Portugal may be close, but in many ways it's far away. The contrast of super modern motorways and crumbling tenements in the otherwise gorgeous historic centre of Porto. Great port wine, the beautiful valley of the Douro river. Awesome food, excellent fruit.
No diary this time, so just a few impressions and the itinerary.
We started in Lisbon with an argument at the airport in the Jardim car rental. They ran my credit card on some kind of slip where they didn't fill in the amount, but wanted me to sign it. In the end it somehow worked out and they gave us a Renault Megane about 5 years old with 80,000 km on the clock. Pretty weird, but it did the job.
For the first two days we stayed at the Arribas hotel on Praia Grande beach. Judging by the size of the pool (100 m) it used to be a luxury hotel, but since 1967 it's got a bit shabby. The dinner they served us there was absolutely luxurious though, on a terrace above the sea. It was worse with the weather, only surfers in full wetsuits could go for a swim.
We headed off to the town of Sintra, beautiful. Especially the three-hour lunch in a tucked-away little pub below the castle, on the terrace by a stone wall with a view of the town.
In the end even the tour of the castle, or rather of the walls, was worth it. The wind was blowing like crazy, see the photos with our hair standing on end.
On Sunday we went to see the westernmost point of Europe. Nothing special, a cliff, a lighthouse, hordes of Japanese and wind so strong that stones were flying about.
Two days in Lisbon were no great miracle. A scorching city, standard sights. But it's always a laugh with Jeff, so all good. The view from the hotel up at the castle was worth it.
When we'd had enough of Lisbon, we set off north, because what would Portugal be without Porto and Porto without port.
On the way to Porto we also stopped, following Lonely Planet, to visit a monastery....
TBD
