Lisbon day 2..last full day before heading home.
Headed to the Aquarium in the '98 Expo complex- second largest of its kind in the world. So awesome! Also in the same area is a Casino (fountains out front, and for "the girls", a bizzare statue...). Also the Vasco da Gamma shopping center, hundreds of stores if you like that sort of thing. Then headed to the Belam district accross town where theres churches, museums, parks, and cool restaurants. Had pasteries and espresso at a shop dating to 1837! But coolest yet, worth the price of admission, my legs were shaking, my back was covered in goosbumps....the tomb of Vasco da Gamma!! I know, I couldn't believe it either!!
Trips done! Praises to JM Vacations, Air Transat, the Pousada and Hotel staff and the people of Portugal. :)

Lisbon 1...it's my birthday so Shelah said I could.
What another beauty hotel, inside the walls of castle Sao Jorge (St George) high up in the old city. Did a walk about on arrival, lots of statues and stuff. Coolest was a dig at the back of one old church, turning up a bronze age home, Roman roads, and various medeival stuff. The church itself was massive and old, areas dating to 1100-1700. Takes your breath away! Included photos are the courtyard of the hotel (the yellow one), and an example of an old building with tiled walls. Thinking maybe hitting the shopping zone and the marine aquarium tomorrow.
Well nap times about done, going to pick a restaurent shortly. ta...

Setubal- location five, Jul 24/25...
Portugals third largest port city, is very beautiful (is there a common theme here? just like the number of castles?). This castle dates to the 1600's and is huge..and old and scheduled for some renovation. The restaurants on the downtown strip were awesome with fresh fish obviously the specialty. The most beautiful beaches here are a short ferry ride away, but we thought we'd take the mountain road to Sesimbra instead. Did I mention how much Shelah likes mountain roads!!? Plans changed and sangria was in order. Bought some cool mementos in Palmela which is famous for..some stuff that that some people might see soon. It's actually the 26th today, just arrived in Lisbon, return of internet access!! Time for a walking tour!...

Alvita, location four..
This quieter, smaller town location in the middle of rolling plains with spattering of cork trees (couldn't figure those out for quite a while), miles and miles of wheat or straw or something fields,a lovely castle in the middle of town that offered the company of five cute peacocks lounging by the pool. We had supper at a restaurant accross from the Poussada, the owner manged, served, and we think cooked everything, while he also ran the attached hotel apartments. Good food!. (Second night the only other couple dining bought us dinner!)
Two hour trip to the Algarve was awsome! Swimming in theb Mediterranean! The water was so clean and no sea smell, I can see why so many peoople vacation here.

Estromoz,location 3...

The stately Castelo de Estremoz, about a half way down Portugal, on a similar paralell to Lisbon but in the central region. We stopped for lunch in another city along the way, can't remember the name, but we bought a cell phone (ours wasn't going to work, unless you have a phone with a sim card which you can replace with a P one) doesn't come out to be that expensive and just pay as you go (anyone going to Portugal in the near future want to buy a used cell phone???) The castle is cool and sitting by the pool so nice. It's incredibly hot, but a dry heat...like the desert? Going through a ton of water.

Solar da REDE, Douro Valley, location 2..
Near Mio Frio, which is near Vila Real, which is east of Porto.. through treacherous mountain roads. But what a location!! The view of the valley below is amazing. The area is covered with lush grape vines, fruit trees of oranges, kiwi, lemons, limes...
The large court yard out front and statues reminded me of the mansion from Sound of Music! no Von Trapp kids though...
Food was..guess what?, great again! One little thing though, I ordered "brill" not knowing what it was..that was probably ok, but the wrong order came, and yes I had octopus!! I thought it was brill so I didn't complain. It was as big as my arm and the suckerpads as big as eyeballs. Ok, a small exaggeration, and to my amazement, it tasted GREAT!

These four are from our first stop, Porto. The hotel was wonderful, right down in the core by the waterfront. It's in a renovated old building, as all of our hotels are. Some of the area dates back to the medeival times. The hills were a bit of a challange with no directions, cobblestone, and a slight language barrier. The food is great, lots of fish as expected. Very good wine sells in the stores for 3-5 euro...I like it! The biggest challange? Driving! Barrelling down a steep cobblestone lane eight feet wide with blind turns and old women in aprons stepping out of their doors, I just pretended I was Matt Damon driving his Mini!

Oh boy, it's been a few days of unsuccvessfully trying to get internet..I have this site by the minute for 11 more minutes, so this is short and sweet.
It's been a great trip so far, the flight was good- Shelagh may not say the same thing...she thinks as much of air flights as, well, travelling mountain roads in Portugal! What an experience! Beep beep means coming through, stop signs, when there are any mean nothing and close your eyes and pray at every traffic circle- and there are lots!
The scenery is to die for, it's just beautiful. Porto was old and medeaval, the next spot (thats where we're having dinner attached was Shel's favorite so far. Language so far hasn't been an issue. You just bumble through like a silly north american and everyone is happy to help out. We've actually used more french in shops than english.
Going to cut this short, I'll buy more time shortly. (after a 20 minute walk to the free internet zone, we found out that the girl was sick today who runs it.. oh well).