Day 10 - Algarve - Azeitao - Lisbon

Today we leave the Algarve and head back to Lisbon. I'm ready to be home. I think I've hit the end of my social capabilities. I'm tired. I'm sick and I'm ready to be home in my own bed. Don't get me wrong though. I have enjoyed Portugal and this trip thoroughly. There just comes a time when I'm ready to be done with all the traveling. 

On our way to Lisbon today we stopped at a tile facility. It's a small, family owned tile factory. The tour guide walked us through the process. It's interesting how much goes into a single tile. Each one made by hand, hand painted and fired. This little factory puts out a mere 25,000 tiles a year. That may sound like a lot, but when you think about an actual manufacturing facility not doing it by hand can put that amount out in a day or two. 

This is the main workshop where the magic begins. The clay they get from the Duoro River. It comes in sacks and they pull enough out to make a single tile. 

The roll the tile out to a certain width and then cut it to be the right size. The cut it a bit larger because it'll shrink in the heating process. 

This is one of several kilns they have. The tiles go in for something like 19 hours. I think it goes in after it's painted. 

I picked myself up a two tiles from this little shop. I loved this W tile and all the colors in it. The other tile I got is a wine bottle coaster.

On the way to Lisbon we stopped in Setubal for a lunch break. Hassan walked us to this market and said there were places to eat inside. 

We walked through the market a little and found this little restaurant in the back. Janet and I split a hamburger and fries. It was an odd burger for me. It had ham, cheese, burger (of course) lettuce, tomato and an egg. I quickly handed Janet the egg from the burger. No thanks. 

Arriving in Lisbon, we had a couple of hours before the Farewell dinner. I needed a nap in the worst way. I rested and just hung out while we waited for the dinner. 

Our Farewell dinner was in a restaurant in the hotel on the top floor. It offered some amazing views of Lisbon. 

The Farewell dinners are always a little bittersweet for me. On the one hand I'm ready to be home. On the other I've appreciated all the things we've seen and done. We've made some great friends on this trip and have enjoyed being around most of the people. 

This gentleman was among our favorites. His name is Ken and he was on this trip with his sister and brother in law, who also turned out to be a ton of fun. Australians. Ken was hilarious. He had a witty come back for everything and was constantly asking Hassan questions about things as we traveled around Portugal. They were all great fun. 

Julie was another friend we made on this trip. We hooked up with her almost immediately and spent the entire trip hanging with her. She too is Australian and was on a whirlwind trip from Ireland, England/Wales and then finally Portugal. 

Dinner was delicious! The meal started with a salad. I had a couple of salads with dinner throughout the trip and all of them were just ok. The dressing on all of them was a liquidly and flavorless. 

The wine in Portugal was delicious. This particular night it was exceptional. I needed to take a photo of the bottle just in case I can get it in the states. 

Dinner was 'teenage' beef again. They call it veal, but Hassan swears that it's not the baby cows that we call veal in the states. I chose to believe him. This meat was tender and delicious. 

Dessert, according to the menu, was to be a souffle. It came out and they lit it on fire. This isn't a souffle to me, but I'll go with it.  

It wasn't great to be honest, but then again, I'm not a dessert person. 

And so that's it. Portugal is done. We came. We saw. We ate. We learned. And we vowed to remember it forever. I'm still processing all that we did and saw. It goes so fast that I have to take some time to recount it all and really appreciate all that we saw. 

With that, our flight is mid-day tomorrow and we'll be home around 9:30pm Seattle time. I took the next day off from work as I'm sure I'll be useless. I'm bringing home this wonderful bug and can only hope it goes away quickly. 

Until next time Portugal, Chau!

Day 9 - The Algarve

Here we are! Lagos in The Algarve! It's beautiful here. The cold, and the fact we're at the end of our tour, has me a little exhausted so I'm going to lay low for the next couple of days. 

We arrived and were greeted by the craziest hotel I've ever been in. The Tivoli hotel is a combination of several properties and as such the layout is very confusing. I've never been in a hotel where you had a guide show you to your room. But thank god they did, we'd never find it otherwise. 

View from our room

We went up a flight of stairs (to 1st floor), met our guide who walked us down a hallway that has us on the 4th floor (keep in mind we didn't go up any steps). We got in an elevator to take it down to the second floor. Down another hallway, then up a half flight of stairs to our room. I said to Janet that I think we should have dropped bread crumbs to find our way back. 

