Day 10: Into the World of Lisbon, Capital of Explorers

So we arise early for a dash into Lisbon, as we needed to drop off the little Black Beast and check into our hotel. So with a huge amount of pottery, wine and stinky clothes, we decided to drop off the bags first before our black and competent transportation device was returned to the airport. After the fun of this, we jumped on a bus into the city and walked to the water's edge. At the edge of the "harbour" there really wasn't a great deal to see or that was happening, and they were working on the main square down there. So we strolled about, mostly map free, as we tend to do these days. Instead of boring you all with stories, I will just put up some photos of Lisbon.... fair deal?

But I will give short little comments about them too :) happy days.

Ok, so on the water front, they have these olive trees in big plastic holders with seats in them. The best part is that they are on wheels and you can move them around the place. It is a great idea especially for a big yard. The homeless people who sleep in them seemed to think so, too.
We had lunch in a restaurant on the second floor of a building. It was a great place to people watch but we thought it was strange as everyone was stopping and pointing or taking photos just next to us. We came out to find that it was the Elevador Santa Justa . We are such funny tourists sometimes.
Just being a tourist photographing the fountains.
This was when Marty realised she was going to marry a photo monster. I dragged her, after I almost had a tantrum on the tram, through the blustery conditions in a huge rush to get to the Monument of Discoveries so we would be there at sunset. We were probably about 10 minutes late as you can tell by the light. Sorry Marty.
Who is blowing on Australia now?
Marty with her great bounty from Pasteis de Belem. Oh the joy to be had from a small bag full of custard, pastry, cinnamon and powdered sugar.
ohhhhhhh yeah!
The famous Belem and his tiny little bronzed brother.
Belem the classical concert goer?
Nearby Monastery built with the proceeds of Latin America pillage, I mean, proceeds. Right?
So it was cold, compared to what we had earlier in the trip. And we really really liked these pastry covered custard delights. So we ordered 6 and then two glasses of cherry liquour. Result? We finished them all warm and joyful, and still made the last tram back home!

Day 9: to Sintra

So we get up and cruise slowly out of Porto, with the thought that we will stop and grab some Brunch on the way out of town. We missed all the cafes due to rather heavy traffic and lack of parking, as we were cruising out of town and so thought that we would find something on the way. It took about 50 km's till we found the signs for Aveiro. We clunked off the highway through and over swamps, and then we saw a big football stadium, built for the Last Euro Championships. It was quite a nice looking stadium too. The city is known for its salt production, seaweed harvest but probably more commonly known as "The Venice of Portugal". It has canals running through it, but certainly not to the extent of Venice.

The city, in my eyes, was the find of the holiday. It was a really beautiful city, full of mosaics, Azulejos
This was bigger than it looks and was about 1.5m tall. It was a pretty cool way to brighten up a retaining wall. Traditional tiles, these ones are pretty old!
Mosaics are common and these are on a bridge over the main canal.
More Mosaics along the retaining wall in town.

and quaint little streets with picturesque and cute houses.
Not sure about their numbering skills below though! 7, 3A, 11?!?


Checked out a variety of stencil graffiti


We pottered around a little and just fell in love with it. Grabbed a little pastry snack,and then were back on the road again. Heading for our one "unplanned", by this I mean "not organised" stop. Every other place we had booked in advance, where as Sintra, the Kings' play ground just outside of the Capital Lisbon, was on the itinerary but we never got around to booking anything.

So we arrived in Sintra, and went straight to the tourist office where we tried to organise a place, we eventually got one of the few free rooms in town, it was a little more expensive than we had hoped but it also was in a nice grand old house, a little smelly, but had a lovely terrace and some of the coolest door handles around. Dropped the bags and headed for the town centre for a poke around.We looked at the old palace, from the outside only as we weren't so interested to tour the inside, as the day was nice and sunny.Then we decided through an indepth version of paper, scissors, rock, to go to Quinta De Regaleira on the way we saw these great old doors that weren't being used any more.
All cobwebby and dusty.
We also walked past an open church to see a simple highlighted Mary chilling out.
It is an estate that was built by a wealthy philanthropist known as Moneybags Monteiro. The place is pretty darned amazing, and was created by an Italian who used to be an opera set designer, weird I know, but he did bring this place to life and I would recommend it. It is full of all sorts of sculptures.



