Monday, May 4th- from Coimbra to Lisbon- woke up to a thunder storm; raining cats and dogs. We wanted to leave around 8:30, drop off our bags and me at the train station and Ron and Rémi were dropping off the car at the rental place. It was difficult to get around with the luggage and holding on to an umbrella. Thank goodness the rental place wasn't too far from the train station as the guys were walking back. After arriving we checked out the schedules. We found out that we had to get to the other station 2km away and there were no trains. We found a cab and headed there. We got in line to buy tickets for Lisbon. Looking at the screen, I realized that the earlier train was running late and that we might be able to catch it. Well while we were paying for the tickets the train arrived. The agent just looked at us and said: there it is! We hustled out of there and got on with a few minutes to spare. We bought first class tickets as generally the cars are nicer and have Wifi. Not today. Wifi is only in the northern part of the country, when you take trains to Porto. Oh well, only 5 Euro more. We arrived in Lisbon around 11:45 and got a taxi to our apartment. It was tricky to find our spot as our address said # 22, but it didn't exist on the street. Our driver was awesome. He called the owners and they gave him the details. ( it was #20). He actually came in with us as there were codes to enter the place. Not a bad spot. Pretty modern with the bedrooms in the mezzanine. The kitchen is well equipped as well. After settling in we went out to explore the city. It's huge! So much to see and do. We were hungry as usual so we stopped to have some lunch. Later we bought a ticket for the Hop on Hop off bus. It was a funny weather day; one minute rain, the next sun. Then the winds really picked up. We were on the open deck so we had to move to get out of the rain. We saw some really cool buildings today.

Tour de Belem built in the early 16th century to protect the Targus river during the war.

Sculpture for the commemoration of the 5th century of the death of Henry the Navigator.

The front view.

The flooring was in the front of the sculpture.

It was very windy and raining off and on so we went to wait for the bus to pick us up. We returned to 

the start of the tour, got off and started walking back to our apt. It was around 5:30. On the way back we stopped to buy groceries as we had decided to have a salad for supper. We also bought a typical Portuguese dessert- Pastel de Nata. 

They look like custard but taste much better. They love these here. 

Rémi went out to pick up a few more groceries and to check out the night life and Ron and I stayed back to plan our day tomorrow. Time for bed. Tomorrow will be busy as there is so much to see and do and the sun will shine.