We took the extra excursion to go have another "traditional" Portuguese meal. I happen to like these big group meals as it makes it very easy on us - we don't have to decide what to have. 

We thought this might be a good time to get a photo with our tour guide Hassan. He still wasn't, at all, sure about these crab hats, but he enjoyed the humor in them. He was an excellent guide and I learned a lot from him during this trip. 

Janet had the fish - I think Sea Bass and I had the pork. It was so dang tender and delicious. The Portuguese eat a lot of pork alongside their fish. 

The next day we were up early again and headed to Cape Saint Vincent. The south western most point of continental Europe. 

It wasn't nearly as windy there as I thought it would be. In fact, Hassan said it was odd that it wasn't windy. I guess we'll enjoy it and be thankful we weren't blown off the steep cliff. 

After the Cape we stopped at the Fort of Sagres. 

The fort is well positioned to have a panoramic view of the area. The cliffs are about 60 meters high and the views were amazing. 

The history of the fort has it built in the 15th century under the command of Henry the Navigator and was designed to protect the area from attacks coming from North Africa. The fort was damaged in the big earthquake of 1755 and then the resulting tidal wave (yes the wave came over the 60 meter high cliffs). 

At the top of the walls, you get to see so many beautiful views of the surrounding beaches and cliffs. 

That lighthouse is Cape Saint Vincent - which was where we were prior to stopping here at the Fort. 

We got back to Lagos and had the afternoon free. Our first stop was lunch though. We found this little restaurant and ordered ourselves a steak bifana. Likely the best bifana I had during the entire trip. Simple and delicious. 

For the afternoon, I decided to stay in the room and rest. The bug I picked up was in full swing and I thought it best to rest up. Janet took off for a walk around Lagos. 

Later that night we met our new friend Julie for a happy hour drink and then dinner. We headed back to the restaurant we visited at lunch because it was so good. 

Janet had the codfish au gratin (basically the bacalau); Julie had the octupus and I had this Portuguese steak that was amazing. Huge piece of beef surrounded by all these potatoes and a gravy that was out of this world. 

Tomorrow we head back to Lisbon for the last day our our trip. I'm ready to be home if I'm being honest. I think a combination of the cold and exhaustion has me ready to be in my own bed. 

Day 8 - Evora - The Algarve

Here we are in Evora. Me and a vicious cold. Janet got it a couple of days ago and I knew it was just a matter of time before I get it. We had to find a pharmacy to get ourselves some cold medicine and what not. 

We had dinner in the hotel last night as a group. The worst meal of the trip so far. They didn't put out signs as to what things were so we were guessing at what we were eating. Nothing was overly delicious. Well, except the deep fried cheese thingys I found.  They had the desserts on the same table as the "salads" and cold items, which just confused most of us. I know it's a first world problem, but it threw us all off a bit. 

Those brown, golden things to the right of my plate (above the chips) are these delicious deep fried cheese (and I think shrimp) croquette things. We found them a couple of times on the buffets during our trip. They are quite tasty. 

Up bright and early the next morning, we met our guide to walk us through Evora. Our first stop was the the church and monastery of Sao Francisco. 

Next door to this church is the Chapel of Bones. 

I'm not really sure why this little place fascinated me so much, but it did. The tour guide did an excellent job of setting this up for us. She recognized that some people would be put off by it and presented it as while we're alive we all see our differences. The color of our skin, our religions, our values etc. But when we die, we're all the same. Bones. 

It's an interesting way to really reflect on life and the end of life. 

Anyhow, the chapel is made up entirely of human bones. The bones all came from graves in and around the Evora area. In the 16th century there were over 42 monastic cemeteries in the city and was taking up too much space. The monks wanted to honor the dead still, and found a creative way to extract the bones from the ground and used them to build and "decorate" this chapel. 

Translation: “We bones that are here, for yours we wait”.

There were mixed feelings about this chapel. Some folks didn't want to go in at all, and that's ok. I think most of us were fascinated at the macabre display. 

Once done here, the tour would be taking us up a hill to see another cathedral. I choose to not go and instead sat with a couple other folks and have a cup of coffee. 

On the bus and headed to our next stop, The Algarve. It's the very southern part of Portugal and is a beach destination for a lot of Europeans.