Yes I did say lots of sculptures, also there are some nice flowers and plants.
They also have a really nice cave system as well.
This is the front of the caves with a beautiful pond with fish swimming around in it.
From the inside, looking back out.If you continue further into the cave system, you get an eerie path leading through to....
A little doorway, which is......exposed to sunlight, because it is.......
A cistern! Pretty cool, when you think this was all man made in the 19th century.
Then we decided to duck into the actual manor house which had some very impressive furniture and fixtures all of which were designed by the same man, as was everything within the grounds form what plants should be planted through to which doors to have.
And he certainly came up with some great doors!! Don't you think?

From here we went up to the roof terrace to admire the view, there were even statues up here. These were mythical creatures, including on the left an eagle with boobs.
Some scary shadows crept in with the lowering sun.
This lowering sun gave us a bright but uneventful sunset.
Marty took in the view down to the town....
As seen here from the very pinnacle of the building.
At night we ate a pleasant meal of the day, sardines and also some pasta and enjoyed a nice vino verde. Off to bed for the early rising and trip into Lisbon in the morning where we traded the car in for our feet.

Day 8:Barcelos and Pottery 101

So after finally realising that Porto isn't a horrid urine soaked hell hole, we still decided we would like to venture further afield. So we warmed up Mr Colt after having some time off in the parking bays of Porto, and we hit the open road again. We had decided to head to the town of Barcelos and this was because they have a large market on every Thursday. So we cruised up there, amazed that even before we got into the town, there were many cars parked at any possible location. So we decided to drive on through, away from the entrance from the motorway. And magically, just on the other side of the river, we found a perfect car park. Barcelos tourists 0 - Garth 1. It was a good start to the day, and to continue on this trend, we decided to have a warm up breakfast. So we walked through town and found a nice quiet square. I found another new love..... they had good coffee and a sponge square to die for! :) Whilst at breakfast, we were able to watch the world go by. With the markets being so big and it being relatively early in the morning, we watched. Next door was a big butcher and we got to see the deliveries. It was interesting to watch a guy carry a whole pig or most of a cow down a street where grandfathers and business women walked. It was a good start for the Markets which Barcelos is most famous for. So with the photos there were a million, but I will divide these into the two main categories, food and other. The food was interesting as we walked around seeing all the pottery, mountains of clothes, also the cooking devices and could not find any food at all. Then it turned out we had missed a whole section. Where we found everything from live animals through to the well renowned Cod. So onto the food.....
Ham in Portugal is great. Nice and deep in flavour, similar to Spain but lighter in colour and a little softer on the tongue. It is called fiambre, which is funny if you are from Latin America as Fiambre there is a traditional dish for the day of the dead.
The ole staple.
Direct from Norway!More staples, olives and broad beans.
Great light nearly sweet flavoured cheese.She makes, sells and models rolls.
The fruit was amazing, mountains and mountains of local produce, all picked and shipped quickly so that they aren't squishy or picked green for transportation. Ahhhhh reminds me of home, the great central markets of Adelaide.....

Then came the other goods.....

Of the Avian Variety.
This is a whole lotta cock!
Of the Pottered variety.

The works......The pigs.......The tiny teapots, or are they port sippers? Or can anyone tell me what they are?The tiny port cups.And a blue glazed forest.

Then the clothing related items......
Which country am I in again...You sure it isn't Holland?Then the home brewing supplies.
It is certainly some great and cheap markets. This was packed by tourists and locals a like. With many French people flocking down for cheap pottery, cookware and some interesting little artisan stalls. So we left the grannies to sell their wares and we headed for lunch.
Another great Menu of the day. Marty had the octopus and I had roast chicken. The octopus was certainly the better option on this day. Then it was back through the old town, carrying our new prized possessions and to the car to head back to Porto for our last night there.

So when we arrived, it was getting towards sunset. We wanted to have a drink in our favourite parkside cafes. On the way we were able to pass through the main square in town. I took a quick call on my wallet.
From memory, it was from someone who wanted to know about all the pies I had eaten. Then we cruised through a really cool art installation where they had different artists paint mannequins, I think all up there were about 80 or so. I looked really freaky at night to see all these bodies not moving.
I think the shadow here is a little out....
So Marty created her own shadows.... I liked them.Then some hippy painted bloke wanted to get in on the act too.So we tracked off to the park, dodged the scary tram,
Love their faces here. Checked out some lovely looking fences and their shadows,
Evaded the eyes that appeared to follow us.
Then I let God speak to me. He said "Garth, my leader, please have a dark beer while I bathe you in warming afternoon sun." I thought that God bloke is alright, so I followed his wishes.
Amen..................................... to Porto.