky with the ladies of the castle. 

We saw at least six peacocks and some of them liked to show off for the tourist. We didn't even have to tip them.

Photo of the market.

Band playing Fado music outside of castle. This is the soul music of Portugal. It is the oldest urban folk music in the world. Very cool with no singing. 

The sidewalks are of mosaic tiles and this design makes you feel like it's uneven.. 

They copied Rio de Janeiro with the statue of Christ the King, but awith a smaller version. 

Tons of statues around town. 

Statue of the Marquis de Pombal. After the 1755 earthquake that pretty much demolished Lisbon, he is the one who got credit for rebuilding and reinforcing the buildings. 

Another really nice statue.

We were out from 8:45 to 6 pm. We came back for a break, to have some salad and then we headed out again around 8pm. The city is so alive at night, not that it's sleeping during the day, but in a different way of course. The restaurants are striving. One near our place has a line up of about 20 people and it's packed inside. Upon our return at 10:00, there was still a line up. Unreal! 

Tomorrow we will be going to Sintra by train. Really looking forward to visiting this place. It is another UNESCO site with many palaces, and castles.